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January 8th, 2007, Telegram Tribune
Dog lovers track down new park site
By Larissa Van Beurden-Doust
ldoust@thetribunenews.com
A year after being told they could no longer romp with their pooches off-leash in a Grover Beach park, some South County dog lovers have found a new place they would like to call their own.
The Five Cities Dog Park Association, a nonprofit group, wants to build a dog park on a 2.5-acre drainage basin on the Oceano and Arroyo Grande border. The city of Arroyo Grande owns the site.
The park would be a fenced location along Elm Street, near The Pike. The group plans to improve the dirt road on the property and add parking, signs, an information kiosk, trashcans, a chain-link fence and dispensers with Mutt Mitts for curbing dogs.
Eventually the group would like to add benches, a drinking fountain, a sidewalk, a walkway and wrought-iron fencing.
The Five Cities Dog Park Association estimated that it would cost $11,500 to build the park and $4,124 each year to maintain it.
Several local businesses and service clubs have already offered donations, as have some of the association’s 200 members.
Like other nonprofit dog groups in the county the association would be responsible for paying to build and maintain the park, Eklund said.
"We understand the counties and the cities all have tight budgets," she said. "They don’t have the resources for making or maintaining additional parks."
Dogs would be allowed to run around without a leash inside the fenced park, said Cynthia Eklund, a founding member of the association.
"You can’t truly exercise a dog when it’s on-leash," Eklund said. "This would give dogs the opportunity to really run. And the socialization aspect is very important."
The socialization aspect expands to humans, too, Eklund said. Some people who live on ranches bring their pups to parks so they can talk with other dog lovers while their dogs interact with other pooches.
San Luis Obispo County has five other dog parks. They are at Heilmann Regional Park in Atascadero, at Main Street and Santa Rosa Creek Road in Cambria, at El Chorro Regional Park and Laguna Lake Park in San Luis Obispo and at Nipomo Community Park.
There are no dog parks in the Five Cities area, Eklund said, though there are 3,500 licensed dogs in the area.
Dog lovers say dog parks will only become more popular as the human population ages and owners aren’t as able to exercise their dogs, leash laws become stricter and backyards become increasingly smaller.
South County dog owners had been using Costa Bella Park in Grover Beach as an unofficial dog park until last year.
After an extensive study, city officials decided against turning that unfenced parcel into a dog park.
They found it would cost $33,000 to convert the park, plus $6,000 a year to maintain it. Neighbors said in a survey that the park has been littered with feces and they didn’t want their tax dollars to pay for it.
Owners with dogs off a leash in the park are now cited.
Eklund said an official dog park would eliminate those problems.
Strict rules would mean that owners must clean up after their dogs, have their dog under voice control, not leave their pooches unattended and make sure their dogs are licensed and wearing vaccination tags.
Rules would also forbid puppies under four months and dogs that are in heat, unruly, or aggressive, or are diggers.
Residents of Basin Street, which borders the proposed park, were had mixed feelings toward a dog park.
One man said he’d like the field to remain empty because people might start parking on his cul-de-sac.
But Bob Zickuhr, also a Basin Street resident, said he thinks an official dog park will be "cleaner than a dirty old sand lot."
The Arroyo Grande Parks and Recreation Commission is scheduled to see the association’s presentation Wednesday. It will then make a recommendation to the City Council, which will have the final say over whether to permit a dog park on the site.
The Arroyo Grande Parks and Recreation Commission is scheduled to hear a presentation by the Five Cities Dog Park Association about creating a dog park on a city-owned drainage basin in Oceano. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 215 E. Branch St., in the Village.