With a large crowd of dog lovers in attendance, the City of Renton’s Parks Commission Tuesday unanimously approved a proposal for an off-leash dog park in Renton.

The Parks Commission is requesting the City of Renton include $50,000 for the dog park in its capital improvement budget for 2009.

The proposal goes to the City Council’s Committee of the Whole for approval Oct. 27. The public is welcome to attend the Oct. 27 committee meeting but may not be able to offer comments.

Getting the $50,000 approved is not a given, Community Services Administrator Terry Higashiyama said at Tuesday’s meeting.

“The council may say we have to wait a year,” she said during the presentation.

Even if the City Council approves the $50,000, an additional $50,000 would have to be raised before the dog park could be constructed.

Increasing pet license fees could help fund the park, the Dog Park Task Force said at Tuesday’s meeting.

If approved, the dog park would be a two-year project, located at the former brick plant adjacent to the Cedar River and the Cedar River Trail that is now a 4.5-acre open field.

Todd and Christy Schlegel walk dogs for a living through their company Rain or Shine Pet Care. The married couple typically exercises their clients close to home. But they would love to let the dogs romp in a nearby off-leash dog park.

“That would be great,” Todd says. “There’s really nothing like that, no places for the dogs to go. Every place you go they have to be on leashes.”

The City of Renton started a dog park task force this spring after years of requests. Task-force applications went out in January. More than 20 citizens responded, and the task force started with a membership of about 20. Those members included Kris Stimpson, recreation manager for the City of Renton, Higashiyama and Dana Appel, parks maintenance worker.

The task force met during the late winter and spring to determine if the City of Renton could feasibly develop a test site for an off-leash dog park.

The task force received input from police officers on leash and licensing problems and officials who help run the dog park at Marymoor Park in Redmond. The task force also took into account the nearly 190 surveys filled out by Renton citizens. The surveys measured the public’s interest in using and maintaining an off-leash dog park. The dog park would be run as a test project for two years.

Stimpson says the City of Renton helped fund and supply construction materials for Grandview Park in SeaTac. But Renton doesn’t have any official dog parks, off-leash or otherwise.

Christy Schlegel says she and Todd would be glad to help manage an off-leash dog park.

“It would be a great opportunity for us to walk our dogs,” she says.