Dog Owners Want Space in Parks to Let Spot Run : Pets: City Council considers creating an exercise area along power line right of way in north Redondo Beach.

See Spot run. See Spot run in a Redondo Beach park. Run, Spot, run.

See the animal control officer run.

See Spot’s owner tagged with a fine for violating a city law prohibiting dogs in public parks.

Redondo Beach public parks have been off-limits to pooches since 1965. But the city’s roughly 4,000 licensed dogs may soon secure a slice of city turf where they can exercise legally.

City officials are considering whether to create a dog run along the Southern California Edison Co. right of way in north Redondo Beach. That plan and other dog run alternatives are expected to be presented to the City Council in mid-January.

If one wins approval, it would likely remove a longstanding source of tension between dog owners and the city. Redondo Beach is one of four cities in the South Bay and Westside that ban dogs from public parks. The others are Hawthorne, Gardena and Culver City.

Last year, Redondo Beach cited more than 360 dog owners for illegally walking their pets and for other related infractions, according to the city’s Animal Control Department. Fines and court costs vary, but city officials say offenders can expect to pay at least $75.

Frustrated by the fines and complaining they have no place to exercise their energetic pets, dozens of dog owners turned out for a public hearing earlier this month to press the council to give their four-footed friends access to public land.

“My dog is a very important part of my life. I’m an old lady and my husband is older,” Betty Sharp told council members. “The dog needs to be walked for health. It’s a real problem keeping a dog healthy in a city where you really have no place to go.”

Martin Byhower also urged the council to open city parks and school grounds to dogs.

“I think it’s inhumane to own a dog in as small a yard as I have,” Byhower said. “Dogs have needs. They aren’t human, but they do have physical needs and emotional needs. And running a dog is really important.”

But after nearly three hours of testimony, the council rejected motions that would have permitted the animals in many city parks on a trial basis. Instead, the council decided to look into the feasibility of a dog run along the Edison right of way.

“There’s no control over these dogs,” Councilman Steven Colin said. “Parks are for people, not for dogs.”

Dog owners, expecting a warmer reception, reacted angrily to the decision.

“Some were shouting obscenities,” said the city’s Community Facilities Manager Ed Hayduk, who is heading up the dog run study.

The effort to change Redondo’s dog regulations grew out of the project to develop a master plan for Dominguez Park at 190th and Beryl streets. Dog owners successfully lobbied city planners to set aside space for a dog run in the 23-acre park. And the city Parks and Recreation Commission recommended that the council back the immediate installation of an interim dog run in Dominguez Park.

But the council voted down the commission’s proposal and removed the dog run from the Dominguez Park master plan.

“I don’t want the entire South Bay to converge on Dominguez Park and have that become the dog dumping ground,” Colin said, defending his vote. Colin represents District 3, which includes Dominguez Park.

The councilman’s concern over dog droppings are, in fact, the reason why the city enacted the ordinance in the first place, explained city officials. When residents could legally take their dogs to the city’s parks before 1965, pet owners often failed to clean up the mess.

But dog owners insist that would not be the case today.

“The vast majority of people who want the dog park are willing to take pooper scoopers with them,” said Maureen Roter, who lives across from Anderson Park in north Redondo Beach. “And they are willing to use them.”

Councilwoman Kay Horrell, however, is not convinced all dog owners will be so conscientious. She said that even with the current restrictive laws, some still are not acting responsibly.

“I’m telling you there are people who let their dogs go right on the sidewalk and don’t even bother cleaning it up and they leave these big humps of you know what on the sidewalk,” Horrell said. “It’s damnably repulsive.”