Did you know dogs have been banned from Paso Robles city parks for decades? Not anymore

For years, dogs have been unwitting trespassers in Paso Robles city parks.

Now, for the first time four decades, that’s officially changing.

On a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Paso Robles City Council repealed an apparently unenforced 1984 ordinance banning dogs and other animals from public parks without a permit.

Speaking at the council meeting, police Cmdr. Rick Lehr said that the city didn’t enforce the ordinance and by repealing it, the council would match the law with the present day. Prior to its repeal, the ordinance called for a $20 fine.

Lehr said that he could not remember when officers stopped enforcing the original ban on dogs in parks and said that to his knowledge, the ordinance never had been enforced.

“Anyone that goes to the parks right now, the dogs are in the parks. They are already there. It’s happening every day,” Lehr said. “You can go to Downtown City Park any time of the day and there are dogs there.”

After Lehr presented the repeal, council members discussed their concerns with striking the measure, including an increase in dog waste in parks with one member exclaiming, “Who is going to pick up the poop?”

Some also expressed concern with about dog bites, and others didn’t want to change the rule since the prohibition of dogs was said to have been a condition for the city’s original purchase of the land from its private owners.

Council members Chris Bausch and Fred Strong both voted against repealing the ordinance. Neither responded to the Tribune’s request for comment.

In an interview with the Tribune, Bausch said that the council should not get rid of one of the original conditions for the city’s ownership of the park.

“Whether or not the donor is alive or not, that should be honored and we should have the integrity to do that,” Bausch said.

Strong echoed those sentiments.

He told the Tribune that the council “dropped the ball” by voting to overturn the ordinance.

As the council strikes the ban from the city code, several amendments to the original ordinance will stay on the books, including rules against unnecessary noise, the presence of aggressive animals, and the requirement that all dogs must be leashed in public spaces.

Lehr also proposed other updates to the city code, including rules against feeding animals in public, requirements for people to pick up their pet’s waste from public spaces, and for drivers who hit domestic animals to stop and notify someone of the accident.

And Mayor John Hamon raised the idea of an ordinance that would allow the city to enforce dog behavior standards in parks. The council also said it would look at installing dog waste bag stations in city parks.

The council will vote on those updates in the next three months.

Tuesday was the first reading of the ordinance repeal. The council will conduct a second reading on June 18, after which the ban will be officially lifted.