North County Times
March 16, 2002

Beginning Tuesday and continuing over the next six months, the city Parks and Recreation Commission will consider whether to allow off-leash areas for dogs at seven city parks.

On Tuesday, the commission is set to hear public comments on whether the city should create its first fenced area reserved for unleashed dogs. The dog zone would be at a 1-acre expansion of Hawk View Park in Encinitas Ranch.

At the same meeting, the commission will review whether Glen Park in Cardiff should adopt off-leash hours for dogs, though a visit Thursday evening showed at least a few dog owners are already allowing their pets to roam free through the park.

Mixing kids and dogs

Penny Thayer, who lives across Swallowtail Road from Hawk View Park, said she worries that the proposed off-leash dog park there will endanger her young children.

"I feel that they're setting our children up for a dangerous situation," Thayer said. "We don't let our children play next to a freeway, why would we do this? The things children do, run around, yell, they activate the dogs. ... Dogs need a place to play, but not next to children."

But dog-park supporters say off-leash hours at dog parks actually help decrease incidents with dogs by letting pets get the exercise and canine social interaction they need.

Lu Meyer, an Olivenhain dog trainer, said too many dogs are being brought to the city's two parks that already have limited off-leash hours because the demand for running space is outpacing the supply. Meyer is the chairwoman of People and Dog Zones, a year-old group that wants the city to allow dogs off their leashes in more parks in Encinitas.

"The children shouldn't be there without a parent supervising them, and the dogs aren't going to be there without their owner supervising them, and there's going to be a fence between them," Meyer said. "And a lot of the dogs are fine with children anyway."

Meyer estimated that between 30 and 35 percent of Encinitas households have a dog.

"Dog parks are very successful all over the country," she said. "Not only are they not having any problems, but they are decreasing the problems that they have with dogs."

Picking parks for dogs

In addition to Glen Park, the commission will consider setting leash-free hours at Cardiff Sports Park on Lake Drive, Leo Mullen Sports Park near the Target shopping center, Scott Valley Park and Sun Vista Park in new Encinitas, Leucadia Oaks Park in Leucadia and at Hawk View Park.

The city now allows dogs to run free six times a week at two parks: 6 to 7:30 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at Orpheus Park on Orpheus Avenue in Leucadia and Encinitas Viewpoint Park at D Street and Cornish Drive downtown.

Members of People and Dog Zones ---- or PADZ, to its 200 active members ---- asked the City Council in October to set up more dog parks in Encinitas. In addition to the seven parks being considered for limited hours when dogs could be off their leashes, the group asked the council to fence off sections of some parks where dogs could run free throughout the day.

So, the city parks department is also analyzing whether to allow fenced dog zones at James MacPherson Park, a sliver of city-owned land between Orpheus Avenue and Interstate 5 just north of Leucadia Boulevard; an SDG&E easement off Mountain Vista Drive east of El Camino Real; part of the 59-acre Indian Head Canyon preserve in Leucadia; the 43-acre Hall property west of Interstate 5 and south of Santa Fe Drive that the city bought last year; and a vacant city-owned site on Quail Gardens Road designated for a future park.

Building a permanent dog park is not a new idea in Encinitas. Dog owners have long complained that the dog hours offered at the parks are limited and inconvenient.

But some residents strongly oppose dog parks. Last year, the city's Parks and Recreation Commission scrapped plans to have leash-free dog hours at Scott Valley Park on Willowhaven Road. Residents complained that the unleashed dogs would endanger children and befoul the park.

Also last year, the Cardiff School District trustees voted to ban dogs at George Berkich Park, a play field shared by the city and Cardiff School, after people complained about pet droppings.

Mixed reactions

At Cardiff's Glen Park, two dogs, a chocolate Labrador and a husky, were roaming the park off their leashes on Thursday evening, despite posted signs indicating the city's leash law. A man trailing behind the husky carried in his hand the crumpled remains of a homemade sign advertising Tuesday's Parks and Recreation Commission meeting, which had been torn off the sign to which it was attached. He declined to talk to a reporter.

But a family enjoying the park said they weren't troubled by the dogs running free. In Spanish, Soledad Lopez of Cardiff said of her 7-year-old son Jose and 5-year-old daughter Rosalita, "the children aren't scared."

Practicing his golf swing at Glen Park on Thursday evening, Craig Street said he supported the city allowing dogs to roam free at the park across from his home. He said he hoped the city would install plastic glove dispensers for owners to clean up after their dogs.

Some parents protesting the leash-free hours proposed for parks say they wouldn't mind dogs running free on land that young children don't go to.

"I'm not against dog parks per se," said Dana Jacobs of Cardiff. "I just don't think they should do them in conjunction with children's playgrounds. Indian Head Canyon would be better. They could put it there where they (dogs) don't have to interact with children."

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, children make up more than 60 percent of the 500,000 to 1 million dog-bite victims in the United States each year.

The Parks and Recreation Commission is set to hear comments from the public at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers at Encinitas City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave. They will make recommendations to the City Council after the meeting.

Contact staff writer Denis Devine at (760) 943-2313 or ddevine@nctimes.com