DogGone It! Part 1 - Still Looking for a Dog Park

This is Part 4 in my recent series on Commissions, Committees, and Foundations.

God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days, so how can it be that after 8 months the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) are still unable to come up with a suitable location for a dog park in our city? Forget about building the park. Forget about even planning for the park. After 8 months we don’t even have a possible location.

How can an otherwise competent and caring group of people do such an ineffective job? And, more importantly, what can we learn from this?

Personally I have no dog in this fight. There was a time when I could have made great use of a local dog park, but that time has long passed. One of my dogs died and the other two are so old they don’t enjoy dog parks anymore. Now it seems, if things don’t change, these two dogs will be long gone before Lake Forest has its own dog park.

Before we examine what went wrong and how it can go better in the future, let’s review.

LAKE FOREST PEOPLE ARE PET FRIENDLY

The people in Lake Forest are among the most pet friendly people in the world.

·  Nearly half of our homes have dogs and nearly 70% of our households have one or more pet.

·  In 2011, Lake Forest residents paid for more than 9,500 dog licenses, which means there is a licensed dog for every 8 people who live in Lake Forest, and you can imagine how many unlicensed dogs there are.

·  You can see how pervasive pets are in our community when you realize that more households have pets than have small children (70% vs. 40%).

·  PetSmart has 2 Superstores in our city while most of our neighboring cities don’t have a single store.

·  The other pet giant, PetCo has a store in our city too. And again, they didn’t build one in most of our neighbor cities.

·  Indeed, there isn’t any other city in Southern California with both a PetSmart and PetCo.

·  Lake Forest, which is smaller than either Mission Viejo or Irvine, nonetheless is home to more Veterinarians.

YET SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH PETS ARE RELATIVELY POOR

·  Many of our neighbor cities have a local animal shelter while we are forced to use the over-burdened high kill County shelter.

·  We have no trap-neuter-release programs for feral cats and our voucher program is under-utilized.

·  Nearly half the cities in Orange County have their own dog park. With the exception of Laguna Hills, virtually every city around us has a dog park or has approved a dog park – Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Woods, Rancho Santa Marguerita, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa, and Dana Point.

·  8 cities with fewer people than Lake Forest nonetheless have a dog park.

WHILE LAKE FOREST HAS PLENTY OF PARKS

Nationwide, dog parks are the fastest-growing segment of city parks. From 2005 to 2010 they grew by 34%. Yet none of the 27 existing parks in the City can be used by dog owners to let their dogs off leash.

Take a look at the City Park Guide. The city provides nearly 200 acres of parklands with 44 barbecues, 26 playgrounds, and more than 150 picnic areas. For sport fans we have 14 basketball courts, 6 soccer fields, 8 baseball fields, and 9 tennis courts. There are 9 fitness areas and a Skate Park.

Now, add to this the new $40 Million Sports Park that will add 86 acres with baseball, basketball, and rugby, soccer and lacrosse fields, plus picnic areas, and a tot lot.

But not a single area for dog owners to let their dogs roam off leash.

Tomorrow I want to go through the process that the PRC has been through in the past 8 months and see why they came up blank.