Everyone was all smiles in April when an 8.3-acre park opened at the base of the Santa Monica Airport, one of the first new parks to open in recent memory.
Those smiles disappeared when a group of Mar Vista residents, led by fellow neighbor, LA City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, criticized City Hall for a policy that left the door to the dog park closed to all non-Santa Monica residents, staging a protest with their four-legged friends outside of the Dog Park a few weeks after the opening. Rosendahl’s criticism of the city seemed to have ruffled some feathers among some Santa Monica city officials.
The off-leash dog park is among the few place in the city where residents can let their pups run freely, their mouths hanging open as they do their business over the wood chipped ground. City officials said the reason why the park was exclusive to residents was because there were so few off-leash parks in the city.
But a change of heart came in September when the City Council voted to open the park to non-residents at an annual fee of $15.50 to pay for the maintenance of the park.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.