Lake Forest Pet Tales. Part 7 - "And the winner is..."

BACKGROUND

In this series we’ve been looking at off-leash opportunities for Lake Forest residents. Previously we’ve talked about –

·  Lake Forest residents are among the friendliest animal people in the country. Click here for that article

·  Yet we don’t have a dog park or other animal friendly services like our neighbors do.  Click here for that article

·  So the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) has been studying the issue.  Click here for that article

·  After a look at all 29 parks in the city, 3 sites were chosen by the PRC for further study.  Click here for that article

·  To aid the PRC, we put together a list of criteria for evaluating the 3 sites, and put in 2 more.  Click here for that article

Today we’ll apply the criteria to the parks

BASED ON CRITERIA

Here’s our criterion and how the 5 parks shape up.

1.  In a park of sufficient size that the addition of the dog zone doesn’t redefine the nature of the park.

a.  BORREGO - Yes

b.  PITTSFORD - Yes

c.   REGENCY - Yes

d.  VINTAGE - Yes

e.  DARRIN – Yes, depending on where it goes

2.  In areas of that park that are not now being used for any other purposes.

a.  BORREGO - Yes

b.  PITTSFORD - Yes

c.   REGENCY - Yes

d.  VINTAGE - Yes

e.  DARRIN – Yes, depending on where it goes

3.  Adequate parking (preferably dedicated, off street)

a.  BORREGO – Yes, dedicated

b.  PITTSFORD – Yes, street

c.   REGENCY – Yes, street

d.  VINTAGE - No

e.  DARRIN – Yes, dedicated

4.  Close to high concentrations of known dog owners.

a.  BORREGO - Yes

b.  PITTSFORD - Yes

c.   REGENCY - Yes

d.  VINTAGE - Yes

e.  DARRIN – Not really

a.  BORREGO – Yes, this one is the furthest

b.  PITTSFORD - Yes

c.   REGENCY - Yes

d.  VINTAGE - No

e.  DARRIN – Yes, depending on where it goes

6.  With existing natural shade areas (e.g., trees)

a.  BORREGO - Yes

b.  PITTSFORD – Possibly, depending on where it goes

c.   REGENCY - No

d.  VINTAGE - Possibly

e.  DARRIN – Possibly, depending on where it goes

7.  Conveniently located

a.  BORREGO – Not really

b.  PITTSFORD – Yes, the most central

c.   REGENCY – Better than Borrego

d.  VINTAGE – Isolated at South Eastern end of town

e.  DARRIN – OK

8.  Ideally large enough for both a small dog and a large dog area

a.  BORREGO - Yes

b.  PITTSFORD - Yes

c.   REGENCY - Yes

d.  VINTAGE – No, small dog only

e.  DARRIN – Possibly, depending on where it goes

BTW – I understand these are my personal observations, and different people may see some of these things differently. How do you see them? If you live close to one of these parks, please use this opportunity to make a comment on your observations. I’m sure the PRC will value your opinion.

SUMMARY

If you assign a score of +1 to conformance to the standard, -1 to lack of conformance, and 0 to partial conformance, this is how the parks shape up –

1.  BORREGO  7

2.  PITTSFORD  6

3.  DARRIN 6

4.  REGENCY 2 (+4 – 2 = 2)

5.  VINTAGE -3 (+1 – 4 = -3)

Borrego, Darrin, and Pittsford achieve approximately the same high scores. They meet or exceed the standard on most of the criteria. Regency is far behind, with some definite positives but also with some negatives. Vintage doesn’t appear to work at all, except for a very limited small dog park.

If you weight the scores, assigning a weighted score of 1 to the mandatory standards (size, area, and parking), the results are more or less the same, with Pittsford having a slight advantage over Darrin.

_____

 The PRC will be meeting at 7 pm on August 15. This is your chance to show up and express your opinion