LA council stays course with McKenzie dog park, despite protests | News
The Los Altos Metropolis Council Tuesday permitted two fenced-in doggy parks for north and south Los Altos, which include a controversial spot at McKenzie Park.
Council associates at their Feb. 8 meeting agreed to a two-move course of action for a web-site near Hillview Soccer Field at the city’s civic middle, even though opting for a short term setup at McKenzie, adjacent to the tennis courts on the park’s west aspect. The McKenzie choice drew opposition from several of the park’s nearby inhabitants, prompting Councilmember Neysa Fligor to press for pursuing only the civic heart pet park and keeping off on McKenzie.
The proposals, to begin with eco-friendly-lighted at the Jan. 11 council assembly, followed comments from people immediately after a demo off-leash hours program at Hillview Baseball Discipline past 12 months. A single of the chief issues was a absence of fencing, spurring the council to go with fenced-in solutions.
“With Hillview Baseball Area, we listened to the inhabitants and found a different place,” Fligor said. “And so for our south Los Altos people, who are voicing their considerations about the McKenzie Park west location, I consider we really should pay attention to them as effectively.”
Mayor Anita Enander disagreed with keeping off.
“If we consider carrying out a little something at McKenzie and it doesn’t work, we can transform it. I am keen to go forward,” claimed Enander, who, with council users Lynette Lee Eng and Jonathan Weinberg, voted for the McKenzie program. Vice Mayor Sally Meadows and Fligor dissented.
Divided viewpoints
The McKenzie proposal sparked passionate reactions from neighbors typically concerned about losing eco-friendly place, but also about parking, sound and protection problems.
“McKenzie Park West is a lovely inexperienced space with mature trees that is appreciated every day by quite a few residents. It is a place where by 1 can go to rest and renew,” Derek and Anne Pitcher wrote, figuring out by themselves as 30-year puppy homeowners. “Putting a fence close to this house and incorporating a ground cover suitable for canine will, no doubt, develop an eyesore and ruin its serenity and peacefulness that is so hard to occur by.”
Other people questioned the vagueness of the accompanying dog park ordinance, contending that it failed to quantify, for illustration, boundaries on the numbers of canine house owners could bring to the park. Council associates, who authorised a 1st examining of the ordinance at final week’s conference, stated they would go away it to town team to lay out the unique rules.
Some citizens expressed assist for the McKenzie website.
“This lovely tree-shaded place is a excellent site for a much-required group resource,” wrote Victoria Levy. “It has ample parking and would be in an below-utilized component of the park. It is in near proximity to relaxation rooms. It is also the ideal area mainly because there are no houses adjacent to that portion of the park, so no influence on privateness.”
“I am very deeply worried,” Enander mentioned, “that if we do not put a thing in south Los Altos, we are heading to extremely load Hillview in a way that we then end up producing poor conclusions on what to do with the a lot more long lasting determination at Hillview, because of the big sum of use. If it does not work, we really do not go forward with carrying out a long lasting form of remedy.”
The initial program with McKenzie would require fencing and some tree defense in the fenced-in place, but no elimination of the present-day eco-friendly area. Manny Hernandez, the city’s municipal services director, mentioned the town could consider a different form of floor include must the McKenzie pet park prove thriving and warrant a permanent place.
The Hillview prepare includes fencing in a space future to the soccer subject before transitioning to a more long-lasting place north of the subject, where a parking whole lot is now located. The Hillview system passed unanimously.
Also on the web page is a short-term composition made use of by the nonprofit Good friends of the Library of Los Altos. City Manager Gabriel Engeland reported the town is operating with the team to discover place in the primary library, which would allow the city to clear away the short-term construction. Engeland expected any improve would probable not take place right until the slide.
In approving the canine parks, the council also allotted $100,000 – $50,000 for every single park – to appear from park in-lieu expenses. Ongoing routine maintenance of the web-sites is believed at $16,000 yearly.
