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Cerritos Parks and Recreation Commission Collars Dog Park

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By Brian Hews

On a 3-1-1 vote the Cerritos Parks and Recreation Commission voted not to recommend to City Council the construction of a dog park in Cerritos.

Voting not to recommend the park was Jack Reidy, James Fong Yee, and Kenneth Cha; voting yes was Cindy Yen Chen, with Brad Beach inexplicably ‘abstaining.’

The consensus not to recommend seemed to come from the fact that there are so many dog parks close to Cerritos’ borders and that, coupled with very little land available in the city that was not in close proximity to homes, sealed the fate of a dog park.

Two dog park studies have been conducted twice in the past 14 years, once in 1997 and again in 2007.

Since 2007, seven dog parks have been constructed in cities near Cerritos.

The cities that have constructed dog parks since 2007 include Downey, Fullerton, Buena Park, Southgate, Brea, Lakewood, and Bellflower.

Prior to 2007 the cities of Long Beach and Huntington Beach constructed dog parks in 1996 and 1999 respectively.

The city has likely seen many Cerritos dog owners travel to nearby dog parks and afterwards shop or eat in those cities, taking valuable tax dollars away from the Cerritos’ coffers.

Driving from Cerritos City Hall, the Bellis Dog Park in Buena Park is only 3 miles away, Lakewood’s Home Run Dog Park only 6 miles, the Flora Vista Park in Bellflower opening in February only 6.5 miles, and the David R. Gafin Dog Park in Downey and the Pooch Park in Fullerton are only 7 miles away.

All parks are city owned and operated and range from less than an acre in Buena Park to three acres in Long Beach. All have ample shopping and eateries in close proximity to the park.

Construction of parks ranged from $30,000 to $300,000.

Surface material such as decomposed granite and wrought iron fencing commanded the largest costs as well as plumbing and electrical work for lighting.

Out of the nine parks the city looked into, only two are lighted, Fullerton and Long Beach. All parks have small and large dog separations.

Cerritos’ previous estimates put the cost of a “modest” dog park in at $250,000, with estimated annual maintenance costs of $19,000.

The commission methodically looked at sites in the city and eliminated them using certain criteria.

No MTA land could be used because of the specific use designated for right-of-ways as outlined in their agreement with the city. Accordingly, the city would be prohibited from developing any MTA space for a dog park.

Additionally, the city of Cerritos leases land owned by Southern California Edison to provide various park facilities in the city limits. Under restrictions outlined in those agreements, the city cannot construct a permanent structure on Edison property.

But undeterred, Cerritos Recreation Services Superintendent Sherre Titus did send a request to SCE to use a portion of the leased land for dog park.

The request was denied by SCE.

In their letter to Ms. Titus SCE said, “after thorough consideration and review, SCE must deny this request for the proposed dog park. [The park] would compromise SCE’s capacity to safely perform operations and severely impact our ability to maintain the reliability of the electrical system.”

After taking that land out of consideration, the Commission then eliminated “neighborhood parks” so all that remained was Heritage Park and Cerritos Park East.

No consensus of the Commission was reached, so they voted not to recommend the dog park to the city council.

  • Yorkie says:

    RE: CERRITOS DOG PARK.

    Cerritos city council meeting on 1/8/2015, staff or City Mgr, or Mayor Mark Pulido and 4 councilpersons could of informed the public of this Special Meeting held by Parks and Recreation. Both Dir. Sheree Titus and Dir. Greg Berg were on the diaz and never once advertised the special meeting.

    Why wasn’t the meeting on Tuesday January 13th 2015, advertised to the public to attend for said dog park? Pulido promised transparency, it’s not in hard task, to identify all the dog owners in Cerritos, ( Via Public Lic Records ) or advertised in the newspaper of an upcoming event as popular as a Cerritos dog park. Why was this meeting hidden in the Sheriff’s Conference Rm and not the council chambers?

    Pulido as you always have time for Whitney HS comments or recognizing this/that and everything for your election pool. During the 1/8 meeting, more then 30 min were used for proclamations, as this Dog Park meeting could have been digested in to this council meeting.

    Where is the democracy in the city, as this meeting was not even televised or recorded on Cerritos television 3? Ashamed at the shenanigans being played, regarding this proposed dog park.

    Mark Pulido, this type of non disclosure almost landed you in prison, over the hiding-diverting of funds, when you were employed as a State Of Calif Staffer, working for state elected employee. Mayor Mark Pulido (D). Your past criminal history is repeating itself.

    This is just another element of the non-diversity of this city compared to:

    1. RV Ordinances.
    2. Over Night Parking Ordinance.
    3. Violation of privacy, as city On Line registration w/ the city, users have to issue personal PC identification numbers.
    4. Lack of Amer. Disabilities Act Parking.
    5. Restriction Property Preservation Annoyances with regards to nanny violations, when city has no ordinances for (UGLY) window security grills & invasion of surveillance cams on to adjoining properties.
    6. Annoying and non safe street trees.

    For more then 6 mth, councilperson G. Ray has requested public hearing on the Lifetime Medical Ins Benefits and has been denied.

    This council smells more like elite (GOP) Grand old Grandpas; and not for the civil rites for all 45,000+ Cerritos homeowners.

    $19K for dog park maintenance, is nothing compared to the $500K used to run Over Night Parking Ordinance, nor the $5M red ink for the CCPA, which is only attended by less the 9% of the Cerritos Residents, nor the $600K used for Directors of Sheriffs Depart.

    Cerritos is not diversified, it is for main stream brunettes; for the obedient immigrants and GOP.

    http://cerritos.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=15&clip_id=3394&meta_id=81594

  • Doodle Breeder says:

    Cerritos Dog Areas:

    -5– overlooked possible dog runs.

    #1)—South grass easement, along the south side of Sports Center complex, between the inner surface road and the concrete runoff ditch. 25Wx500D

    #2)—Cerritos corporate yard off of Marquardt. Front curbside areas.

    #3)—Vacant corporate holdings on 166 Street, to rear street to north.

    #4)— Bloomfield Cerritos museum pad-front yard areas.

    #5)—Vacant hotel pad on Studebaker, along the 605/RR Bridge.

    All of these are owned and maintained by the city of Cerritos, or abandoned RDA, & poss temporary dog runs could easily be installed in any one of these locations. None of them are adjacent to homes for noise violations or smell from manures.

    Mooo, CCC has chased out dairy cows, please dont chase out dogs too.