Runyon Canyon Park - Parking and Safety Controversy

Parking and Safety Controversy

The management of the ecosystem comprising Runyon Canyon Park and its surrounding residential neighborhood has been controversial since the park's opening in 1987. Although the park's Master Plan called for a small on-site parking lot (to relieve parking pressure on residential streets) and a small "experimental" dog park, the park opened before a parking lot was constructed, and the off-leash area was broadly expanded (to its current size) in 1994, resulting in greater popularity and visibility in print and online media. Increasing complaints by homeowners about parking, traffic, and health safety problems, particularly near its Mullholland and Vista Street entrances, led to unpopular parking restrictions on adjoining residential streets. In 2003, City Councilmember Tom LaBonge formed a volunteer Park Advisory Board comprising local residents and park visitors to make recommendations for addressing these and other issues. After a series of meetings, the Advisory Board recommended the closure of the Vista Street gate, dog-owner use fees to help pay for park upkeep and improvements, and abandonment of Recreation and Parks Department plans for an onsite 86-space parking lot. LaBonge shortly thereafter dissolved the Board in favor of "council representatives and city employees," and its recommendations were not implemented. In 2009, LaBonge announced that plans for a parking lot were "on hold," and that the City was looking for "alternatives."