Coral Gables is getting a new dog park. Not everyone is happy about it
Coral Gables residents packed the City Hall chambers late Tuesday for one of the few topics that can draw crowds to commission meetings.
Dog parks.
Over a dozen residents showed up to protest already-approved plans to open an off-leash dog park in a city-owned grassy area at the corner of Segovia Street and University Drive, adjacent to the Coral Gables library.
“We’re going to show up to every meeting, and we’re going to express that really what we don’t want is a dog park near our home,” resident Sara Cortes told the Miami Herald.
Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara in November gave the green light to create the dog-friendly park after seeing overwhelming support from residents who packed the commission chambers, an unusual sight at City Hall, and collected over 225 petition signatures in support. Commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez left before the vote due to scheduling conflicts and previously indicated to the Herald that they would have also supported the project.
But on Tuesday, the chambers were packed with residents who said they were blindsided during the process and were never asked for input, including some who live across from the future park site. The residents, wearing matching green “Keep University Green” shirts, raised various concerns, including noise, health and cleanliness issues, worsening traffic and parking congestion, and a lack of green space for everyone to enjoy. Some even questioned the legitimacy of the petition signatures submitted to the city, noting that some supporters for the neighborhood dog park didn’t live within a 500-foot radius or even live in the city. Others didn’t sign their full names or provide their addresses.
“I never got any notice. No one asked anything about our opinion, about having a dog park right in front of my house, and I just think that’s contrary to all the mail notices and outreach that we received as citizens with regards to other important issues in the city,” one woman told the commission.
The city already allows leashed dogs at 27 of its over 60 parks. Dogs can be off-leash in the sandy dog park section of Salvadore Park at 1120 Andalusia Ave. and at a fenced dog park that is part of the 1505 Ponce development. An off-leash park for small dogs is also adjacent to the Villa Valencia condo complex. The Underline, which is still a work in progress, will also have a dog park.
The Gables dog park decision
Anderson, who sponsored the resolution to create the dog park, held firm on her original vote, alongside Lago and Lara, and said there “was broad support” for the park. The three also shut down Commissioner Melissa Castro’s proposal to rescind the dog park approval until more discussions were held with residents, a move that drew mixed reactions from residents.
Lago, who has worked through the years to open more parks across the city, told residents during the meeting he didn’t want the discussion to “pin residents against residents.” He called for a meeting that would include Anderson, Castro and residents who support and do not support the dog park as a solution to negotiate and create a consensus on what the park should look like.
“We did not circumvent the process,” Lago said. He also reassured residents that the city would not tolerate noise issues at the park. City Manager Peter Iglesias, responding to a question from Lago, said the city had not received any complaints related to its dog parks.
The decision frustrated residents like Cortes, who said she is “not against dog parks” but doesn’t want to have one at the proposed site. It also frustrated Castro, who holds a monthly dog walk along Miracle Mile and was contacted by upset residents shortly after the project was approved.
“It’s unfair because in reality what should be in discussion is not the design of the park, it’s what type of park we want,” Castro told the Herald.
“I’m not saying let’s get rid of the park. I’m saying let’s start the process over from the city,” she added. Castro plans to introduce legislation in a future meeting to create a more streamlined petition process to get resident input for future parks.
Mary Powell, who spearheaded petition efforts to get the park and describes the addition of a neighborhood dog park as a “quality of life improvement,” had mixed emotions Tuesday. Powell told the Herald she was glad the commission did not walk back its vote but also understood that not every resident wants the park. She doesn’t want neighbors divided. She just wants a walkable park near her home to play with her dogs.
“I only want the best for them, and these are my children and they are members of my family,” said Powell, who went to the meeting with a group of residents who do want the dog-friendly space.
When asked about resident concerns over the petition, Powell said she only mentioned the number of Gables residents who supported the dog park while advocating in front of the commission back in November. At the time, she said she had 225 signatures from Gables residents in support of the University Drive dog park. On Tuesday, Powell said that number had risen to over 270.
A map Powell provided to commissioners Tuesday, which used petition information, showed over a hundred residents throughout the city supporting the dog park. But another map presented by Castro, which was made by residents who do not want the park and was also based on petition information, showed many supporters far from the immediate area around the park. The residents who did live near the park were against it.
What commissioners, residents say about a new off-leash dog park
Anderson, who touted the success of the Gables’ other dog park at Salvadore Park, reiterated that the city had received strong support for the University Drive dog park, including some additional signatures the day of the meeting. Anderson, Lago and Lara also lamented that, unlike the dog park supporters, residents who opposed the plan did not send emails or go in person to share their thoughts with city leaders until after the vote.
“If you want to provide input, you need to come to provide input,” Anderson said, reminding residents that she, the mayor and the other commissioners hold weekly office hours and can also be contacted by phone and email.
Powell, who collected signatures for the dog park proposal, told the Herald she didn’t go door-knocking in the neighborhood because she’s not running for office. Powell said she collected signatures from people she saw walking in the area, including from families enjoying the nearby youth center.
Some residents, like Cortes, said she didn’t even know a dog park was a possibility in her neighborhood. The pediatric ER physician said she only found out about the approved dog park from neighbor Jose Cohen, who began knocking on doors to rally residents after he learned about the approved project from another neighbor.
“They say they hear us, but no, they want to hear us on the design. ... We don’t want this moving forward,” said Cohen.
Commissioner Fernandez, who supported Castro’s resolution to pause the dog park plans for now, recalled that residents had previously opposed a plan for a dog park in the neighborhood several years ago. The commissioner said he too was unaware about the dog park vote until the day of the November meeting, describing it as an effort that was done “in the cover of night,” a notion that frustrated Lara and others.
City Commission agendas are posted a week before the meeting. People can sign up to get email notifications. There was a petition and a period for public comments. And in the case of commissioners, they also have the ability to attend an agenda prep meeting with the city manager, Lara said. Castro argued that “people who are not following politics are not reading the agenda every day” and that there needs to be another process to notify residents who would be the most impacted.
Iglesias, when questioned on the park-planning process by Lara, explained that the city would normally speak with residents before turning a plot of land into a park. In situations like this one, where the land is already a park, the city would seek resident input during the design process, a phase the project currently is in.
On Tuesday, city staff presented a concept design for the dog park, which will have benches, one section for large dogs and another for small dogs, and a 25-foot native tree and landscape buffer that is expected to be thick enough to block the view of the park from nearby homes.
“Do not underestimate the power and reach you have as residents to reach the consensus,” said Lara.
