At Tuesday’s city council meeting, the San Luis Obispo Parks and Recreation Department was given the green light to pursue construction bids for the Laguna Lake Dog Park Revitalization Project — something that has been in the works since 2021.
“This park area, especially the dog park with our huge community of dog lovers, end up being one of our top priorities,” said Greg Avakian, Parks and Recreation Director.
A main part of identifying the need for improvements to the park was from community input which included over 650 responses from a survey in the spring of 2022 outlining what people wanted to see at Laguna Lake Dog Park.
“We got tons of community feedback and one of those was there was no real area that was fenced for small dogs and large dogs that was safe,” Avakian said.
Laguna Lake is the only city-owned off-leash dog park in the area. The other closest park is the El Chorro Regional Dog Park, which is owned by San Luis Obispo County.
Kenny Morgan has been bringing his 13-year-old dog Gracie to the park for the last 11 years and loves the space for what it is.
“Just to have a green area that I just love to just look out. I feel safe that my dog's just going to be within eyesight,” Morgan said.
But both Morgan and former San Luis Obispo resident Brendan Welch both agree that the park could use some upgrades.
“Give the dogs a place to roam around and be free and be able to do the things they can't do in the city,” Welch said of the need for overall upgrades while Morgan suggested four-foot fencing to surround the entirety of the park leading up to the playground.
The plan is to fence in the three-acre area with small dog and large dog areas as well as updated ADA walking areas, more hydration stations for the dogs, tree stump removal, shaded areas and other amenities to help make the city’s dog park a place where people can be excited to bring their dogs.
“We want to make this a signature facility for both our community and for our visitors,” Avakian said.
The next step for the project is to advertise a construction project for bids up to $1.13 million.
