A dog’s life has been getting better since Vacancy Decontrol
CITYWIDE As cute as Fido may be, it’s sometimes hard for a pup to get some lovin’ in Santa Monica.
From exclusive off-leash dog parks that stir controversy to scrapped plans for a doggie beach to the difficulties renters have in landing a four-legged friendly flat, some dog owners don’t believe the city is very friendly to the slobbering canine sect.
It took “John” several months to secure a home that would permit his Jack Russell poodle mix to stay, searching for units through sites like Westside Rentals, a fee-based service that includes a search option for apartments that allow pets.
A search for apartments that didn’t allow pets would yield about 300 listings, while a filtered query for units down with dogs would result in about 20 options, the Santa Monica resident said, declining to state his last name.
John and a friend spent their Thursday afternoon exercising the Jack Russell poodle mix at the new off-leash dog park at Airport Park on Thursday, the black pooch running up and down the wood chip-covered course.
Sure, the people in the city are friendly to dogs, he said, including some of the owners of the mom-and-pop stores that allow dogs to enter their businesses. But with policies restricting dog parks to Santa Monica residents and no dog beaches in the city, he was-n’t so sure about the local government.
In fact, the vast majority of apartment owners in Santa Monica do not allow pets, said Bill Dawson, vice president of Sullivan-Dituri, which manages 160 properties in the city.
“When you’ve got a close community set up such as apartments, it’s very difficult to have pets there because of the noise issues and also issues with regard to some pet owners not considerate of their neighbors,” said Dawson, who described himself as a pet lover. “You get a building that has six or seven dogs and the disturbance from dogs Only a few Sullivan-Dituri properties allow dogs and the tenants that do own pets pay a larger deposit because of the potential damage that comes with having a dog inside the unit, including urinating on the carpet or scratching the walls.
A number of apartment complexes in Santa Monica do welcome pets, though they allow the furry canine or feline for an additional deposit or increased monthly rent.
“We allow pets because of the demand,” said Jason Menestes, spokesman for Archstone Apartments. “There are a lot of people with pets in Santa Monica.”
The Plaza at the Arboretum on Colorado Avenue permits its tenants to have pets for a deposit of $750 for dogs and an additional $40 tacked onto the monthly rent.
Tenants who moved into their units after Vacancy Decontrol in 1999, which somewhat loosened the city’s Rent Control Ordinance, can negotiate to pay an additional amount in their rent in exchange for having a pet in their rental unit, said Tracy Condon, spokeswoman for the Rent Control Office. The extra rent would then become part of that unit’s maximum allowable rent.
The city actually became pet friendly after Vacancy Decontrol, said Carl Lambert, the president of the Action Apartment Owners Association, a landlords organization that opposes Rent Control.
“It was never a matter of hostility, but before the vacancy decontrol bill, Santa Monica was pet-unfriendly because property owners had no incentive to allow pets,” Lambert said. “Now, they can get additional security deposits for pets and are able to adjust their rent accordingly.”
The availability of pet friendly apartments could depend on the neighborhood. While it’s hard to find such apartments in Ocean Park, there are plenty of units in the Montana Avenue area that invite dogs, said Marcy Ito, who moved to the Santa Monica Collection in Downtown Santa Monica about a year ago. Many of the units around the Third Street Promenade allow pets too, Ito said.
“We live in one of their complexes called ‘Sorrento’ and everyone has dogs,” Ito said. “There are lots of dogs in the neighborhood, too!”
The apartment complex also offers pet friendly amenities, including a large artificial turf lawn with “pooping stations,” Ito said.
For Nicole Morris, it was almost impossible to find an apartment that would allow pets without paying exorbitant deposits.
“The situation is getting better,” Morris said while walking her Yorkshire Terrier. “But it could be improved.”
A DOGGY DESTINATION?
Santa Monica is not the friendliest place for tourists, nor is it the most unfriendly, said Len Kin, spokesman for DogFriendly.com, a travel guide for pet owners.
In the site’s top-10 list of dog friendly cities for tourists, Los Angeles, which would include Santa Monica and nearby beach communities, was nowhere to be found. San Francisco and San Diego were the only California cities that made the list, which was led by Chicago.
One of the reasons why Santa Monica is an unattractive place to bring a dog on vacation is a combination of congestion and lack of railway transportation, which makes it difficult for owners of large dogs to traverse the city, Kin said.
Los Angeles County only boasts about two dog friendly beaches, including Malibu and Long Beach. Long Beach is the only city in the county that offers an off-leash dog beach.
San Francisco, on the other hand, has eight dog-friendly beaches.
But a bonus for dog owners traveling to Santa Monica is the number of luxury hotels that welcome the four-legged friends into guest rooms, including Sheraton Delfina and the Le Merigot, Kin said. There are also a lot of outdoor restaurants that allow customers to bring in pets.
“Santa Monica is kind of in the middle,” Kin said. “It’s got its pluses and minuses.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.