Decatur, GA — The Legacy Decatur Board, at its May 24 meeting, discussed changing the leash policy for dogs at Legacy Park to require that all dogs must be on a leash.
Legacy Decatur is the organization that oversees Legacy Park, which was formerly the United Methodist Children’s Home. Legacy Park is located on South Columbia Drive in Decatur.
When the Legacy Park property was annexed into the city in 2019, it became subject to the city’s leash ordinance, which requires that dogs be on leashes on public property, except in designated dog parks.
When the property was the United Methodist Children’s Home, some nearby neighbors would use the meadow to walk their dogs off-leash. Legacy Decatur attempted to continue that practice as a pilot project. The pilot project has ended after a dog attack and given the increasing number of visitors to the park and planned additional recreational facilities, Legacy Decatur Executive Director Lyn Menne told Decaturish.
“On May 4, 2023, an off-leash dog attacked an on-leash dog in the meadow area, causing injury to the dog and its owner. The owner of the off-leash dog was present, but was unable to control the dog,” Menne said. “As a result, we ended the off-leash policy in the eastern area of Legacy Park. This was a pilot project created 18 months ago, allowing dogs under ‘voice command’ to be off-leash in the meadow and trails area east of the farm fence.”
She added that the on-leash requirement has been met with positive reactions, and the organization received some requests to consider other options that would allow the off-leash policy to remain in place.
“The Legacy Decatur Board briefly discussed several suggestions including holding a once-a-month dog meet-up, creating special off-leash periods, and requiring dogs to pass a ‘voice command’ test to receive a special tag allowing them to be off-leash,” Menne said.
Board Member Peggy Merriss said, during the meeting, that a hybrid option…
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