BILLINGS Amid Billings' growing demand for more dog parks, Mayor Bill Cole has proposed transforming an alley behind the Park One parking garage into an urban dog park, a plan he says is essential for the city's downtown revita lization.Watch the full video below: Billings mayor proposes dog park in downtown amid retail space saleThe Billings City Council announced Monday evening that the ground floor of the Park One parking garage at 2912 3rd Avenue North could soon have a new owner. The city approved a purchase and sale agreement with TD Properties for the retail space at around $990,000. The sale will not include the parking garage, which will remain under city control.According to city officials, the revenue from the sale will be directed toward the cost of the new city hall building. While the retail space is set to change hands, Billings Mayor Bill Cole expressed his disappointment that the potential for a new urban dog park on the south side of the garage was not included in the deal. The alleyway behind the garage, he said, could provide an ideal location for a dog park in an area that is lacking green spaces. "More than 50% of Montanans own a dog, and for many years, we recognize the importance of getting people to live downtown, really be invested in downtown, but if we can't accommodate their dogs, we can't accommodate people. And so, unfortunately, the city of Billings doesn't own any grass at all downtown, and it's not dog friendly," said Cole. Billings currently has only three off-leash dog parks, with the latest one at North Park completed last year. By contrast, nearby Bozeman has nine off-leash dog parks. With newer housing developments having been built and proposed in the downtown area for an increased population, Cole is pushing to add more dog parks in Billings to meet that demand. Small dog parks exist in most of our larger cities. It's really important to enliven a downtown area," said Cole. "We've got more and more developers, including developers from out of town and out of state, who see Billings as a great place to develop downtown property, and the focus has been on residential properties, but again, you have to be able to accommodate dogs in order to attract people to your downtown. So, it's a problem we've got to solve. The proposed dog park would be relatively simple to construct, according to Cole. The alley is already enclosed on two sides, and the park would utilize artificial turf and an installed water system. The main concern, Cole said, is ensuring that the alley remains functional for emergency vehicles and that the necessary permits are secured."All of that has to be engineered into the process," said Cole. "You put down gravel, you put down artificial turf, you have water to clean the area, so it's all very doable, but it will cost money."However, with no funding allocated in the city's park development budget for the project, Cole acknowledged that the park's creation would depend on private donations and the cooperation of the potential new building owner to become a reality.The need for more dog parks in Billings was echoed by several residents on Friday at Centennial Dog Park on the West End. "It's amazing. It's so nice to get to get out and not be on the other end of the leash and let them run around and socialize, said Jonathan Warren while with his dogs We'd love to see one out like between 50th and 60th, just with all the houses being built out there, and the fact that all the little neighborhoods, it's hard to interconnect those with a walking pass and a lot of high-speed limit roads without sidewalks on."For residents like Mikal Young, the potential addition of more dog parks would be a welcome change, especially closer to her house.I live in Midtown. I'm off of 17th. I come down over here to (Centennial) because it's closer than going out to the Heights," said Young with her dog, Mojito. "If we only have a couple and we're growing, it's nice to have them pop up because we're becoming more dog friendly. You see more dogs. It's a great idea." While the alleyway dog park is still in the early planning stages, the citys new retail space sale could see the introduction of a new dog park as Billings continues to grow. "At this point, we don't know that it's a completely doable project. We've got to do that initial investigation, but I'm cautiously optimistic that this idea is going to get traction and brighten the Billings of tomorrow," said Cole. ...read more read less