Laguna Mutts May Get Own Doggone Park : Backers Says Man’s Best Friend Should Have His Own Turf to Pal Around in; City Seeks Site

Every dog may have his day--or at least a park--here, thanks to a City Council decision to consider creating the first official “dog park” in Orange County.

As envisioned, the park would be a large fenced area where Rover could romp freely and where all manner of mutt could, as one dog lover put it, “socialize.”

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ask the city staff to try to find the best location for such a park for man’s best friend, estimated to number about 500 in Laguna Beach.

At the same time, the council rejected another proposal that would have allowed unleashed dogs to run on a city beach during specified times each day.

“If you open a beach, it will get in the papers and people will come from everywhere to run (their dogs) on the beach,” said Beverly Mosier, one of several seaside residents who urged the council to maintain its current policy of banning untethered dogs from city beaches.

Dog rights are a hot topic in Laguna Beach. According to longtime resident Gene Atherton, the largest public hearing ever held in Laguna Beach was over a law that would have completely banned dogs from city beaches. That hearing, held in the early 1970s, generated so much interest that the City Council session had to be relocated to the high school auditorium so a swelling crowd could be accommodated.

On Tuesday, dozens of residents appeared at council chambers to plead for the dogs to be freed or to insist that they be restrained.

Dog enthusiast Nina Arman asked the council to choose a beach where dogs could run unrestrained twice a day, one hour in the morning and another in the evening. Other residents, however, said the dogs create a threat, especially to youngsters.

“Please, consider the children,” said Irene Renault who lives near Moulton Meadows Park, one of the sites ultimately rejected by the council Tuesday as a possible dog park site. “My children get knocked over by dogs all the time.”

But Arman, who said she has collected almost 500 signatures from residents who believe that dogs should have limited beach access, said: “We don’t see it as a threat.” The dogs, she said, “just need to go out and get their frustrations out.”

While current city law requires that dogs be leashed on beaches and other public property, residents say it is common for them to run freely at beaches and parks.

In addition, Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. said there are three places in town where dogs run unrestrained as part of an “established practice” of not issuing citations. Dogs are also allowed off leash in the ocean, he said.

Those areas are the fire road between Arch Beach Heights and Top of the World, open space north of Alta Laguna Park and another undeveloped area at the end of Barracuda Way.

Although leash laws are often ignored, residents who live along city beaches say it would be a mistake to open a beach to unrestrained pets. And Deputy Police Chief James Spreine said the city could be opening itself up to lawsuits if dogs are allowed to run free.

Police say 30 dog bites were reported last year and that 25 of those involved unleashed animals.

Dog lovers, however, insisted that they must have a place to exercise their animals.

“We need to have an area where we can take them out and socialize,” said Linda L. Leahy, president of Rescuing Unwanted Furry Friends (RUFF), a group of Laguna Beach Animal Shelter volunteers who proposed the park idea. “They need to socialize with other dogs so they’re not as aggressive when they are on leash.”

Leahy said an ideal location would be a strip of open space in Laguna Canyon next to the GTE corporate yard, just south of the city’s animal shelter. While some council members agreed that the canyon site was a possibility, others questioned the wisdom of creating a dog park in Laguna Canyon.

“Nobody’s going to sit in that bumper-to-bumper traffic to get their dogs to a fence,” Mosier said. “That doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Laguna Beach Mayor Robert F. Gentry suggested that the three areas where dogs already commonly run off leash might be appropriate areas for the park.