White Bear Lake asks whether dogs really need a beach

The dogs in White Bear Lake already have their own spots at restaurant patios, permission to enter some downtown shops and even their own parade during the city’s summertime Manitou Days festival. Do they need their own beach, too?

It’s a dog’s life in the leafy lake-forward city, where widespread dog ownership and a city vibe of outdoor recreation translates into legions of dog walkers patrolling the beachy edges of White Bear Lake on walking trails and through green spaces.

Since 2007, when the city set aside a stretch of its Matoska Park shoreline as an official dog beach, the likes of pups Gandalf and Millie and Gus have also had a space to romp and splash with their owners on a hot summer day.

“It is a gift, an absolute gift for my dogs,” local resident Steve Renner told the City Council on Tuesday night.

And that’s imperiling the dog area’s future — dogs and their owners have loved the beach to death, Mayor Dan Louismet said, citing a raft of complaints from nearby property owners about barking, dog poop and unleashed hounds running riot.

“The question isn’t whether it’s popular. It clearly is,” Louismet said Tuesday night during a nearly 2½-hour public hearing on the dog beach’s future.

Pointing to a pandemic-era surge in dog ownership, the dog beach’s rising popularity and the crowded multiuse space it shares with a people beach and a boat launch, Louismet said it’s time to rein in the dog days of summer.

“I absolutely think the space is no longer appropriate as a dog park,” he said.

Several people who spoke at the public hearing seemed to agree with him, but many others who took to the lectern said the dogs are mostly well behaved, that it’s a public space and should be shared, and that nearby homeowners shouldn’t be allowed to dictate what happens across the street at the dog beach.

It’s hardly the first time the City Council has weighed in. The long-simmering tensions between dog owners and the lakefront homeowners has had the city talking about the beach for years.

The dog park’s existence has been the bane of homeowners along that part of the lake, according to several who spoke Tuesday.

Unleashed dogs wander onto private property, and nearby homeowner Brian Bonin said he has several photos of an unleashed dog standing on his property at arm’s length. Nearby property owner Matt Wilson said there’s just not enough space at Matoska Park for all of the uses that go on there.

“I would like to recommend that the dog park be moved to another location,” he said.

The city’s Park Advisory Commission (PAC) members came up with a list of recommendations two years ago to improve the park, suggesting that better signage, fencing and gates, an improved buoy system, and pet waste bag stations might help keep the peace.

The council voted in 2023 to make the improvements and keep the dog beach open.

City Manager Lindy Crawford also asked the commission members to follow up in the summer of 2024 to see if the improvements made much difference.

Over the course of some 100 visits to the park, the commission members found that the dog beach “provides a great amenity” to the community that should stay open, according to city documents.

“The PAC observed many park visitors sitting on adjacent benches enjoying viewing the dogs swimming and playing as well,” the report said.

Anastacia Davis, a member of the commission, said the dog beach is “a big deal to the community.”

But the city has continued to get complaints about the dogs.

City police were called to the dog beach area for dog problems 10 times between June 1 and Sept. 12, according to the city. One of the calls was for a lost dog, one was a barking complaint, and eight calls were for dogs at large and off leash.

Responding to concerns that dogs were defecating in the lake, the city also tested the water near the dog beach for E. coli, finding over the course of 11 tests that the dogs did not appear to be elevating bacteria levels in the water. A popular swimming beach on the lake, meanwhile, was also tested for E. coli over the summer, and test results there resulted in an advisory warning posted once and a beach closure.

The City Council may vote at its next meeting on March 11 whether or not to keep the dog beach open.

City resident Gene Peterson said a compromise should be considered: move it down the lakeshore to an area closer to Manitou Island, on the other side of the boat launch.

“It’s a win-win rather than a win-lose,” he said.

Mayor Louismet said that, whatever is decided, it should be the final word on the issue after years of debate.