Monterey “dogs in parks” survey out
The city of Monterey asked and residents have answered. The results of a “dogs in parks” survey are now out. The city’s Parks and Recreation Commission wanted to get a grasp or in this case a paw of what people’s opinions were of where dogs should and should not be.
Right now dogs are allowed at El Estero Park except the picnic, playground and skate park, the beach by the Municipal Wharf, Veterans Memorial Park and the recreation trail.
In an effort to make Monterey more dog-friendly, the city released a survey the preliminary results are out. More than 1,200 people participated. They found 68-percent of people had dogs and 82-percent supported changing the city’s ordinance to allow leashed dogs in parks. In fact — many said they would visit parks more often if leashed dogs were allowed.
“With the responses we got from the survey are very favorable, so we know that people in the neighborhoods really want areas for their dogs to be allowed, so, we don’t think we’ll get much push back from the neighborhoods, as long as we don’t allow them in playground areas where the children are,” said Monterey’s Recreation and Community Services Manager, Cindy Vierra.
The city does have a dog park at El Estero but dog owners told KION it’s too small and dark. Some voiced concerns about homeless people leaving their dogs there unsupervised. The city is still going through the survey and received over 1,000 comments and suggestions. The next step will happen during the January 18th parks and rec commission meeting. They will decide what to recommend to the Monterey city council regarding changing the ordinance.
KION’s Mariana Hicks has the full story at 6 p.m.
