Hickory's Dog Park Moved Across Town. Here's Where Local Dogs Run Now
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
The city put the reason in writing. When Hickory City Council took up the sale of the Fairbrook Optimist Dog Park property in November 2024, the agenda said staff planned to relocate the dog park "to a location that is more convenient to a larger amount of residents."
Hickory Optimist Park, at 751 2nd Ave SW, is where the city put the relocated dog park, and its newly completed dog park areas opened on July 3, 2026. The city's off-leash dog park now sits in a park with a playground, pickleball courts and a walking trail. The old one sat in an industrial zone next to a growing church. October is when this starts to matter day to day. Park hours get shorter this month, and the city and county dog parks each run on their own clock and their own rulebook.
The Fairbrook site covered about 7.27 acres at 1560 4th Ave SE, near Tate Boulevard, on land zoned industrial. The November 19, 2024 council agenda described a $400,000 offer from One Kingdom Alliance International, which does business as iChurch. The property's tax value was $369,900. Under North Carolina's surplus property rules, the sale was subject to upset bids, so other parties had a chance to bid higher. The terms would let the city run the park for one year after closing and keep the dog park equipment.
The Hickory Daily Record reported that the offer included a $25,000 donation toward city parks, and that City Manager Warren Wood described the dog park as sitting beside iChurch in an industrial area of Hickory. Wood told the paper the church expected its membership to grow from about 1,450 to more than 2,100, and said, "The church has a lot of traffic that comes through there."
According to the same report, the city planned two new dog parks in more convenient places. One would go at Hickory Optimist Park off Second Avenue SW on the south side. The other would go at Bruce Meisner Park off Cloninger Mill Road on the north side. The south-side park is the one that opened this summer.
The city paid for the work with federal Community Development Block Grant money. Hickory's FY2025–26 performance report lists $329,966.71 in public infrastructure improvements. At the September 1, 2026 council meeting, Business Development Director Dave Leonetti said most of the city's spending that year went to Hickory Optimist Park, including fencing, paving, the new dog park, picnic tables and trail connections. That spending covered all of this, according to the city's opening announcement:
Those additions join what the park already had: four outdoor pickleball courts, a picnic shelter with tables and grills, a community room with restrooms and a catering kitchen, an outdoor basketball court, a playground, an outdoor fitness equipment zone and a paved walking trail. That mix is what sets it apart from the Fairbrook site. One household can split up here, with a dog in the fenced area, a child on the playground and someone on the pickleball courts, all within the same park.
Optimist is the city's dog park. Catawba County runs three of its own: Mountain Creek Park at 6554 Little Mountain Rd. in Sherrills Ford, Riverbend Park at 6700 N NC Hwy 16 in Conover, and St. Stephens Park at 2247 36th Ave NE in Hickory. St. Stephens has a one-acre grassy dog park with some trees and a separate area for small dogs, plus a one-third-mile walking loop. For now it's the closest fenced option on the north side.
The two rulebooks agree on the basics. Both require a valid rabies tag, both set the small-dog cutoff at 30 pounds, and both require dogs to stay leashed until they're inside the gate. Both ban food, glass, alcohol and smoking inside the fence. The differences are in the details:
| Rule | Hickory Optimist Park, City of Hickory | County parks, including St. Stephens |
|---|---|---|
| Dogs per person | Two per owner | No more than three per visit |
| Children | Under 16 must be supervised by an adult | Must be supervised and at least 12 years old |
| Puppies | No minimum age posted | None under 4 months |
| Collars | No choke, spike, chain or pinch collars off leash | Not addressed in posted rules |
| Leashes | Leash until inside, re-leash before exiting | Same, plus one leash per dog at all times |
| Small-dog area | Dogs under 30 pounds must use it | For dogs 30 pounds and under |
Group size and age decide most of these. Someone with three dogs can bring all three to St. Stephens but only two to Optimist. A parent with an eight-year-old can bring that child into the city dog park with supervision. The county's posted rules set 12 as the minimum age for children who come along. The full city rules and the county rules are both posted online. Both parks are unsupervised, so dog owners enforce the rules on each other.
Hickory changes city park hours twice a year. From April through September, most city parks are open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. From October through March, they're open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Optimist isn't on the list of exceptions, and the city's dog park rules say it's open during park hours only.
The county parks run a different schedule, and it gets shorter sooner:
October: County parks open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Optimist runs 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
November through February: County parks close at 5 p.m. Optimist still closes at 7 p.m.
Holidays: County parks are open seven days a week but close on Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The opening hour matters too. Optimist opens an hour earlier than the county parks all year, which helps anyone who needs to fit in a run before work. Starting November 1, the gap moves to the evening. Anyone getting off work at 5 can no longer make it to St. Stephens, but Optimist stays open two more hours. For dog owners on the north side, the new south-side park is likely to be the only fenced off-leash option open after 5 p.m. this winter.
Off-leash time ends at the gate. On every segment of the Hickory Trail, including City Walk, Riverwalk, Aviation Walk and Historic Ridgeview Walk, which used to be called Book Walk, the city requires pets to be supervised and on a short leash. Owners must also bag pet waste and throw it away properly. Rotary-Geitner Park has access to the Riverwalk and the Lake Hickory Trails, and the short-leash rule applies once you're on the Riverwalk. Rotary-Geitner also runs on its own hours, open until 9 p.m. through October and closing at 7 p.m. from November through February. At the county parks, leashed dogs are welcome on the trails outside the fenced areas.
A walk downtown can end at a patio. City Walk Brewing & Distilling says on its own site that dogs are welcome and that its backyard biergarten has covered seating, cornhole and an outdoor bar. Its public parking is at 205 Main. Visit Hickory's dog guide, published in September 2025, lists several more spots. Taste Full Beans welcomes dogs on its patio, Olde Hickory Station's outdoor seating on Union Square is dog-friendly, and DASH Home + Kitchen downtown welcomes dogs inside. The guide also suggests taking Cranford Brothers Barbecue takeout outside to eat with a dog along City Walk. That guide is more than a year old, so a quick call before bringing a dog in is the safe move.
Three loose ends are worth tracking.
At Baker Realty, we've been following how Hickory's parks and neighborhoods fit together for decades. If you're weighing a move across town and want to know which parks, trails and patios would be in reach, we're glad to talk it through.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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