Dog Park, Indoor Bar Planned Near Downtown Oswego Industrial Building

OSWEGO, IL — A new outdoor dog park, plus a bar for owners to hang out at while the pups run rampant, can now open in Oswego thanks to the Village Board's approval.

Trustees unanimously voted June 24 to grant approval of a special use permit for an outdoor recreation area spanning about 0.76 acres on the southwest side of the building at 174 S. Harrison St. The applicant, Nicole Nicklin, plans to open a business where locals can bring their dogs to an outdoor fenced-in park while they visit an indoor bar.

The indoor bar use is permitted under the property's current D-1 Downtown District zoning. The special use permit — which the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval for following a public hearing June 5 — is required for outdoor recreation uses.

The dog area will be surrounded by a minimum-6-foot-tall fence and covered with astroturf and potentially grass, according to a memo from the Village of Oswego Community Development department.

The project is part of the larger Hudson Street Square concept plan to transform the existing industrial building and develop an adjacent vacant property — spanning 2 acres — into a recreational area with food trucks, a pavilion and small retail shop spaces, according to village documents.

The property is currently being used as a contractor's office and warehouse, which is a legal nonconforming, documents show. The development consists of three parcels, one with the commercial building and two vacant.

The recreational area is proposed on the central vacant parcel. Three concrete pads for food trucks and a pavilion for outdoor seating are planned on the north side, while eight small structures reserved for 120-square-foot shops would live on the eastern side, along the railroad tracks.

The applicant has not provided plans for the northernmost vacant parcel but "reserves it for future expansion of this proposed use," Assistant Development Services Director Rachel Riemenschneider wrote in an agenda document.