Initiative Would Let Dogs Run Unleashed

Dogs will be able to run without leashes on Hermosa Beach’s greenbelt if a petition submitted last week qualifies for the November ballot and is approved by the voters. The petition, circulated by a group of pet owners called Watchdog, carried 2,108 signatures, about 800 more than needed to qualify as an initiative. The city must verify the signatures.

The initiative would exempt dogs from the city’s leash law as long as they remained under the “confident control” of their handlers on the Santa Fe Railroad right of way, a strip of land running through Hermosa Beach between Valley Drive and Ardmore Avenue.

The measure also would eliminate the city’s right under current open space zoning to use 10% of the open space for development. Some City Council members have proposed construction of gazebos, shelters, public toilets and visitor parking.

The council voted in February to apply the leash law to the strip after its purchase of the land is finalized Jan. 1, 1990. That decision aroused pet owners who have exercised their unleashed dogs for years on the right of way without interference from the railroad company.