How about changing from this:
to this: 
The former is the way the worthless little gravel areas in the Coliseum Park DFA are currently ‘designed’. Features include:
- Gravel is at or above grade level
- Gravel spills out all over the place (and out of the park)
- Odd little triangles throughout the ‘DFA’
The latter is they way the dog relief areas at the Burnham Station Condominiums were built. Features include:
- Space is defined by landscape timbers.
- Space was excavated to put the gravel below grade level.
- No spillage at all.
However, the cost for four (4) of these spaces at Burnham Station was about $3600, total. That’s a lot of money.
If we focused on one or two areas in the Coliseum Park DFA – say, the north and south ends of the run – and did away with the rest, maybe this would be feasible? The gravel areas would still require cleaning and gravel replacement every year or two, but there wouldn’t be gravel spilling out all over the place onto the walkways and onto the street. And the DFA would look one increment less of a dump. It may be worth a shot, but at this point who knows whether the user community would support the cost. (Hint: the CPD is not going to do this – we asked)??
[…] are good ways to design pea-gravel relief areas, and we’ve posted an example of a properly excavated space at a local condominium complex before. That area is fairly small, was extensively excavated, and […]
Hmm… After going by Coliseum Park today and seeing the gravel all over the place, I wonder if it wouldn’t make sense… to… run out to Home Depot … and get some sod to install in the north end gravel area this Spring?? Unofficially, of course. Here’s why this makes sense: the argument for concrete and gravel is that there are ‘so many dogs’ the ‘sod would be destroyed and turn into a noxious muddy pit’. But there are not a lot of dogs using the coliseum park DFA, and my guess is that sod that was cared for by the community could establish itself and look good, so that the run would be much less disgusting. Just start with the north end and see how it works. I know there was grass there once, and that it was removed – perhaps long time users could speak to this idea.
The only issue with framing in the north and south ends is that the dogs run full speed into those areas and use the pebbles to stop. Having a low surround of timbers is not going to prevent the pebbles from spilling over in those areas. It would certainly look a little nicer, but I’m not sure that aesthetics are worth the expense.