The fenced lawn at Luke McRedmond Park has been through this cycle four times already. The panels go up in April, small dogs and big dogs split into their own pens, and in late summer the fence comes down and the grass along Redmond Way becomes an ordinary park again. This year the pop-up closed on August 17. In September, crews started building the version that doesn't come down.
The City's dog park project page was last updated October 7 and still lists an anticipated opening in November 2026. The Luke McRedmond Park facility listing reads "Coming in November 2026." Neither page gives a firm date yet. Either way, downtown Redmond's off-leash area is moving from a summer trial to permanent infrastructure, and its first stretch of use will fall in the wet, dark months the pop-ups never ran through.
Four summers that worked as a design test
The pop-ups weren't simply a stopgap. Redmond used them as a trial run, and the City has said so all along. Here is how it got from a list of priorities to a construction site:
- 2017. Dog parks were named a mid-term priority in the City's Parks, Arts, Recreation, Culture, and Conservation plan, known as the PARCC Plan.
- 2022. The priority came up again in the PARCC Plan update and during that year's budget process. Staff evaluated a number of sites and gathered community feedback over the summer.
- April 2023. The first pop-up opened at Luke McRedmond Park and stayed open through September, with the stated goal of letting the City "test different potential locations and needs."
- 2024. A second pop-up was added at Hartman Park, west of the tennis courts at 17300 NE 104th Street.
- 2025. The permanent amenity was approved in the 2025–2026 budget, after the pop-ups had been funded in the 2023–2024 budget. Both pop-ups returned for 2025 while the permanent park was being designed.
- 2026. The last pop-up season ran April 7 to August 17 at Luke McRedmond and April 17 to August 17 at Hartman. Construction on the permanent park began in September.
According to the City's April 2026 committee memo, feedback came from the PARCC surveys, from questionnaires at Derby Days, and from the Let's Connect dog park page. That feedback "identified the downtown core being an area with highest needs."
Who the pop-up turned out to serve
When the City first explained why it chose Luke McRedmond, the reasons were practical. The site is close to housing, parking, bus routes and trails, and it has a large lawn with nothing else scheduled on it. Early feedback showed who those reasons were really about.
Citywide, the 2022 PARCC survey found that 43.6% of respondents used parks to exercise a dog or visit an off-leash area. Among respondents who gave an opinion on whether the City had enough, 38.4% said dog exercise and off-leash space needed more. That's a real demand, but a diffuse one.
The first pop-up questionnaire, summarized for the Parks, Trails, and Recreation Commission in May 2023, was much more specific. Of its 52 responses, 85% came from dog owners, 68% came from people living downtown, and 57% said they had no backyard or other off-leash space. When asked where a future dog park should go, Luke McRedmond and downtown came out on top, followed by Anderson Park and Farrel-McWhirter.
Fifty-two responses is a small sample, and it measures opinion, not foot traffic. Still, compare it with the citywide 2022 figure. A citywide survey found broad interest. The pop-up found a specific group of downtown dog owners, more than half of whom had nowhere else to let a dog run. That's the group whose daily routine changes most once the fence stays up all year.
What $188,106 buys at 15644 Redmond Way
The memo lists the permanent park's total cost as $188,106, paid from the City's capital improvement program under the "Healthy & Sustainable" budget priority. The City says the design is "largely based on a successful pop-up dog park," and the features read like a list of what the temporary version couldn't offer:
- Separate areas for small or anxious dogs and for large or social dogs
- Two double-gated, fully accessible entrances, the main one on the north end and a second on the south
- Permanent shade structures, one on each side, plus newly planted trees for future shade
- Natural irrigated turf renovated to a more resilient fescue blend made for dog parks, the PT 767 Dog Park Eco-Lawn Mix with Microclover
- Five-foot chain link fencing
- Hard-surface paths from the entrance to the shelters, built for universal access
- An upgraded drinking fountain with a water bottle filler and a dog bowl
- Benches, new picnic tables, and Doggi-pot stations with waste bins
Shade is the clearest example of the switch from temporary to permanent. In 2026 the pop-up got a shade canopy in early June, two months into its season. In the permanent park, shade is part of the structure and the trees will grow in over time. The paved paths matter for the same reason. A fenced lawn that is only used from April to August never has to handle months of rain, and a hard-surface route to the shelters is designed with that weather in mind.
The season the pop-ups never saw
The pop-ups never covered the rainy months. The first one stayed open through September 2023, and the 2026 season ended on August 17. So for downtown dog owners, every past fall and winter has meant the same thing. The one public off-leash option was Marymoor Park, run by King County.
Marymoor's off-leash area is a very different kind of place. King County's off-leash page describes it as a 40-acre area. Under the County's park rules, it's the only place in the County park system where dogs can be off leash. Everywhere else, pets have to stay on a leash no longer than eight feet. The two parks side by side:
| Luke McRedmond, permanent | Marymoor Off-Leash Area | |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | City of Redmond | King County Parks |
| Size | One downtown lawn, split into small-dog and large-dog areas | 40 acres |
| Address or access | 15644 Redmond Way, near downtown housing, bus routes and trails | Marymoor Park, with a $1 daily vehicle parking fee |
| Surface | Irrigated dog-park turf, with paved paths to the shelters | Not described on the County page |
| Status as of late October 2026 | Under construction, anticipated November 2026 opening | Open |
The parking fee is small. The County lists $1 a day, or $1.25 through ParkMobile once its service charge is added. The bigger difference is that Marymoor is a trip you plan and Luke McRedmond is a walk from home. For the 57% of early survey respondents who had no off-leash space of their own, a park they can walk to in November changes the daily routine more than any added acreage would.
Two questions are still open. First, the City hasn't published winter hours or a turf-rest schedule for the permanent park. The pop-ups were open dawn to dusk, seven days a week. Dawn to dusk in a Redmond December is a short day, and how a natural-grass dog park holds up through its first wet season is something nobody in town has seen yet. Second, Hartman Park's future isn't settled. The City has named Luke McRedmond as the permanent site and hasn't said whether the Hartman pop-up will return in 2027.
The rules that carried over from the pop-up
When the first pop-up opened, the City's rules were straightforward. Dogs had to be licensed and current on vaccinations, each handler could bring up to two dogs, dogs were leashed when entering and leaving, other pets weren't allowed, and owners had to clean up after their dogs. The City hasn't posted a separate rule set for the permanent park, so check the project page for updates as opening gets closer. Problems at the site can be reported through the City's Q-Alert service request system.
In the City's April 2023 announcement of the first pop-up, Mayor Angela Birney talked about the park as a place to meet neighbors as well as a place to exercise dogs:
"We are excited to offer this new opportunity for community members to gather and play outdoors with their furry family members. My dog Buttons and I look forward to connecting with our neighbors there soon."
The permanent park is due in November. Watch for the City to update the project page with an opening date, and until then, Marymoor remains the open option.
At Hearken, LLC, we follow changes like this one because a park you can walk to shapes daily life on a street. If you're weighing a home near downtown Redmond, or you'd like to know what your current place is worth, ask us for a free home valuation and we'll walk you through how the neighborhood around it is changing.
