STUDIO CITY : Board Agrees to Halt Work at Dog Park

The Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners on Wednesday decided to temporarily halt a construction project at Laurel Canyon Park after neighbors complained that the additions were spoiling one of Los Angeles’ only two dog parks.

“You have ruined it,” said Cathleen Doyle, executive director of ParkWatch, a grass-roots community group that helped create the dog park. “We are asking you to put it back to the condition that it was in.”

Under pressure from community activists, the board agreed to stop the construction of cement steps, a drainage trench and other elements until the parks department can meet with residents to try to solve the problem.

For several years, the parks department consulted with community leaders about how certain developer fees known as Quimby funds would be used to upgrade the park. But residents now say the city did not tell them the project would include a curb along the park’s driveway that has drastically reduced parking, and cement and steel fixtures that they consider eyesores.

Delays in the project have meant that three-foot-deep trenches continue to scar the park, further enraging park users.

In a meeting punctuated by raised voices and flaring tempers, the commissioners at first seemed unwilling to intervene in the project, but apparently changed their minds after listening to the activists’ testimony.

Doyle claimed that in five years of discussions with residents about the project, the department never told residents about key features of the plan.

“We wake up and there are cement swales, fences, steps and curbs--not one of which were discussed,” Doyle said. She added that residents had stressed to the department that they believe cement fixtures are out of character with the park’s rugged scenery.

Parks commission President Steven Soboroff acknowledged that some missteps may have been made by the department.

“If we made a mistake, then we made a mistake,” he said. “But let’s work to correct it.”

Some of the issues that the department must contend with are fire codes regulating the width of the driveway and potential liability from the contractor that the city could incur as a result of halting the project.

Residents claim the driveway curb has limited access for emergency vehicles, not increased it, as the city had intended.

A community meeting to discuss what should be done at the park will be sponsored by the parks department at 10 a.m. Feb. 25 in the parking lot of the park.