Downtown Bethesda now has a fenced, off-leash dog run inside the business district. It sits on two parcels on Montgomery Avenue that Montgomery Parks bought in 2025. The official opening was scheduled for September 21. Parks calls it temporary. At the September 11 meeting of the Bethesda Implementation Advisory Committee, the Parks landscape architect on the project said there is no dedicated funding for it and that upgrades will be considered after an assessment of how the run is used.
So how the run gets used will help decide its future. The ground is wood chips, the fence is new, and the condition Parks has set for improving it is use.
What Opened at 4326 and 4328 Montgomery Avenue
Bethesda Transportation Solutions announced the run on September 18 and gave the address as 4326 and 4328 Montgomery Avenue. According to Montgomery Parks, the whole site is 0.31 acres. Large and small dogs have separate fenced areas: about 7,000 square feet for large dogs and about 3,600 square feet for small dogs.
0.31 acres is about 13,500 square feet. The two dog areas add up to about 10,600 square feet, so most of the lot is usable dog space. The rest goes to entries and landscaped planting areas. The large-dog area is almost twice the size of the small-dog area, which tells you how Parks expects the run to be used.
Parks lists these features:
- Wood-chip ground
- Logs and boulders as natural play features
- Fenced areas with gated entry
- Landscaped planting areas
- Trash cans and dog-waste bag dispensers
Shade is not on that list, and the advisory committee noticed. The September 11 minutes record "some discussion regarding the lack of shade." The Parks answer was the same one that applies to everything else here: no dedicated funding, and upgrades to be considered after an assessment of use.
Why Parks Calls It Interim
The run's official description says plainly that it is a placeholder:
"The dog run will serve as an interim use as additional properties are acquired and the future park continues to evolve."
The longer plan is an urban recreation park named in the 2017 Bethesda Downtown Sector Plan. Parks says it is working toward that plan and expects to buy more property first. The Montgomery County Council approved and adopted that plan on May 25, 2017.
Two things follow from that. The run exists because the land was bought for something bigger and Parks chose to use it in the meantime. It also has no published end date. The run page gives no timeline for the permanent park, and none of the Parks and Planning material reviewed for this post includes a construction schedule for a park on this part of Montgomery Avenue.
The Downtown Bethesda Park Projects page, last updated August 18, 2026, shows where each downtown park project stands. One project is listed at the stage "Acquisition and Interim Park Planning": the Eastern Capital Crescent Urban Greenway. Parks' map puts that future park along the northwest side of the Capital Crescent Trail, before Montgomery Avenue reaches East-West Highway. The run's own page does not name that project, though the stage and the location match. Montgomery Planning describes the greenway as an active-recreation entry point to downtown Bethesda along the trail. Planning says it will be built as development timing, land purchases, funding, partnerships, and staff capacity allow, and it gives no completion date.
That gap in time makes the interim run matter. A temporary use with no end date can last for years, and Parks has tied any improvements during that time to how the run is used.
This is not the first delay. Planning's 2024 monitoring report said staff hoped to open interim uses at the site to the public later in 2025. The opening came in September 2026 instead.
The Rules at the Gate
The run follows Montgomery Parks' dog park rules, which apply across the county system:
- Hours. Dawn to dusk unless a sign says otherwise. Most dog parks keep the hours of the park they are in.
- Paperwork. Dogs need current vaccinations, a license from their local government, and ID and a current rabies tag on the collar.
- Headcount. One handler can bring no more than three dogs and must keep a leash within reach.
- Kids. Children under 16 must be with an adult. The rules do not set a minimum age for dogs.
- Cost. Montgomery Parks dog parks are free, and no dog permit is required.
The hours rule matters more as the days get shorter. Dawn to dusk in October is a longer window than dawn to dusk in December, so after-work visits get squeezed as the year goes on. Weekend mornings will become a bigger share of the run's use.
Where the Run Fits Among the County's Other Dog Areas
Before September, the fenced Montgomery Parks dog areas covered in this post were all outside downtown Bethesda:
- Cabin John Regional Dog Park, 7400 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda, with separate areas for dogs of 20 pounds or less and dogs of 21 pounds or more
- Bottleworks Lane Park, 1110 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Parks' newest park, which has separate small-dog and large-dog runs
- Ellsworth Dog Park, 621 Ellsworth Drive, Silver Spring, with separate fenced areas for small and large dogs
This list shows the Montgomery Avenue run is the only one of these inside downtown Bethesda. Cabin John and Bottleworks Lane are bigger, more permanent facilities. The Montgomery Avenue run is close by for downtown dog owners, and it is in the same trial period as the land around it.
It also changes how the Capital Crescent Trail fits into a walk. Montgomery Parks' trail rules require pets to stay on a short leash, and owners must clean up after them. The trail is a place for leashed walks. The new run is the downtown place where a dog can be off leash.
What Comes Next, and When
Three dates are coming up for people who want to follow the run and the land around it.
The Bethesda Implementation Advisory Committee, where the dog run and its shade problem were discussed, canceled its October 2 meeting. Its next meeting is November 13, 2026, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m., in a hybrid format.
Separately, Montgomery Parks' Capital Crescent Trail 2.0 Facility Plan lists a kickoff meeting in fall 2026, after a virtual community meeting on June 11, 2025. That study covers the trail corridor in general and is not a schedule for the urban greenway. The project page was updated in August 2026 and still includes a line about presenting findings "this Spring." Check the page for the current meeting date before you plan around it.
The third date has not been set. Parks has said upgrades will be considered after an assessment of how the run is used, and it has not said when that assessment will happen or what period it will cover.
Dog Dates on the Downtown Calendar
Two more events this fall and winter are built around dogs:
- Yappy Hour, Thursday, October 8, 5 to 7 p.m. Bethesda Urban Partnership is setting up a pop-up dog park at The Metropolitan Plaza, 4805 Edgemoor Lane, with live music, food, and drinks for the owners. Event details are on the Bethesda Urban Partnership listing.
- Dog adoption pop-up, Sunday, December 13, noon to 2 p.m. Petey & Furends lists a dogs-only adoption event at Kendra Scott, 4835 Bethesda Lane, on Bethesda Row. The schedule is on the Petey & Furends events page.
Both are live listings and could change, so confirm the details the week of each event.
If the new run has you thinking about a fenced yard, a mudroom dog-wash station, or flooring that holds up to wet paws at home, Dallen Russell has scoped those projects many times and can give you an honest estimate of cost and timeline. Book a free consultation. Coffee's on me.
