Anita Stroud Park

Anita Stroud Park is a six-acre Mecklenburg County neighborhood park at 2215 Double Oaks Road, sitting on the banks of Irwin Creek a short distance east of Interstate 77. The county publishes no dog rule for this park by name. What it publishes is systemwide, and it’s consistent: Park and Recreation’s own guidance treats leashed dogs as welcome in the county’s parks and greenways, and CMPD Animal Care and Control states that dogs walked in public parks that aren’t designated dog parks stay leashed and under physical restraint at all times. Six feet or shorter is the length the county names, in its greenway rules.

Access is the thing to know first. The county calls this a walk-up facility, and its own volunteer listing gives the parking instruction in one line: park legally on Woodward Avenue, without blocking any driveways. No lot.

Inside the six acres are a half-court basketball court, two picnic shelters with grills, two playground areas built for ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12, and a walking trail. The county describes the playgrounds as inclusive, and pointed families here in July 2025 while Nevin Park’s playground was closed for construction. Whether pets are excluded from the playground surfacing isn’t stated on any readable county page. Nor is the trail’s surface, its length, or whether the park has a working water fountain.

The Irwin Creek Greenway now under construction is a different stretch of the same creek. That segment runs upstream between Statesville Road and Allen Hills Park, with substantial completion anticipated in spring 2026. It doesn’t reach Double Oaks Road.

For off-leash, the nearest county option is the fenced dog park at Frazier Park, roughly a mile and a half south toward uptown, split into separate small and large sections.