HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/20/2017 Item 8, Mc Kenzie
Purrington, Teresa
From:John McKenzie <johnnimac@earthlink.net>
Sent:Wednesday, June
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:6/20/17 Hearing - Item #8 - PetSafe Dog Park grant application
June 14, 2017
RE: Item #8 – PetSafe Dog Park Grant
Dear City Council,
Based on a nationwide survey, about 1/3 of all households will have dogs, and each of those households will have
between 1 and 2 dogs (1.6 per household). Based on the assumptions stated below, our City has more than 10,000
dogs, and more coming with ongoing new development (such as the San Luis Ranch development your Council will be
considering in the next few weeks). Nationally over the last 15 years, there has been a steady increase (25%) of dogs in
households. And the City has no fenced dog park!
Six other communities in the county do have fenced dog parks (Cambria, Paso Robles, Atascadero, Templeton, Nipomo,
Cayucos). All of these cities and communities are smaller than the City of SLO. It is time for the City to step up and
proactively establish at least one dog park!
Approving the grant application is certainly a step in this direction, and I fully support the Council moving forward with this
request. However, this application will be competing with over 1,000 communities nationwide for five such grants. Odds
are not in the City’s favor to be awarded one of these grants. Furthermore, $25,000 will not likely be enough to pay for all
of the needed improvements. It is my hope the Council will do more than just approve this grant application.
While the budget for the coming fiscal year has already been established and may not be an option, there may be ‘low
fruit on the funding tree’ such as determining a fair share fee and requiring from new development. An example would be
the San Luis Ranch. This project will likely result in a 3% increase in the city’s Dog population. If the costs for a fenced
dog park were $100,000 (hypothetical number), San Luis Ranch could contribute $3,000. However, the Council would
need to direct its staff to prepare a Dog Park Plan with improvement costs to determine what the actual costs would be.
Could a portion of the $50,000 already earmarked for Parks and Recreation improvements at Laguna Lake go towards
preparing a somewhat general, but reasonably accurate cost estimate of installing a one acre dog park and parking?
Once costs are known, the Council could then consider approving a ‘fair share’ fee. While this process could be integrated
into the Quimby fee program, it would be great if something could be completed on a faster timeline to capture the
looming large developments that will be before the Council (and Commission) in the near term.
Laguna Lake Park is the best place to establish the first off-leash fenced park. The general use has already been
established, and this Park has the acreage to establish the use (and still retain much of the existing uses). Staff has
already laid out nicely in their staff report the benefits of establishing such a park at this location and the survey results
supporting this location.
As a potentially related note, there is also a great interest in the dog community to establish areas with trails where dogs
can be allowed off leash and not be assessed a $500 fine on the owners of dogs that are fully controlled without a leash.
While there are a lot more details that need discussion on this issue, I only mention it if the Council intends to provide staff
direction to more proactively pursue improvements for dogs to include this off-leash trail discussion, so the dogs too can
claim this is one of the happiest places to live!
I would like to thank the Council in advance for considering these points and I hope the City becomes proactive on this
issue.
Sincerely,
John McKenzie
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813 Bougainvillea St., SLO
805-441-5894 (johnnimac@earthlink.net)
10,000 dogs – Assumptions/Facts
City of SLO pop – 47,339 (2015 census)
Per national 2012 estimate, over 1/3 of households (35.6%) own 1-2 dogs (1.6 average/household).
Based on the 2010 census for SLO there are 2.2 people per household; and if this is applied to the 2015 City pop.,
there are about 21,518 households.
Based on these stats there are over 7,000 households with dogs, and when the 1.6 dog average is applied there
would be over 10,000 dogs within the City of San Luis Obispo.
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