Future of Dorothy and Benjamin Smith Park: A Neighborhood Dog Park?
The Dorothy and Benjamin Smith Park is the Outpost Estates neighborhood park operated by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.
Located near the corner of Outpost Drive and Franklin Avenue is the Dorothy J. and Benjamin B. Smith Park (also known as the Hollywood - Franklin Park).
It is a small neighborhood park that was established in 1979 and has outdoor gym/excercise equipment, water drinking fountains, lighting, irrigation, trees/landscaping, benches and trash receptacles.
In the past few years, the park has seen an increase in trash, graffiti, damage, and an increase in unhoused camping and illicit activities. Contributing to the increase in problems in the park has been the conversion of the Highland Gardens Hotel into an interim housing site which is located across the street from the neighborhood park. The Highligand Gardens Hotel served as a “Project Roomkey” site that provided free rooms to unhoused during COVID (July 2021 to October 2022). Since October 2022, the hotel owners have leased the hotel to the Los Angeles City, at the request of Los Angeles City Council District 4 Councilmember Nithya Raman, to provide interim housing for the unhoused operated by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). The Highland Gardens Hotel has 143 beds (double occupancy rooms) available to unhoused individuals through an agreement that goes from November 2022 to October 2025 (with two options to extend the arrangement for one year each, through October 2026 and October 2027). The cost to taxpayers is about $2 million per year (about $4 million to lease and $2 million to operate over the three year period).
With the ongoing operation of the Highland Gardens Hotel as an interim housing site, there are concerns about the current state of the neighborhood park. Community meetings have been held about how the park should be improved for the future and the idea of turning the park into a gated dog park has surfaced.
Los Angeles City Council Districts 4 (Nithya Raman) and Council District 13 (Hugo Soto-Martinez) are collaborating together to get feedback from residents on whether the neighborhood park should be turned into a dog park and fenced/gated (only open from sunrise to sunset). The Highland Gardens Hotel interim housing site is located in Council District 4, and across the street, the neighborhood park is located in Council District 13. Please submit your feedback by completing this short survey located here.
