Morgan Hill dogs could be howling at the moon if a hoped-for dog
park remains unfunded and off the city
’s five-year project list, a group of dog owners fear.
Morgan Hill dogs could be howling at the moon if a hoped-for dog park remains unfunded and off the city’s five-year project list, a group of dog owners fear.
But city officials say it is all a misunderstanding and the park is on track, though without money to build it.
A canine-only park was the idea of DOG – Dog Owners Group – that has been meeting and planning for three years. They, with city help, had identified an unused but suitable acre on the southern edge of a PG&E yard on West Main Avenue – for an interim park; it is the permanent park at another site that is on the unfunded project list.
The estimated cost for fencing, concrete work, grading, benches, electricity, signs and grass for the PG&E site is $170,000 and DOG is planning fundraising events – the Great American Dog Wash and Pet Fair on May 15 – to cover the expense.
Mori Struve, deputy public works director, said Monday that the group may be confused between the interim park on PG&E property that was always supposed to be a volunteer-funded effort, and a permanent dog park that is more the city’s responsibility.
“The permanent park is in the CIP (Capital Improvement) plan,” Struve said, “but it’s in the second five-year segment that begins in 2007.”
The CIP will be discussed at tonight’s Parks and Recreation Commission meeting.
He said the community park’s master plan shows a permanent dog park and a BMX park located near the indoor recreation center on Edmundson Avenue, next to Community Park. Groundbreaking for the recreation center is scheduled for May.
“It’s not what the group was hoping for,” Struve said, “but the master plan shows the school bus yard as a possible ultimate site of the two parks.”
The school district will be moving its bus yard, now on Edes Court across from the city’s corporation yard, but the actual date is unclear. The city is also considering moving the corporation yard out, Struve said, freeing up several acres north of the recreation center and clearing way for dog and BMX uses.
The permanent BMX park is currently planned for a location next to the recreation center and tennis courts. Struve said the PRC decided it would be better located away from tennis and closer to dogs. A temporary BMX park is in use on Butterfield Boulevard between the CalTrain parking lot and the county courthouse, now under construction.
Recreation Manager Julie Spier said she may be the source of the DOG’s confusion over the interim versus the permanent dog park.
“I told them that the permanent park would be on the unfunded project list,” Spier said. “Since the council has already endorsed the park, it will remain on the project list – it just isn’t funded.”
She said one so-far unsolvable problem is on-going maintenance of the interim park, even if DOG succeeds in raising the initial $170,000 needed to open the park.
“That money does need to come from somewhere,” Spier said.
Struve said the interim park has the full backing of council members and is moving ahead.
“It hasn’t lost any inertia or steam,” Struve said.
Struve said the city is waiting to hear from PG&E about the details for using the utility’s land on an interim basis.
DOG hopes to open the interim park by June 2006.
DOG member Marlys Warner described the interim park as a place for dogs to run off leash with large and small dogs in separate areas. Covered with grass or decomposed granite, the park will have water, shade, waste removal bags, garbage cans, bulletin boards for rules and general information and benches for owners. The inerim park will be wheelchair accessible.
In the county, Milpitas, Campbell, Palo Alto, San Jose, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara all have dog parks.
“With approximately 4,000 households in Morgan Hill with dogs and a total of over 6, 294 dogs within those homes, our citizens would welcome a place for their dogs to run free legally,” Warner said.
Parks and Recreation Commission meets 7pm Tuesday, April 19, at City Hall, 17555 Peak Ave. www.morganhill.ca.gov or 779-7271.
