Our six years of petitioning, waiting and hoping are over at last! It all started in 1998 when I sat on the Community Council and had just acquired my new Beagle puppy, Amy. I formally requested the Council to support me in establishing a new off-leash fenced-in dog park for Rancho Bernardo. They thought that this was a good idea and established a Standing Committee and named me as the chair.

Councilmember Barbara Warden originally showed a great deal of interest in the project and said she would support us. At this point, Jerry Cisinsky and I prepared petitions for community residents and received help from interested people. Thus started the Friends of the RB Dog Park.

All in all, by the end of 1998, we had over 1100 signatures on petitions which were sent to Warden. Over the next two years, we were told by Warden’s office over and over again that they supported us, but that there was no land and no money unless we funded it ourselves. A very disappointing setback after a great deal of work.

However, since Brian Maienschein was running for office in 2000, the Friends made sure he knew how important a dog park could be to RB. Brian liked the idea, he included it in his campaign speeches, and the rest is RB history. He found the funding and the land, saw that architects and biologists were hired and environmental concerns were mitigated (as required by state law). Project managers are now in place from the San Diego Parks Department, and their architectural plans have been approved by interested residents.

The Friends of the Dog Park are currently working with Eagle Scout Troop 681 (sponsored by the Kiwanis Club) who have volunteered to assist with projects such as drinking fountains, underground sprinklers, benches, chairs and tables to help keep the cost down.

The Friends are also still in the process of trying to find out if it is feasible/legal to use attractive advertising signage on one or more of the fences as is being done in the San Clemente Dog Park. This will be answered after a representative from Brian’s office meets with Stacey LoMedico from the Parks Department this week.

At this writing the Dog Park project will cost approximately $467,000, subject to minor change when the bids come in.

A separate project, additional parking for the RB Community Park, which was already slated for construction before the dog park, will cost $279,000. It is being done in conjunction with the dog park to save money.

Almost all of the funding for these projects will come from California State Park Bonds from Props 12 and 40. This money is designated for park projects only. These are not City of San Diego funds. Brian’s office just got the results back from the auditor, and the overall determination was that the costs associated with the design and construction of the dog park are justified.  This park cannot be compared with any other City Dog Parks because it involves the purchase and development of raw land as opposed to just fencing off an area of an already existing park.  Essentially this project is creating another park in RB.  The audit also found no excessive spending by Park and Rec or the designer. 

Construction is scheduled to begin in September. We are grateful to Brian for all his hard work and ability to make good things happen for RB!