Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
For the last several months, there has been dredging occurring at Dog Beach which was mandated by the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that the Santa Ana river didn’t get backed up and flood the surrounding neighborhoods. As we are just a few days away from the county-owned land of Dog Beach re-opening to the public, the city has now begun dropping signs near the 15-foot stretch of land before Dog Beach, misleading dog owners into believing that dogs are no longer allowed at Dog Beach.
Furthermore, they have begun enforcing the 15-foot section of land against dog owners trying to access county land, essentially blocking access.
“But wait, didn’t the Parks and Beaches commission last year vote 7-0 to expand Dog Beach to Olive Street, on Newport’s land”, you ask?
Yes, they did, and here is the motion: “I’m gonna make a motion that we do not recommend that the city council take up the MOU, but also recommending that the city council review the off-leash dog code or laws for this particular section of the city to make it a codified amenity for the community.” Don’t believe me? Watch the meeting on video for yourself, here: https://youtu.be/tDzGGoiAzFU?t=16m30s
However, somehow the city staff wildly mistranscribed this motion and the meeting minutes said “Motion by Commissioner Cole; second by Commissioner Englebrecht:
- To not recommend the adoption of a Memorandum of Understanding between the County of Orange, the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner and the City of Newport Beach for sharing responsibilities along the Santa Ana River;
- To recommend that the City enter into a conversation regarding signage, dog bag dispensers; a clear delineation of City and County lines; and what would be needed to make it lawful to allow dogs off leash in this area and to make it a more codified amenity for the community.” — Notice how they make no mention of making this a codified amenity?
That’s wrong. And because we haven’t addressed this, the city is now taking action to block access to Dog Beach. We need to get them to agendize a revised dog policy in the area leading up to Dog Beach– and preferably out to Olive Street.
Please join us tomorrow at Council Chambers (100 City Center Drive) at 7pm to talk on “Non-Agenda Items”– we need to have a good number of people speaking on this for the city to take action!
Please share, and bring a friend to the meeting!
