At a May 4 meeting, residents started arguing over whether dogs or children deserved the run of the park—Wallenberg Park. And from there the gathering went to the dogs.

This was the fourth meeting in two years held by San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services to discuss a dog-park proposal. San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Parks Manager Steve Roemer said that the city wants to provide options for dog owners to let their pets legally run off leash.

Roemer asked the approximately 50 residents at the meeting to voice their opinions on placing a dog park on the west side of the tennis courts at Wallenberg Park. The area would be a half-acre of fenced land, with gravel and synthetic turf similar to the type used at dog parks in Foster City, Roemer said. Water, benches and an unleashing area would also be part of the project.

Only two individuals spoke up against the Wallenberg Park location.

"It's going to ruin the park," Kristine Hayes said. "It's right next to the high school, and there's no parking."

Roemer agreed that the lack of parking at Wallenberg Park was a challenge, but should this proposal come to fruition, the city would look at ways to reconcile the parking issue. Hayes also pointed out that children used the proposed area to play soccer.

But dog owner J.C. Countes noted that with the park next to the high school, there were three to four fields available that could easily be shared.

But sharing park space proved to be a contentious issue, with dog owners saying they had waited long enough for their day in the sun.

One dog owner, Tom Strobel, impatiently said that two years had already gone by since the idea was first proposed and that he was now eager for results and a place for his pet to play.

"Dogs are a big part of our community," Wednesday Dull said. "We just want to have a legal option."

She added that before a dog park was proposed, dog owners would sometimes let their dogs off leash, be on the watch for animal-control services officers and then, if they spotted an officer, would "run like convicts."

John McCulloch, who has a black Labrador, said he had mixed feelings about the choice of Wallenberg. He said local dog owners had a verbal agreement with Willow Glen High School's authorities to allow the dogs to run off leash on school property, and he didn't want the dog park to confine dogs to a small fenced area.

Besides the area west of the tennis courts, Roemer said the city was also considering the park's northwest corner. But based on the feedback of the residents that the northwest corner is used for soccer and a neighbor's adjacent aviary, he said the city was more likely to pursue the area west of the tennis courts if a dog park is placed at Wallenberg Park.

And he stressed that that the parks department hasn't yet decided which parks in District 6 will have dog parks.

From the residents' comments, it appears that there is overall support for choosing Wallenberg Park, but he also said that Bramhall Park on Willow Street is still being considered.

"They're both works in progress," he said.

River Glen Park, which was examined earlier, is out of the picture because of space concerns, he said.

Roemer also suggested there was a small chance that the skate park planned for the Tamien VTA site might also accommodate a dog park.

"But the skate park is definitely our priority," he noted.

The review of a suitable location for a dog park was prompted by residents' outcries after learning that a dog park was proposed for Bramhall Park on Willow Street this spring, at an October 28, 2003, neighborhood meeting.

But when residents adjacent to the park received a letter in January informing them about the dog-park addition, 35 homeowners signed a petition saying that they had never been notified of a community meeting and that they opposed adding another attraction to the already highly impacted park.

Roemer said the strong reaction prompted him to step back and try to resolve the neighbors' concerns.

"Parks are here to serve everyone, but if a dog park impacts neighbors every day, that has more weight than [the wishes of] someone else in the community," he said.