02/26/2022
Hi everyone...so it's been fairly quiet on this page lately, but I have some potentially good news to share. Back in Fall of last year, I had a meeting with Ken Gibson of LARMAC and a few other people from O'Connell Landscaping about the horrible DG (decomposed granite) and the center benches being dangerous. After that meeting, we agreed to give them a final chance to fix the DG from spilling out and leaving messy rocks and pebbles all of the walkways which is a sliding danger to dogs and humans. They took 2 days to try and fix it with the company who installed it and it still is a mess. The benches got installed along the sides of the park which I found many people started using. In the past couple of weeks, LARMAC took them out, as apparently there was an issue which the way they sunk the foundation into the ground. They are planning on putting them back in.
The new news is, LARMAC is proposing to now take out all of the messy DG (finally, horray!! 🥳) and they are also considering pulling over all of the concrete walkway from the entryway to the shade areas with the Pergolas (which still need repair). They are hoping this will provide more grass, and a less structured standing area and playing spots for the dogs. The whole idea behind moving the benches to the sides is to try and get people to stand in different areas of the park so the dogs then PLAY in different areas of the park to cut down on continued usage in the same places which leads to over-use and dead grass. I think this will help along with the rotation of grass repair as needed.
Appreciate everyone feedback on this idea of less concrete, more grass.
Some other thoughts being floated are changing out the Pergola areas as we had a severe dog accident which has left a dog semi-paralalized due to slamming into one of the 2' concrete pillars of the Pergola. Thoughts are these are somewhat over-built and way too close to the benches as the dogs try and run between them. Personally I never sit while at the park, the dogs always follow where the people are, so I'm usually try and stand out on the sides or in the open throwing the balls for the dogs. Perhaps removing the huge concrete pillars and instead installing smaller poles with Shade Sails for shade. Overall probably less expensive to replace the Sails after a few years than the wood structures as they are getting termites. The small dog park structure is now also falling down.
Site for all Ladera Ranch Wagsdale Dog Park Residents, both 2-legged and 4-legged!
