Feb 07, 2010

The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/07/lexington_considers_curbs_on_dog_owners/

Lexington considers curbs on dog owners

Sharon Olofsson said most dog walkers who trod Willards Woods in Lexington don’t know each other’s “human names.’’

Instead, they know each other by the names of their pets, which means people know Olofsson as the owner of Benji the terrier and Charlie the goldendoodle (a mix of golden retriever and poodle).

That’s OK, Olofsson said, because in the years she’s been walking her dogs in the 100-acre conservation area, she’s grown to feel like part of a community.

But as Lexington’s Conservation Commission prepares to vote on new regulations that could limit off-leash areas at Willards Woods or ban the practice altogether, Olofsson said she’s afraid she’s going to lose that community.

“If they ban us or require leashes it’s going to disband,’’ Olofsson said. “It would be absolutely devastating if they take it away from us.’’

Neighbors of Willards Woods are calling for changes at the conservation land, however, and their complaints about dogs running loose, feces littering the woods, and cars parked up and down their streets are pushing the commission to review its rules for pet owners.

Striking a balance between dog walkers and other residents is an increasingly common dilemma in area communities, including Arlington, Brookline, Newton - where a new committee has just been formed to identify additional off-leash dog-walking areas - and Wellesley.

In Lexington, the debate about Willards Woods has been ongoing for more than six years, but later this month the Conservation Commission will meet to zero in on a better way to regulate the area. Dogs are allowed off leash in the woods as long as they respond to the voice commands of their owners.

The commission is considering several proposals, with the alternatives including a limit to the time or locations in which dogs can run off leash; instituting a permit system for walking dogs in the conservation area; enacting a one-year trial period in which all dogs must be on a leash; and banning dogs altogether.

No matter what the commission decides, vice chairman Philip Hamilton said, it “is going to make someone mad.’’

“It’s one of those tough situations,’’ Hamilton said. “The abutters are angry that we haven’t acted more decisively, and the dog walkers are fearful that we are going to act more decisively.’’

Charles Perez, who lives near Willards Woods, said there are too many unleashed dogs and too many cars parked along neighborhood streets.

He and his wife have had loose dogs charge at them, baring their teeth, Perez said; he noted that on one occasion, he had to use his bicycle as a shield against an aggressive dog, and another time a dog urinated on his bike.

Perez said he wished he could focus on more important issues, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but instead Willards Woods has his attention.

“We are in the birthplace of liberty and what are we doing, we are fighting this issue of a dog park,’’ Perez said.

But Lexington isn’t the only community in which debate about establishing dog parks has taken years to shake out.

“It’s a long and involved process,’’ said Amy Koel, a member of Newton’s new Off Leash Area Working Group, which was formed last month to identify potential locations for dog parks.

Koel said efforts to establish off-leash areas have been ongoing in the city for several years.

Part of the reason it takes so long to gather support for dog parks, she said, is because it takes time to explain to people in the community that off-leash areas are more for the benefit of the dog owners than the dogs.

An off-leash area opened in Newton’s Cold Spring Park as an experiment last March, and the initial controversy has mostly subsided, she said.

Brock Parker can be reached at brock.globe@gmail.com.