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NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez is one step closer to having a dog park, thanks to the approval of preliminary plans Tuesday by the Natchez Board of Aldermen.

John Holyoak and Jaki Yarbrough of the Natchez Community Alliance joined Natchez Parks and Recreation Director Ryan Porter in presenting plans to locate the dog park near Carroll Jones Field in Duncan Park.

“A dog park is something we have wanted to work on for a long time and when we were looking for a good location, we initially wanted it to be somewhere near the Bluff, but the price of property near the bluff” was cost prohibitive, Holyoak said.

He said a dog park would attract people to Natchez, like the golf course, the disc golf course, and the bike trail.

“People travel by these apps and look for these locations” of dog parks and the like, Holyoak said. “They target communities for things to do and this is just going to be another asset for Natchez.”

Private donations will fund the dog park.

“We are not coming to you to ask for money. This is a project the Community Alliance is going to be able to fundraise for. We have people already who want to donate. It’s going to be nice. It’s not going to be just a cyclone fence and a big square. It’s going to have all kinds of attributes,” Holyoak said.

No specifics are available yet about what the dog park will cost or when it will be completed.

Porter said the Natchez Parks and Recreation Department would handle facility maintenance.