HUNTINGTON BEACH : Plan for ‘Dog Beach’ Restrictions Dropped

After protests from 26 pet owners, the City Council this week dropped a proposed ordinance to restrict the hours that canines may be walked on the city’s so-called “Dog Beach.”

Pet owners have for many years been permitted to walk their leashed dogs at all hours of the day on the stretch of city beach between Golden West Street and Bolsa Chica State Beach. Pet owners say it is one of the few public beaches in Southern California that permit dogs at any hour.

In recent months, however, city lifeguards have complained that “Dog Beach” is getting beyond control. Lifeguards said that some pet owners allow their dogs to run without leashes and that some owners fail to clean up after their dogs.

Lifeguards also said that trying to keep order among the dogs distracts them from their primary duty of watching swimmers in the ocean. The lifeguards said the dog problem worsens considerably in summer.

In response to the complaints, the council on Monday night considered a new ordinance that would have prohibited dogs on the beach from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from June through September.

City Community Services Director Ron Hagan said the proposed ordinance was a compromise. He said that during the eight other months of the year there would be no time restrictions on walking dogs on the beach.

Pet owners told the council, however, that they opposed the proposed daytime ban during the summer months.

“We have a lot of fun walking our dogs there,” Darcy Musler said. “Please don’t take this away from us.”

Twenty-five other dog owners similarly pleaded with the council not to restrict hours on the beach.

“People playing with their dogs and walking with them there have such a good time, I would hope that we could work it out so that dog owners could police that area on their own,” Councilwoman Linda Moulton-Patterson said.

Other council members agreed, and by a 7-0 vote, the council adopted a resolution calling on dog owners to form their own detail to keep the beach clean. The resolution also directed city staff to put up signs alerting visitors that dogs must be leashed on the stretch of beach north of Golden West Street.