City rejects pilot dog park on the beach

Despite Long Beach dog owners’ call for a pilot dog park on the beach, the city rejected the request last week, citing safety and cleanliness concerns. (Courtesy Dogs of Long Beach/Facebook)

Months after many Long Beach residents called for a pilot dog park on the beach, the city rejected the request last week — citing health and safety concerns — despite reviewing a survey that showed support for the measure.

The plea for more dog-accessible areas in town gained traction last September when the Project 11561 Facebook page launched a petition supporting beach access for dogs, which collected more than 2,000 signatures. Jessie Farrell, one of the page’s founding members, said many dog owners reached out to the online forum expressing the desire for such access for their pets in the off-season, which catalyzed the effort to bring up the matter to city officials.

The city conducted a survey on the issue as part of the Long Beach Listens initiative, as nearly 750 residents offered feedback, demonstrating “sufficient support” for the pilot, according to the city.

But the Nassau County Department of Health, which issues the permit for the city’s beaches to operate, found that bacteria from animal feces increases the risk of illness to beachgoers. Long Beach’s sandy shores were recently named the second cleanest in the nation by the National Resources Defense Council, and the city said a pilot of this nature would lower the quality of the beach.

Beaches allowing dogs would have to be kept separate from bathing beaches, and choosing the specific beaches for each “would be a no-win situation, pitting residents against each other,” the city wrote on its website. Meanwhile, neighboring community Atlantic Beach allows dogs on a leash to roam the beaches from October to March, though they are restricted from the village's boardwalk.

The city is opening a new dog run this summer on Magnolia Boulevard, where the old skate park was, in an effort to cater to the many Long Beach dog owners. But Farrell said the new fenced area does not cease her desire to attain beach access with her Labrador in the fall and winter months, as the proposed 80- by 130-foot plot of land does not alleviate the larger matter at hand.

“I think there should be both,” Farrell told the Herald following the announcement of the dog run in February. “I don’t think just opening a dog park solves the real issue of being a dog-friendly community.”