SAHUARITA, Ariz. (KGUN) — On Thursday, February 6, Parks and Recreation held a feedback forum in Green Valley along with the consultancy Barry Dunn, who will collect this feedback to develop a 10-year master plan potentially spanning the next 25 years.
“We are conducting a master plan, which is a 10-year initiative to identify gaps in resources that are occurring here in Green Valley from a recreation standpoint,” said Victor Pereira, Director of Pima County Parks and Recreation.
Residents of Green Valley pushed for the addition of a long-promised dog park in their community, highlighting a major gap in recreational amenities for pet owners. At the feedback session, locals voiced their concerns about the lack of off-leash areas for their dogs.
“We are a community that has lots of dogs. I would say at least half our community are dog owners, maybe more,” said Jo Simpson, President of the GVR Canine Club. “And there’s really no place to let them off-leash and run.”
Unlike neighboring Sahuarita, which has two dedicated dog parks, along with the dozens of dog parks found across Tucson, Green Valley has none.
Simpson, emphasized that older residents and those with limited mobility cannot easily travel to dog parks in other areas.
“As the older community that we are, a lot of people don’t like to drive that far,” Simpson said. “We just hope they won’t ignore us since we are part of Pima County and let us older folks have our own dog park so our dogs can run.”
For years, a sign at Canoa Preserve has promised a future dog park, yet no progress has been made.
Simpson, who has lived in Green Valley for eight years, expressed frustration over the stagnant project.
“That sign has been up the whole time that I’ve been here,” she said. “It says a dog park is coming. We’ve never had one. It doesn’t even get discussed.”
The recent feedback session in Green Valley made it clear that residents want the county to prioritize a dog park. Simpson says this is a request repeatedly made in years past but has never led to results.
“I know there were some very frustrated people that have been working on getting Green Valley a dog park for a long time,” she says. “We just get dead-ended all the time, roadblocks, no’s. Nothing ever happens.”
Despite previous disappointments, both Simpson and Pereira remain hopeful.
“They’re interested, they’re asking. That’s a good first step and I hope these folks will give us some answer one way or another,” Simpson said. “I hope something comes of it. I just don’t know. But we’re tired of hearing the no.”
Pereira echoed that sentiment. “I hope to deliver on any type of park amenity,” he said. “My intent is to ensure that I’m building the right amenity at the right location.”
As the Parks and Recreation Department continues to hold feedback sessions across the county, Barry Dunn will compile a list of requested amenities before final decisions are made.
You can find a schedule of these feedback sessions on the Pima County Parks and Recreation Master Plan website. Residents can also submit feedback on the plan via the website.
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Joel Foster is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9 who previously worked as an English teacher in both Boston and the Tucson area. Joel has experience working with web, print and video in the tech, finance, nonprofit and the public sectors. In his off-time, you might catch Joel taking part in Tucson's local comedy scene. Share your story ideas with Joel at joel.foster@kgun9.com, or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
