In a unanimous vote, the Coronado City Council has decided to erect a fence around the dog run at the Coronado Cays Park.
Currently, the dog run area of the expansive park is unfenced, and residents say it poses a safety hazard to others who wish to use the park, including children who frequent the park’s playground.
Twice, Matt Zagrodsky’s sons have been attacked by unleashed dogs at Cays Park, once drawing blood.
“I don’t request this with any animosity toward dogs,” Zagrodsky, a director on the Coronado Cays Homeowners Association Board of Directors, said. “There are a few unruly dogs whose owners do not adequately control them.”
Without a barrier, dog owners must notice, and then enforce, signs delineating the off-leash area of the park. And, in a point made so often during discussions that it became an unofficial adage, dogs can’t read.
The forthcoming fence will not modify the current size of the dog park. It will have two access points and will be around 42 inches high, to match the stone wall that backs it. It will be made of decorative, see-through material.
The council opted against bordering the fence with vegetation for safety and visibility reasons. Although it was discussed, the council also decided not to divide the park into areas for large and small dogs, although council members suggested that the option could be considered in the future.
An exact cost is not yet known. City Manager Tina Friend has a purchasing authority of up to $100,000, but she suggested the fence may cost more than that, at which point the project will have to return to the council for a vote. Regardless, the council agreed that the project should move forward as quickly as possible.
This matter is separate from the much-discussed Cays Park masterplan, a conceptual plan for the park’s future that was approved by the sitting council in 2024. Mayor John Duncan, at the time a council member, voted against the plan.
The preferred park design approved as a part of the masterplan modifies the footprint of the dog run by shortening it and widening it, a prospect that some dog owners balked at. Currently, the park is 800 feet long, and the masterplan outlines a 750-foot dog run (735 feet when excluding the shrub buffer). In widening it, the total area of the dog run will increase from 1.5 acres to 2.08 acres (1.88 when excluding the shrub buffer).
Though the Cays Park masterplan was approved, it is not a final design. Rather, masterplans (or strategic plans, as they are also known), outline the vision for a future development.
In other words, the plan includes amenities for the park as it is redeveloped over future years, and a preferred park layout for that redevelopment, but the council can adjust the plan as the project moves into design and subsequent phases.
Friend noted, however, that the redevelopment of Cays Park is a long-term project and changes to the park are still many steps—and likely, many years—away.
“There are still years ahead of us,” Friend said. “I would recommend that you consider this (fence) to be an investment, if you choose to do it. It’s not something we would put up and it comes down a year later.”
As usual, the majority is being punished for the sins of the few. A barrier delineating the boundary between the dog run and the soccer fields and playground is all that is necessary. If people were truly concerned about safety in off leash dog areas, why is dog beach unregulated or monitored in any way? Small dogs have attacked and killed at dog beach recently. The dogs in the Cays are predominantly well behaved and get along with other dogs. Dogs are more protective in a penned in environment where they feel there is no escape route. The humans are the problem.
What good is a fence without enforcement? I have seen patrol cars ride right by as dogs are running all over the soccer fields. I once spoke with an officer and he said he didn’t notice.
The folks that follow the rules will keep their dogs in the fenced area, as they always did when there was no fence.
The folks that don’t follow the rules will ignore the fence….unless there is enforcement. We need to do a better job of analyzing the potential outcomes of our legislation. Passing laws without enforcement are nothing more than campaign talking points.
Until the fence is put up ( who knows how long that will take ) PUT up the green plastic fencing which has been used in the past when soccer games have been played.
Please stop writing tickets and getting funding that way. Just put up
the temporary fence now. Thank You .