Granville council expands leash law villagewide, exempts Brandeau front lawn during non-scheduled events

The Village of Granville Council voted to expand the village's leash law to cover the entire village, adding a written exception for the front lawn of the Brandeau property to allow off-leash activity during non-scheduled event times.

The council held a public hearing before deliberation. Several residents spoke in favor of a full village expansion, citing crowded events and safety concerns; one public commenter said she had seen "a dog running free" at concerts and urged wider enforcement. Other residents and several council members raised concerns about enforcement and about allowing off-leash dogs at large public events such as Concert on the Green and athletic events on the Brandeau lawn.

Village staff told council they reviewed incident reports: since 2019, the police department geolocated 13 reported dog-bite incidents using the school-district boundary for analysis; roughly half of those incidents occurred within the village boundary. Staff also said the village maintains two police dogs and that law-enforcement and police-service dogs would be exempt from the leash restriction.

In deliberations council members discussed three basic options on the table: a limited expansion narrowly targeted to pedestrian pathways, a full-village expansion, or tabling to ask staff to draft a third option. Several council members favored a simple, villagewide rule to avoid enforcement confusion; others favored a narrower path-focused approach to reduce unintended consequences for parks and campus lawns. To resolve those concerns, council adopted the full-village ordinance with a specific exception added in Section F: the front lawn of the Brandeau property is exempted from the leash requirement during non-scheduled-event times (as scheduled events may require leashing by the property manager).

Council members and staff said the ordinance will require public outreach so residents and visitors understand the new boundaries and any posted exceptions. The council did not set exact recurring hours for off-leash use but discussed ideas such as limited morning windows (for example, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.) for off-leash activity and asked staff to prepare clearer language for future revisions if needed.