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re_ Happy Dogs _ Responsible Owner Meetups at North Palo Park 2_RedactedFrom:Rhodes, Alison To:Rivera-Vandermyde, Nuria; Meschuk, Chris Subject:re: Happy Dogs / Responsible Owner Meetups at North Palo Park Date:Thursday, August 31, 2023 8:10:00 PM Attachments:image001.png FYI only From: Rhodes, Alison <RhodesA@bouldercolorado.gov> Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2023 7:02 PM To: Yates, Bob <YatesB@bouldercolorado.gov>; Cc: Rhodes, Alison <RhodesA@bouldercolorado.gov> Subject: RE: Happy Dogs / Responsible Owner Meetups at North Palo Park Hi and Palo Park Neighbors, Thank you for reaching out to us to share this interest. I’ll start with acknowledging two things: 1. I agree with you that socializing with dogs is good for our canine friends AND for us humans – in a time where loneliness and mental health are such challenges, community gathering is more important than ever. 2. I am a dog guardian and know how tempting it is to play in the park as if you were in a dog park and off leash. I share so that you know that I am all for supporting great dog and people activities. As I believe one of my teammates shared with one of you, under current city laws, we are limited in any immediate options. For many reasons, dogs are only permitted to be off leash in dog parks and under Voice and Sight control on designated Open Space lands. We cannot legally allow an exception. To change the code requires: -Staff time to conduct analysis on where and how this might appropriate as we will not create exceptions for one park or group of people and must consider the whole system. -Staff time to conduct community engagement. We serve all of Boulder’s 100K+ residents and must make sure we create the opportunity for folks to engage on policy changes. -Council time to consider and legislate any changes to Boulder revised code. Our workplan is quite full through 2024. I don’t see time for us to complete this work unless we were directed to remove something else from our workplan, which has been prioritized by the 2022 Parks and Recreation Master Plan – built upon significant community engagement and unanimously approved by City Council. The plan does note a desire for more dog parks and we anticipate evaluating dog park level of service, maintenance and operations in 2025. And so, for the time being, I ask that you comply with this ordinance and keep your pets leashed when in urban parks. Current options might be to convene at one of our dog parks or perhaps meet in one of your yards. I recognize it isn’t the same and appreciate your compliance. Thank you, Ali Rhodes Director she/her O: 303-413-7249 rhodesa@bouldercolorado.gov Parks and Recreation 3198 N. Broadway | Boulder, CO 80304 bouldercolorado.gov-- From: Yates, Bob <YatesB@bouldercolorado.gov> Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2023 7:17 AM To: Cc: Rhodes, Alison <RhodesA@bouldercolorado.gov> Subject: Re: Happy Dogs / Responsible Owner Meetups at North Palo Park : Thank you for your email. I’m copying the city’s Parks Director, Ali Rhodes, who can share with you and your neighbors information about dogs off-leash in the city’s more than 60 park properties. Best, Bob On Aug 29, 2023, at 1:30 PM, Michelle Trudgeon <mtrudgeon@comcast.net> wrote: External Sender Hi Bob, I’ve written to you in the past about this concern and some events have occurred that are forcing us to bring it to the forefront again. A few months ago, on May 22nd a group of us that meet with our dogs at North Palo Park setup a meeting with the City Park Rangers. During this private session, we realized the park rangers have a very broad scope of responsibility, which includes enforcing the homeless encampments that are so prevalent around our beautiful city parks and public areas. Anyway, we respectfully explained how we’re responsible dog owners, we meet twice daily at North Palo Park, we talked about how we’ve made improvements to the park, we get kudos from nearby neighbors for it being a great socialization opportunity for not only the people of our neighborhood but the dogs too. In fact, I mentioned to my Vet at the Boulder Humane Society what we do each day and she said it was the very best thing we could be doing for our dogs!! At the end of the meeting with the City Rangers, we had a better understanding of what the park rangers are focused on and they had a better understanding of our requests and needs as well. We felt we left that meeting with somewhat of an understanding by the City and felt we were working together towards an arrangement that worked for all sides. We’ve not heard back from the city until Sunday, Aug 27th when 2 City Park Rangers came in full force threatening to ticket the owners with off- leash dogs at North Palo Park. They told us first offense, $100, 2nd $500 and 3rd they could take our dogs away!! We as a group are wondering what we can do? The so-called off leash dog parks in the area aren’t a solution. Most people that take their dogs there are NOT responsible owners and the dogs tend to be vicious, in our experience. What we’ve created here at North Palo Park is a very cohesive, inclusive group of responsible dog owners with well socialized, friendly and happy dogs. What if we were to ask that North Palo Park be designated Voice and Sight Approved for off leash dogs for a few hours each day? Say something like 8-10 am and 4-6 pm? Then, with properly posted signage, those that don’t want to encounter off leash dogs would know they can choose to go any other time during the day other than those 2 windows of time; still gives folks plenty of flexibility. We’re not asking for fences, we’re not asking for water or poop bags - we take care of all of this for our group already. I think all we would need and want is a couple of signs posted to let others know - during these hours, this park is off- leash for dogs approved in the Voice & Sight Tag Program. What this group has realized is this is a fabulous park. There are trees. There is an enclosed and newly paved tennis court. There are a few neighbors that live on the perimeter and are all in favor of our group, we’ve spoken to them. One even told me they wanted to get a dog just to join our group. Others DO join our group. The park is not used but rarely. Which is why we decided to start meeting there! We walk over, we meet/ socialize and walk home. For those of us that work, we can stop in for 15-20 mins and others may stick around for 45 mins. But, if we had just a couple of windows per day where this was permitted, that’s all we’re asking for. What do we need to do as a group to move forward with this proposal? Do we need to create a petition and secure a certain number of signatures? Attend a Council Meeting? Please let us know because we want to abide, but, we also want the City to help us out here. We realize it’s an election year and you’re running for Mayor and have a lot bigger issues to be concerned about. But, this is one small pocket in North Boulder where we’re hoping to get some guidance on what can be done. You’re welcome to join us one day, see for yourself, meet some the neighbors and heck, win over a few extra votes! Thank you for your time and any suggestions you’re able to give us. Much Appreciated, Dog parents of Lewis, Coco, Winnie, Blu, Yeti, Sunny, Stuart, Scout, Ramona, Bodhi, Macie, Beau, Cookie and Merlin