An Open Letter to Rancho Palos Verdes City Council regarding building a dog park

Dear Council members , City Manager and Parks Staff:

I saw that the City Council has just voted to seek an alternative location for a skateboard park instead of Lower Hess Park.

I would like to remind you that this was the same promise that you gave us dog park supporters a number of months ago and nothing has progressed on that per my discussion recently with Katie Howe of the Parks Dept. I still think that the County’s former Palos Verdes Landfill site would be a great location for both a dog park and skateboard park, but if that does not prove to be a possibility, I would hope that your recent vote on the skateboard park does not mean that you are going to place a higher priority for a skateboard park than a dog park within RPV city boundaries.

As you recall, the last we heard from Mr. Knabe’s office about this location was that the County was finishing a new dog park elsewhere in the County that was to be completed about now and that they wanted to wait a year to evaluate the operation of that dog park before reviewing the possibility of constructing another . That would mean that they may consider the Landfill site in mid 2012 about a year from now. You may want to communicate with Mr. Knabe about the possibility of both a skateboard park and a dog park at the Landfill site. I think that b both uses would be very complementary in that families could bring both their dogs and kids who skateboard to the same location and share parking and possible restroom facilities I would also like to remind you that the City Councils of both PVE and RHE also sent a strongly worded letter to Mr. Knabe in support of a dog park at the Landfill location.

I firmly believe that there are many more dog owners that would benefit from and use a dog park than skateboard riders. That being said, I am also strongly in favor of a skateboard park on the Peninsula as well as a dog park. We raised 3 boys here and I know that they would have loved to have had a skateboard park in the area.

Please do not just pay lip service to these issues and I would hope that you would give instructions to your staff to play a more active role in actually evaluating potential sites for both of these uses

Thank you for your consideration

Maureen and Bruce Megowan