Dogs and their close, personal, two-legged friends are on the
prowl, looking for a place to call their own.
Dogs and their close, personal, two-legged friends are on the prowl, looking for a place to call their own.
Though a specially designated dog park may be in the cards for Morgan Hill, it will likely not happen for several years and the pack needs a place to hang their leashes right now. However, instead of waiting for the city to give them a park, the dog park people may have found just the right place themselves and they are willing to raise the funds to make it happen.
Yevan Chernoff and Melanie Colvert took their plea to the Parks and Recreation Commission and, in September, spoke to the City Council about their predicament.
The doggie group meets at Nordstrom Park, they said, after dark and after the children have gone home.
The problem is that dogs cavorting in public parks in Morgan Hill is illegal and several dogs – and their owners – have received citations from the police department for breaking this rule.
“My three-year-old beagle has play dates,” Colvert said. “He likes to run with his friends – off leash.”
While the group said they would prefer Nordstrom park or a similar close-in spot for convenience, they wouldn’t say no to the Malaguerra area near Coyote Creek Park where a county dog park has been on the books for years.
The new Bear Ranch County Park in San Martin is slated to have a dog park but that is also far in the future and less convenient for Morgan Hill dogs.
A dog park at the proposed Indoor Recreation Center on Edmundson Avenue next to Community Park or the sports park, soon to replace the soccer complex on east side’s Condit Road would be acceptable also, the group said.
The dog park fans, in the meantime, are getting organized and looking around for ways to help the process along.
“Our group is willing to pay,” said Gloria Zufall, who visits Nordstrom Park with her three-year-old poodle Maxie.
The dog owners who use public facilities said they realize they have a special responsibility to tidy up after their pets.
“We clean up after ourselves,” said Zufall.
“This is a big group,” she said. “Thousands more will come out if we have a park.”
At the June 17 PRC meeting the commission suggested that it look at undeveloped land around town and asked that it look at undeveloped land around town and asked the pro-dog park residents and staff to prepare a list of criteria.
A well-designed dog park must provide a safe and congenial area for exercise – fencing and grass – and be free of harmful plants. Its boundaries must be clearly marked to prevent tension. Clean-up bag stations and trash cans must be conveniently located. Zukoff said Nordstrom Park does have a bag station, which dog owners use, but it is located away from the area where the dogs typically run. The PRC asked pro-dog park residents and staff to prepare a list of criteria.
City staff will report to the council on its dog park progress at a meeting later this month.
Mori Struve, Deputy Director of Public Works/Operations Dept. of Public Works said he has been working on the issue with Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation.
“There are two sites ideal for a (South Valley) dog park,” Struve said, “the San Pedro ponds (west of Hill Road, south of East Dunne Avenue) and Malaguerra Park.” He said such a park ranked low on the county’s horizon. San Pedro ponds are now out of consideration since it has been designated as a trails project not allowing dogs.
Struve said he wrote the county parks and recreation commission asking if they would consider allowing the city to develop a dog park at Malaguerra. He said the city invited the city to take part in planning Coyote Creek Trail park, starting in three or four months.
“We’ll take them up on that,” he said.
A more hopeful idea came from the dog park people themselves, Struve said. The idea was to work with PG&E.
Based on a model in San Ramon, he said, the city will ask PG&E if they would allow a temporary dog park on the company’s largely empty land bounded by West Main and Peak avenues and Noble Court.
“It could work if the dog park people could raise money for fencing or maybe even for grass,” Struve said, “though grass can be expensive because of the need for irrigation.”
He said he has also asked the Public Works engineering section to prepare a list of storm drain retention facilities owned by the city.
“We’ll give this to the dog park people to see if they find any of them suitable,” he said. The benefit to storm drain retention areas is that they are already fenced. Most, however, are in neighborhoods.
Struve said the PGE facility on Noble Court might be better because there aren’t a lot of neighbors to be bothered.
