“Take me out to the dog park. . . .”
In February 2004, a meeting was held in Mort’s Oak Room to discuss a potential dog park located at the base of Via de las Olas, next to Pacific Coast Highway.
According to a story in the Palisadian-Post, A dog park “would increase the likelihood of a fire that would threaten homes in the Palisades bluffs and in the Huntington.”
Crime will increase because “the dog park will attract visitors from all over Los Angeles and Ventura counties-not just Palisades residents. The dog park will invite wayward and unseemly people to roam the bluff streets from PCH to the Village and throughout the Huntington.”
“Children playing at the Palisades Recreation Center will be at risk from dog park users, who can easily walk directly up the canyon from PCH.” In addition, “unleashed dogs, so dangerously close to a densely populated residential neighborhood, will create serious risk to our children playing in their yards as well as around the bluff.”
Environmental dangers will include the prospect that “dog urine and fecal matter will run off into the ocean, into an area that already has dubious water cleanliness,” and “the nightly on-shore winds will disperse remnants of dog feces throughout the bluff streets and the Huntington-posing a threat to human health.”
The dog park was dropped. But then people then started using the Rec Center illegally as a dog park, which became an issue with feces on the field, urination in the playground sand and aggressive dogs, whose owners assured everyone the canines were friendly.
At a January 2016 Park Advisory Board (PAB) meeting, it was noted there was no place at the Rec Center that had the required acreage for a fenced dog park, but “PAB has determined that off-leash dogs at the Recreation Center have been a continuing issue for patrons and staff, detracting from a safe and enjoyable experience at the Park. The PAB notes that a dog park cannot legally be located at the Palisades Recreation Center, and requests that Recreation & Parks (RAP) look into the creation of an off-leash dog park in Pacific Palisades.
Leslie Campbell, Lynn Hylen Miller and Carol Ross were able to get Measure A funds for the park and performed due diligence to find a spot in Temescal Canyon Park on City property that satisfied the acreage requirements and residential setback requirements for a dog park. In 2017, a Community Meeting was held and RAP presented a design for a Dog Park with a separate area for big dogs and a second for small dogs, which was overwhelming approved by the 125 residents in attendance.
A completed park was an election promise by former Councilmember Mike Bonin, but ultimately one he didn’t keep.
When Councilmember Traci Park was elected, she made a dog park her priority for Palisadians. With Park’s support, a Palisades Dog Park was presented to and approved by the RAP Board of Commissioners and funded. Then, the January 2025 Palisades Fire put everything on hold.
Last week, on November 6, a virtual community meeting was held, and the project is a go. “People have advocated for this park for decades,” Park said, noting that $1.5 million had been secured from Measure A to fund it.
Zhiya Wong, a RAP landscape architect, presented the project for the city. There will now be two parks, one for small dogs (7,000 sq.ft) and a second for large dogs (11,000 sq.ft.) Both will be enclosed by a 6-foot chain link fence, including dog agility courses, a waste station and a hydration station.
Most likely there will be one additional community meeting, with construction documents completed in late 2025, and bids to go out in 2026. Groundbreaking will take place in late spring or the beginning of the summer, and completion slated for the winter of 2026.
The dog park hours will mirror the adjacent playground hours of dawn to dusk. The entrance to the dog park will be ADA accessible. The park space will require removing three trees, but 15 trees are slated to be planted outside the fence of the dog park.
“We want to get this right for you and the community,” Park said. If anyone has further questions or comments, they can contact Park’s field deputy Arus Grigoryan (arus.grigoryan@lacity.org).
The food trucks will have to move up to the next copse of trees on Temescal to free up the parking needed. But progress at last. I would have gone the other side of Sunset, though.