DENIS DEVINE
Staff Writer

North County Times
March 20, 2002

The commission voted 5-1 not to recommend to the Encinitas City Council that the city should create its first fenced area reserved for unleashed dogs in a public park. The panel agreed that parking and traffic problems could plague the park if a dog run area was established.

The meeting drew a large crowd of dog-park supporters and parents worried about their children's safety. More than four dozen lined up to speak on both sides of the issue, with audience members sometimes breaking into cheers and applause.

The advisory panel voted 4-2 to recommend that the city council allow off-leash dog hours at Glen Park on San Elijo Avenue for a trial period of six months.

"I like the idea of choice," said Commissioner Steve Fitch. "Separation is what we're after, whether it be (achieved) through time or fences. ... As long as they (residents) have that choice, then we're on the way to a solution."

Margarat Nee, a dog trainer and member of People And Dog Zones, or PADZ, a nonprofit group promoting off-leash hours and zones set aside for dogs, said she thought the commission's recommendations for Glen Park were a "perfectly reasonable solution."

"There's already a lot of peer-policing going on" at the parks that now have off-leash hours, Nee said, "and that's just going to get better and better as PADZ grows and educates its members."

But Tom Carey, father of three young children and a dog owner himself, was concerned that the city was putting his children's safety at risk.

"There does need to be designated dog areas, but it should be somewhere other than where children are playing," Carey said. "When you mix kids and dogs you really don't know what you're getting into."

Carey questioned whether People And Dog Zones members would be willing to share the city's insurance costs if a dog bites a child at a park approved for off-leash hours.

The Cardiff park was the first of seven city parks the parks commission is set to review for possible off-leash dog hours. At the end of the process, which is expected to take at least six months, the commission will pass on its recommendations to the City Council.

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

Similar hours were recommended for Glen Park, though Commissioner Robert Nanninga suggested different hours.

Noting the park's heavy use during the summer as a children's day camp, meeting place for bicyclists and viewpoint for sunsets over the ocean, Nanninga suggested eliminating off-leash hours in the evening during the summer.

"Dogs are color-blind," said Nanninga, a columnist for the North County Times. "They're not there enjoying the sunset."

Nanninga and Commissioner John Smith voted against off-leash hours for Glen Park; the rest of the commission voted to recommend the hours to the City Council.

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