Drinking, smoking and camping illegal in SM parks
By JOHN F. MULLER Special to the Daily Press
CITY HALL — Golfing in area parks is a foregone conclusion: Put down the clubs.
Golfing may be added to the growing list of activities that are against the law in city parks.
City staff proposed to the City Council Tuesday night a new law that would make it illegal to golf in all 24 Santa Monica parks.
It isn’t just that golfers are doing damage to the city’s grass when they practice their pitching and putting strokes — the sport isn’t exactly conducive to the more accepted park activities, said City Hall’s open space manager Elaine Polachek. Errant golf balls and circling metal clubs don’t exactly link up with soccer players, dog walkers, picnickers and transients who frequent Santa Monica parks.
“We found that people swinging clubs and hitting balls in parks where you have a large population of people sitting, resting, walking, enjoying open spaces is somewhat problematic,” Polachek said, adding that she is a golfer herself. “That’s what driving ranges are for.”
While city officials are unaware of any past golf-related injuries, they pointed to citizen complaints as the reason for the proposed ordinance.
Polachek said most complaints about errant golf balls came from residents near Cloverfield, Virginia and Stewart parks, though people have been seen swinging at all of the city’s parks. Balls have been flying into the mobile homes near Stewart Park, she said.
“I know it sounds kind of goofy, but there’s a real safety concern here,” Polachek said. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
The new proposal isn’t exactly coming out of nowhere, said Barbara Stinchfield, director of community and cultural development at City Hall. Park users have been asked by rangers not to use golf clubs in public spaces for years. While warnings were often effective, there were some golfers who just kept on coming.
“There’s a practice of asking people to voluntarily comply with the prohibition,” she said. “But there’s nothing legally stopping them from golfing. Lately, we’ve been doing a lot of review on our practices and moving to make them into actual ordinances.”
The cities of Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Glendale and Pasadena all have laws prohibiting golfing in their parks, Polacheck said.
By having a law, the penalty for golfing in a city park would be a ticket and a fine, Polachek said. It’s unknown how much the ticket would cost.
Alcoholic beverages, overnight camping, “moonbounces” and animals other than dogs on leashes are not permitted in the city’s parks. It is illegal to smoke in parks, as well as sell or distribute food. Cooking is only allowed at city-provided grills, and skateboarding is only allowed so long as it is done in a safe manner and does not damage city property.
The ordinance also would expand the definition of “park facility” to include park amenities that are often damaged by skateboards like railings and walls. The new definition would allow park officials and police to more easily prosecute abusers of city property.
As to the growing number of transients in the city’s parks, Stinchfield said those who frequent the city’s public spaces would have the same standards applied to them as other park users, golfers and nongolfers alike.
“We apply all of our park use rules consistently, regardless of whether someone has a house or doesn’t have a house, or whether they’re from Santa Monica or elsewhere,” she said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 28, 2004. Read the original PDF.