Give Dogs Their Own Park, Woo Urges

Los Angeles’ only official dog park, Laurel Canyon Park, has become so popular that a city councilman Wednesday proposed fencing most of it off so dogs could run free there all day, not just during selected hours.

“The sheer volume of people taking advantage of the ability to run their dogs free during the specified hours has severely taxed the limited parking resources at and around Laurel Canyon Park,” Councilman Mike Woo said in his motion to the council.

“There also have been repeated instances of people not respecting the time limitations, often due to the number of dog owners present during the limited hours.”

The City Council in April decided to allow dogs to run free at the park from dawn to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to dusk. At other times, only leashed dogs are permitted in the park.

The council’s decision had capped a long and often nasty dispute between dog owners who let their animals run loose and other park users who complained that animals were taking over the place.

On a sunny day, as many as 100 dogs can be found in the small park off Mulholland Drive at the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains. It is the children who are confined--in a small playground tucked in a corner.

Woo’s proposal calls for a “permanent, fenced-off section of Laurel Canyon Park, separate from picnic and other play areas, for exclusive use as an off-leash dog run, to be available for use during all hours.”

Diana Brueggemann, an aide to Woo, said the councilman proposes to fence off the majority of the park, which has about four acres of flatland in addition to surrounding hillsides. The exact dimensions, location and size of the fenced-off area have not been worked out.

Parking and traffic congestion near the park is especially bad during winter evenings when there is only about an hour of daylight after work for dog owners to run their pets.

“This is a good compromise,” she said.

The council sent Woo’s proposal to its Parks Committee for a recommendation. It is expected to be approved. The park is in Woo’s district, and council members customarily defer to a councilman on a matter in his district.

Jane Purse, a leader of a group of dog owners, said Woo’s proposal is “probably better than what we have at the moment, which is difficult to enforce.”

Jerry Greenfield, president of Laurel Hills Homeowners Assn., said Woo’s proposal fails to address the problem: “You have 20 parking spots and hundreds of people who want to use the park.” A better solution, he said, is to allow dogs to run free in other parks.