Beverly Common with your dog: the summer park ban and its exemption

Beverly's summer rules for parks and open spaces take effect every year on Memorial Day and run through Labor Day. Between 7:30 AM and 7:30 PM, dogs are prohibited from city parks, beaches, playgrounds and tennis courts. Lynch Park, at 55 Ober Street, has its own tighter window, leashed dogs only from 6:00 to 7:30 AM and never in the Rose Garden, and the city's cemeteries are closed to dogs at all times, in every season.

The rule comes from section 117-10 of the city's Code of Ordinances, which lets the Parks and Recreation Commission designate special areas in written policy. The commission has named one park in each ward where dogs may still go during the banned hours, on leash and under control at all times, and Beverly Common is the Ward 3 park on that list. The city warns of penalties upwards of $100 per dog, per offense.

The exemption turns Beverly Common into the midday piece of a summer routine that the ordinance otherwise squeezes into early morning and evening. Lynch Park takes leashed dogs from 6:00 to 7:30 AM. From 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM, the six designated ward parks are the only city parks open to a dog. After 7:30 PM, leashed dogs may use the other city parks again until 7:30 the next morning, with gardens, playing fields and playground areas excluded.

Knowing where the Common is helps. It sits at the edge of downtown, running along Dane Street toward Hale Street, and the city's list gives it no separate address. Do not confuse it with Beverly Commons Conservation Area off Greenwood Avenue, the city and Greenbelt woodland with miles of trail, which has its own page on this site and its own rules.

Twelve banned hours a day in most parks and on every beach make summer the hardest season for a Beverly dog with energy to burn. Beverly is in Dogtown's service area, up Route 128 to its end in Gloucester, and daycare at 210 Eastern Ave is $42 a full day or $33 a half day in a playgroup of 7 to 10 dogs matched by size and temperament, with splash pools on the turf yard and indoor play floors for the hottest afternoons.

Beverly is outside the Pup Van towns, so ask us about pick-up or plan to drive. New dogs start with a free evaluation on a weekday between 6:30 and 9:30 AM, with Rabies, DHPP and Bordetella records and a current Beverly license. And after a summer of harbor walks and dusty paths, our bath and brush, from $55 by size and booked with no evaluation, is a good reset before fall.