AIKEN --- Thanks to the city's Parks and Recreation Department and the Aiken Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, some of Aiken's four-legged residents will soon have a playground to call their own.

For nearly a year, parks and recreation has been planning to put the city's first dog park at Citizens Park. But those plans were scrapped, and Glenn Parker, director of parks and recreation, said the city and the SPCA are now looking at developing a dog park near 10 acres next to the Willow Run Industrial Park that will one day be the home of a new SPCA animal shelter.

Building there "allows us to have a larger dog park," Mr. Parker said. "The area we had at Citizens Park was about an acre. We feel like with the new facility there's at least two acres, maybe more, devoted to a dog park."

Mr. Parker said the new location is ideal because "it is directly adjacent to the old landfill that we will be developing in future years."

Dog parks are typically large, fenced areas where pets can play off-leash. Aiken's dog park will be divided for small and large dogs. The city set aside $32,000 in this year's budget for construction of the park.

In September, a group of residents approached the city council about establishing a dog park at Citizens Park.

"Aiken is very much an animal community -- horses and dogs and cats," Dr. Trey Wofford, a small-animal veterinarian, told the council. "We would like to establish an area here in the city closely accessible to the majority of the people where you could take your dog ... off leashes and let them run."

Users of the park will have to register their animals, and the city will provide equipment for owners to clean up after their dogs.

Most of the park's construction will involve fencing, a couple of water fountains, jumps and benches.

"It's very simple to do," Mr. Parker said. "A lot of folks are building dog parks in their communities because of leash laws."