Dogs will dominate two different discussions at Encinitas City Hall this week as officials debate whether to give the city's four-footed friends extra time and more places to roam off-leash.
On Tuesday, the city's Parks and Recreation Commission will consider whether to allow off-leash dogs at Hawk View Park on Heron Avenue and Glen Park on Orinda Drive.
That meeting, which begins at 4 p.m. at City Hall, is expected to become intense because homeowners near the two parks are divided over the issue, residents and city officials said Friday.
"It's going to be, I think, interesting at best," Mayor Maggie Houlihan said.
Joe Bonanno, a Hawk View Park area resident who is in favor of the off-leash proposal, said he and other off-leash supporters have a list of recent rumors that they plan to refute during the public comment period at Tuesday's meeting.
Among other things, Bonanno said, there is no city record of anyone being bitten by a dog at Hawk View Park, contrary to what some have said.
If the commission decides to support off-leash hours at the two parks, it will probably recommend that the hours be identical to what exists at the three city parks where off-leash dogs currently are allowed, Commissioner Doug Long said Friday.
Those three parks --- Orpheus Park in Leucadia, Sun Vista Park in Olivenhain and Viewpoint Park on D Street near City Hall ---- now allow dogs to run leash-free from 6 to 7:30 a.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
However, those off-leash hours may change.
On Wednesday, the City Council will consider whether to expand them and allow off-leash dogs from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 3 to 8 p.m. on those days as well as on Sundays.
Debate over whether to give dogs more freedom in city parks jumped into the public spotlight last summer when sheriff's deputies ticketed 18 people with off-leash dogs at Viewpoint, Orpheus and Hawk View parks. The tickets were issued about a half hour after the nighttime off-leash hours ended at Viewpoint and Orpheus parks.
People who got the $445 tickets, as well as other off-leash dog supporters, have lobbied fiercely since to get the city to increase its off-leash periods. The city's mayor said Friday that she believes the new expanded-hours proposal meets those requests.
"I would say that reflects the greatest majority of people who were petitioning," Houlihan said, commenting that only a few petitioners wanted off-leash hours to last all day, every day.
But Susie Cohen, one of the leaders in the local off-leash movement, said Friday that she is completely disappointed in the proposal that the City Council is considering.
She and others are planning to attend Tuesday's Parks and Recreation meeting, but expect to boycott Wednesday's council meeting as a protest move, she said.
They had hoped at the very least to have some off-leash hours every day of the week, but the new proposal still bans off-leash use of the parks on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, she said.
While she and other off-leash advocates say they think the city isn't going far enough, Councilman Dan Dalager said Friday that he wonders whether the city will be granting off-leash supporters too much freedom in city parks.
He has been an advocate of keeping kids and dogs separate at city parks, saying that he doesn't think kids should be rolling in grass where dog waste is repeatedly deposited.
Viewpoint Park is directly across the street from the recently opened main library building and is seeing an ever-increasing use by kids because of its location, he said. If the council votes to expand the hours at that park, he would like it to be a temporary situation that ends when the city opens the future Hall property dog park, he said.
In October, the council agreed to begin demolition work on the 44-acre Hall property with the goal of eventually building a park there.
Call staff writer Barbara Henry at 760-901-4072.
Off-leash dog meetings
---- 4 p.m. Tuesday, Parks & Recreation Commission, City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave.
---- 6 p.m. Wednesday, City Council, City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave.
