By Lamont Ewell City Manager, Santa Monica
Instead of celebrating last week’s opening of a brand new 8.3-acre park open to all at the Santa Monica Airport, we are enmeshed in a controversy about the park’s small off-leash dog area of less than an acre. This is not about Santa Monica’s off-leash policy, which has been in place for over a decade; instead, the pent-up demand for more off-leash areas on the Westside is, regrettably, pitting neighbor against neighbor.
Los Angeles Councilmember (Bill) Rosendahl’s recent public position that Santa Monica is resisting its LA neighbors’ requests for access to a new off-leash dog area at Airport Park is disappointing and requires a response. We had been in discussions with the councilmember and his staff for over a year on how we might accommodate Mar Vista residents through a pilot program — one that would have been incremental in order to give our staff time to determine what the demand will be from our own residents, who advocated fiercely for this off-leash area during the design of the new park.
This new off-leash dog area represents less than 10 percent of the new park’s acreage and can serve only 45 dogs at any given time. As with all of our parks, our residents, neighbors and visitors are welcome to enjoy Airport Park’s expanses of grass, the picnic and barbecue areas, the walking loop and children’s play area. As with all of our parks, dogs on leashes are welcome as well!
Santa Monica is a city of eight square miles. We have worked hard with our residents over the last decade to build three small dog parks. Currently, the City of Los Angeles has just nine dog parks for the entire city. While we are continuing to work with Mar Vista neighbors to come up with a recommendation to our City Council regarding their desire for access to our new dog park, we also encourage Mar Vista residents to work with their councilman to develop additional opportunities within their own city.
Santa Monica’s new Airport Park is an indication of the degree to which Santa Monica gets embroiled in regional issues that it has limited ability to impact. Whether the issue is environmental quality, traffic, affordable housing, homeless services or parks and recreation, the city of Santa Monica is a small city with an established track record of responsiveness that outstrips its size! Our City Council provides leadership on regional boards that struggle with complicated regional issues, the city provides locations and funding for regional human service facilities, and we welcome visitors from virtually every state and country to our wonderful parks and beaches.
Santa Monica cannot alone solve the region’s air pollution, its traffic jams or its homeless problem — and as much as we love dogs, asking Santa Monica to solve the immense demand for open space for Los Angeles dogs is asking too much.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 5, 2007. Read the original PDF.