The three women who are working to see a dog park constructed for Palisades are (left to right) Lynn Hylen Miller, Leslie Campbell and Carol Ross.
To describe the Herculean efforts to establish a dog park in Palisades the story would equal the 24 books of the Odyssey. The three women who have fought for a dog park, Leslie Campbell, Lynn Hylen Miller and Carol Ross also credit Councilmember Traci Park with the final push to take it one step closer to reality.
Since the Community Council only allows one winner for a Sparkplug, Campbell was selected.
“I am extremely honored to receive this award on behalf of an extraordinary team! This was not a solo effort and upon learning of my award I asked if I may share the stage with my two cohorts: Lynn and Carol,” Campbell said.
At a dog park community meeting in October, Councilwoman Traci Park personally thanked Campbell, Hylen Miller and Ross. Park said, “their efforts made this dream a reality.”
The three were complimentary of one another and each had a specific role. Ross called Lynn and Leslie the brains and heart of the Dog Park Working Group and they in turn called her the mediator/glue that held them together.
This saga actually started in the early 2000s, when dog-loving residents met at Mort’s Deli to work with the late Councilman Bill Rosendahl to put a dog park at the base of the Via de las Olas. They were rebuffed because bluff residents were concerned about traffic and dog feces odors.
Dogs ran off-leash at the Palisades Rec Center (against rules) and Hylen Miller, who was on the Palisades Park and Recreation Board (PAB) for 10 years, regularly heard from residents about the dangers: dogs would lunge at children holding food and parents didn’t like their kids playing in the dog poop left behind. PAB voted to support a dog park, but not at the Rec Center because of space constraints.
In 2013, when the VA put padlocks on dog park gates, the impact hit Campbell, who had a dog walking and dog care business, and regularly used the Barrington Dog Park. “We [the Palisades] had nothing,” she said. “That is when my personal advocacy began. I created a petition to “Save Barrington Dog Park…OR open one in The Palisades.
“I spent every Sunday for a solid year at the Swarthmore Farmer’s Market collecting signatures,” Campbell said and also placed petitions at local businesses: Paws n’ Claws, Collar & Leash, Blue Cross Veterinary Center, Palisades Veterinary, InstaMail, Palisades Car Wash, Guru’s Yoga and Black Ink. Her petitions eventually surpassed 4,000 signatures.
Campbell and Hylen met in 2016 at RPOSD (Regional Park and Open Space District) meeting being held by L.A. County to decide the highest needs for parks as part of the “Safe, Clean Neighborhood Parks and Beaches Measure” (Measure A). Hylen was there to represent PAB, who was trying to find an alternative site for a dog park, and Campbell was representing the people whose signatures she had collected. The two became co-founders of the Palisades Dog Park.
Hylen Miller attended all 14 of the RPOSD Measure A steering meetings in 2017, to ensure that dog parks would be included under Measure A. The director of RPOSD told her that because of her activism, “dog parks would be included with the funding.” Without Measure A funding, Palisades residents was told they would have to raise money to fund a dog park.
Behind the scenes, Hylen Miller, a consumer marketing executive, set up the dog park’s 501(c)3. After launching the first website for American Express as the Vice President of Interactive Service, she retired to stay at home with her two boys, which is how she became involved with PAB.
In January of 2017, “Leslie’s lobbying of the Pacific Palisades Community Council and Council District 11 and mine with PAB, resulted in [former Councilmember] Mike Bonin forming the Dog Park Working Group,” Hylen Miller said, and noted that group included Susan Payne, Carol Ross and Lou Kamer.
“I’m a dog lover and was annoyed that there was nowhere to take my dog off-leash” Ross said. “I saw a notification about a group trying to establish a dog park in the Palisades and I knew I wanted to be part of it.”
The group surveyed every potential dog park site in Pacific Palisades and recommended the current site on Temescal Canyon Road, near the playground and food trucks. A community meeting was held, and approval was given in February 2018.
A site selected, possible money, how is it there is still not park six years later?
Ross, a retired dental hygienist, who worked for Dr. Scott Warner explained, “This has been an incredibly difficult project. The most difficult aspect was that all decision making would take so long that the personnel at CD 11 that we were working with, or the Parks and Rec representative would leave or be replaced and we’d have to virtually start over.”
Councilmember Traci Park has helped to secure a dog park, here.
Although Bonin, in a 2017 campaign promised to bring a dog park to fruition, the efforts stalled. Hylen Miller credits Campbell for her lobbying efforts with local officials. “When Traci contacted Leslie with support for the dog park as part of her campaign, Leslie was terrific at facilitating her endorsement and keeping the relationship going.”
“Together they were an amazing duo that combined all their talents to bring about our success after over 30 years,” said Ross “I was the cheerleader, optimist, leg-work person.”
Hylen Miller helped Recreation and Parks (RAP) write a Grant Application for Measure A Funds. Councilmember Park appeared with Campbell, Hylen Miller and David Card (PAB member and former President of the Pacific Palisades Community Council) at a Recreation and Park Board at a January 2024 meeting and urged the board to approve the dog park, which it did.
Campbell said, “Lynne, Carol and I are overjoyed at finally crossing this threshold. It took us eight years, but we were on the shoulders of the many others that pursued this goal for 30 years before us. Persistence pays and we all win!”
At the CD-11 Community Leaders breakfast last month Hylen Miller was able to leverage her relationships with RAP individuals to eliminate the proposed artificial turf for this Dog Park.
What’s left to do?
Hylen Miller said, “I’m surprised at the timing of this award as we are not there yet—we don’t have bids out to contractors, and there is still some question about Coastal Commission approval.” (See July letter sent to L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, which is posted.)
When the three volunteers started working on a dog park, “We all had dogs and sadly, they have all passed away,” said Campbell, who moved here in 2000. When she started this project, her pets were Oscar de la Wiener (long-haired dachshund) and Marty the One Dog Party, a cockapoo.
Hylen Miller, who had moved to the Palisades in 2012, had a boxer named Emmit, who needed exercise and socialization, which is why she initially got involved. He died in 2021.
Wheeler, a tri-color King Charles Cavalier, belonged to Ross. “My family moved here when I was four,” she said, noting she had attended Marquez, Paul Revere and Palisades High School. Her father was a local dentist, Dr. Peterson.