A group of advocates in La Mesa are pushing for an expanded off-leash dog area at MacArthur Park following what they say is an increase in citations and patrols by enforcement officers.

It is illegal in San Diego County to walk your dog off-leash outside of an enclosed dog park, with the exception of some beaches.

The San Diego Humane Society is responsible for issuing off-leash citations, which includes responding to complaints and patrolling parks in the county.

The rise in citations and patrols is what brought a 30-person group informally dubbed “Friends of MacArthur Dog Park” to recent La Mesa City Council meetings, where they have said they feel confined by the current park regulations.

Martha Birtles, a longtime La Mesa resident who leads the advocacy group, said she regularly walks her dog Churro at MacArthur Park. She said the area has been “resoundingly used as an off-leash dog park” since it was turned into a public recreational area.

The area that is now MacArthur Park was once Sun Valley Golf Course. The city repurposed it as an outdoor recreation space after the former owner terminated the lease in 2017, with the goal of eventually redeveloping it into a 22-acre park.

“We have a unique space at MacArthur Park; it feels like an urban park and it feels like a hike in the mountains,” Birtles said. “Don’t change anything. Leave the enclosures where they are, build a fence through the middle of the park where the row of trees are and designate the northern half of the park for off-leash play.”

This change would be transformative for dog lovers in La Mesa, Birtles said.

In the last few years, an uptick in citations for off-leash play has left park regulars on edge and feeling confined by tight regulations, she continued.

“Ticketing has scared people off, but they haven’t been replaced by those who don’t have dogs,” Birtles said. “If there is ever an endorsement of making it more of a dog park, that is it.”

Off-leash ticketing is a controversial issue in San Diego County. The SDHS is responsible for enforcing off-leash laws and issuing citations, which are a notice to appear and can range up to $300.

A recent grand jury report found that the city of San Diego’s off-leash laws were not being properly enforced, largely blaming SDHS for the lack of citations.

At the same time, some county residents say citations have gone too far, with most large off-leash parks being too far away for them to regularly use.

This has put the Humane Society at the center of an argument about a lack of larger spaces for off-leash play in La Mesa.

SDHS enforcement officers patrolled MacArthur Park 29 times in fiscal year 2023-2024, 90 times in fiscal year 2024-2025 and 37 times so far in fiscal year 2025-2026, according to their data.

Twenty off-leash citations were issued at the park from fiscal year 2024-2025 and six have been issued so far in fiscal year 2025-2026. Nina Thompson, director of public relations for SDHS, said the organization was unable to quickly provide earlier citation data specific to MacArthur Park.

La Mesa resident Steve Bindell said enforcement at MacArthur Park has unfairly targeted the owners of dogs who are not problematic.

“Nobody has an issue with them giving tickets to those problem dogs out there, but when there’s no problem, there’s no reason to issue a ticket,” Bindell said.

For example, he said he has witnessed citations being issued to individuals sitting on a picnic blanket with their unleashed dog.

Nina Thompson, director of public relations for SDHS, said their officers are “not responsible for determining whether a dog is well behaved,” just for enforcing laws the way they were written.

“We encourage community members to work with their elected officials to create designated spaces where dogs can exercise safely, whether on-leash or off-leash,” Thompson said.

In the case of MacArthur Park, however, Thompson noted that the city of La Mesa has told SDHS that they “routinely receive complaints” about “that park specifically,” and requested they maintain a presence to address ongoing off-leash issues.

There are few to no large off-leash dog areas in the city of La Mesa. Besides the dog park at MacArthur, which is less than an acre, there is a one-acre off-leash area at Henry Griffin Park.

The advocates’ request for a larger designated area comes at the same time the city is working on its Parks Master Plan, which will guide long-term priorities across the entire park system.

Once the master plan is complete, the city will “resume work on the MacArthur Park Master Plan,” Grecia Aguilar, communications director for the city of La Mesa, said.

Future plans include a project to expand the MacArthur Dog Park, Aguilar said, but she did not specify when that would take place.

Advocates hope the new plan will vastly increase the area where off-leash activity is permitted.

The city proposed two concepts for the redevelopment of MacArthur Park in 2020. One would have generally accommodated the park’s existing topography, while the other would manipulate the land more drastically. The first proposal included one dog park, while the second included a dog park with an adjacent dog training area.

A 2021 MacArthur Park Master Plan survey conducted by the city showed that, of the 145 respondents, 25 wanted to keep the open space. Seven respondents said they wanted more off-leash space to be added and two said they wanted the whole park to be designated for dogs.

“It seems the dog park got the short end of the stick,” one respondent wrote. “That stinks! We all know that there are currently a lot of dogs that frequent that park and a large dog area is a must.”