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Upcoming Brower Park Lawn Reseeding Project Worries Local Dog Owners

 A central lawn in Brower Park is used as an off-leash dog run before 9 a.m. every day.
A central lawn in Brower Park is used as an off-leash dog run before 9 a.m. every day.
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CROWN HEIGHTS — The Parks Department will address at a meeting scheduled next week a “routine hydroseeding” set to take place in Brower Park later this summer following pushback from local dog owners who are petitioning to keep the park’s lawn the way it is.

A portion of the large central lawn in Brower Park will be re-seeded for three or four weeks in late summer, according to the agency and Community Board 8, though the exact details of the plans have yet to be finalized. The Parks Department said the project is part of regular maintenance of the park’s grass.

But in recent weeks, rumors about the plan have worried local dog owners in Crown Heights who use the lawn as an off-leash play area for their pets before 9 a.m. every day.

Several dog owners say they’ve heard from park staff that dogs will soon not be allowed in the park. Last week, an online petition to “Save Brower Park” began circulating, saying that the “imminent plans for construction to the center play-field … threatens this [off-leash] rule.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, 74 people had signed the petition, addressed to the mayor, local council members and the Parks Department.

But those who helped organize the reseeding project including Friends of Brower Park president Phil Hawkins say that, once complete, it will not change the way dog owners use the park.

“It needs to be done,” he said. “This is the only green space we have in north Crown Heights. Why not have it reseeded?”

To discuss the details of the upcoming reseeding, Community Board 8 will host a public meeting with staff from the Parks Department on Tuesday, August 11 at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave., from 6 to 7 p.m.

Many dog owners plan to attend the meeting, including Allie Mills who takes her 6-month-old Bernese Mountain Dog/poodle mix to Brower Park almost every day and says she doesn’t know what she would do if she didn’t have that option.

“We wouldn’t have gotten a dog if we didn’t have this park,” she said. “It’s the perfect place for a dog. It’s two blocks away, so it’s really convenient in the morning before work.”

Rebecca Fuller, who signed the petition last week, had similar thoughts.

“Dogs need a space to play and properly socialize, and as far as I can tell, the area in Brower Park is the only one around,” she wrote. “If anything, it should be expanded, not taken away.”