Dog Gone It! Alexandria’s $90,000 Dog Park Lighting Request Goes Unfunded

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria has seven fenced dog parks, but residents hoping for lights at Montgomery Park Dog Park will have to keep waiting.

During development of the City’s fiscal 2027 budget, Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley and Councilman Canek Aguirre asked whether money had been included to install lighting there.

The City’s answer was direct: No funding was included.

According to the City’s FY 2027 Budget Q&A #024, solar lighting at Montgomery Park Dog Park would cost approximately $90,000, including design and engineering. Similar lighting at the Holmes Run/Duke Street Dog Park was estimated at approximately $195,000.

A dog fountain at the Duke Street park was already funded through an existing capital-maintenance project and was scheduled for installation during summer 2026.

A Small Project Inside a Much Bigger Budget

The dog parks offer a small example of a much larger challenge facing Alexandria’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities: deciding what can be funded now, what must wait, and how much the City can afford as competing needs vie for available revenue.

Alexandria City Council unanimously adopted a $979.1 million General Fund operating budget for FY 2027. RPCA received approximately $35 million in total spending across all funds, with about $31.63 million coming from the General Fund.

Recreation Services received approximately $15.48 million, while Park Services received approximately $12.27 million.

But the same budget that funds recreation programs, parks, and facilities also contains reductions.

The City eliminated four vacant positions, two in Recreation Services and two in Park Services, producing approximately $151,000 in savings. The City said the Park Services reductions would not affect services.

At the same time, Alexandria added money elsewhere, including funding for head lifeguard staffing and $100,000 in one-time funding for seasonal ornamental plantings around recreation centers.

Fees Are Part of the Equation

The FY 2027 budget increased the full-rate fee for the City’s Out of School Time Program by $100 for the school year while leaving discounted fees unchanged for families receiving assistance through programs including Free and Reduced Lunch, SNAP and TANF.

The City’s budget reports that 43% of active households participating in recreation programs received financial assistance in 2025.

Millions for Buildings, Parks and Maintenance

Alexandria’s approved FY 2027-36 Capital Improvement Program includes $41.38 million in total budget and financing for the Recreation Centers Capital Facilities Maintenance Program. Approximately $7.89 million represents prior appropriations, while $33.50 million is programmed from FY 2027 through FY 2036.

The money addresses needs ranging from HVAC systems and boilers to accessibility improvements, doors, flooring and other maintenance at recreation facilities.

Chinquapin Park Recreation Center & Aquatics Facility has a separate capital-maintenance program. The City says Chinquapin currently has a backlog of maintenance needs that must be prioritized against new requests.

Alexandria’s approved 10-year capital plan also programs $44.98 million in new funding for park maintenance and improvements, including athletic fields, ball courts, playgrounds, trails, trees, restrooms and other park infrastructure.

The City’s own capital plan says Alexandria’s six large citywide parks have deteriorated from overuse and what the City describes as a “lack of sustained investment.”

That puts requests such as the $90,000 Montgomery Park Dog Park lighting project into a much larger competition for Recreation dollars.

A Tight Fiscal Picture

Paying for those services and projects ultimately depends in part on Alexandria’s broader ability to generate revenue.

Real property taxes are central to that financial picture. The FY 2027 approved budget estimates approximately $578.1 million in real property tax revenue at a rate of $1.135 per $100 of assessed value.

Approximately $369.1 million is projected from residential property, $108.5 million from commercial multifamily property and $92.4 million from office, retail and other commercial property.

For the second half of FY 2027, the City assumes 2.5% growth in real property assessments, based on what Alexandria describes as a growing residential real estate market and stabilizing commercial office, retail and service property values.

But City budget advisers have warned that the financial picture remains tight.

In its FY 2027 recommendations, the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Advisory Committee, or BFAAC, described Alexandria as facing an “especially constrained fiscal environment.”

BFAAC said economic uncertainty and existing policy decisions had considerably reduced Council’s discretionary spending options and could eventually require revenue increases, including taxes or fees, or reductions in services or staffing.

The committee specifically identified increased or new fees for recreational facilities or programs as one potential tradeoff. BFAAC is an advisory committee to City Council; its recommendations are not City policy.

City Council also added $123,480 in one-time contingency funding toward Out of School Time staffing, with an emphasis on therapeutic recreation seasonal staff, during its final FY 2027 budget decisions.

Some Projects Get Funded. Some Wait.

The result is not simply a story about Recreation being cut or Recreation receiving more money. It is a story about choices.

Some money maintains buildings. Some pays for programs and employees. Some supports parks and athletic facilities. Some projects are programmed years into the future.

And some requests do not make the budget at all.

Alexandria residents can follow future Recreation spending through City Council’s budget process, including public hearings and opportunities to submit comments. Residents can also follow the Alexandria Park and Recreation Commission, an 11-member advisory body whose meetings are open to the public.

The next budget process will provide another opportunity to see which Recreation projects are proposed for funding and which ones may have to wait.

Among them is the project where this story began: approximately $90,000 in solar lighting for Montgomery Park Dog Park that was not funded in the FY 2027 budget.

For now, when the sun goes down at Montgomery Park, the dogs and their owners are still waiting for the lights.