A parade of doodles, Aussies, mutts of every size and color, and even a silken windhound trotted from Mill Valley Middle School to the Bayfront dog park on Nov. 1. For the pooches, it was just another outing.
Not so for the people on the other end of the leashes. About 50 protesters with Save Bayfront Dog Park were on a mission to defend a spot they love.
Along the way, they passed a large boulder holding a bronze-colored plaque with a promise for dogs and people alike:
“On December 4, 1995 this 3 acre dog park was made permanent by an amendment to the Bayfront Park Master Plan.”
More than three decades later, Mill Valley has made a bike facility a “priority” project. Though the city says no site has been selected, Bayfront is the only place named in its current planning.
The Mill Valley Pump Track Alliance, an advocacy group, wants about 40,000 square feet of the dog park, nearly an acre, for a pump track (a loop of small hills and banked turns), a jump line and a bicycle playground, according to spokesperson Patrick Linehan.
Regulars say they learned their park was being eyed for a pump track only through a chance conversation with City Council member Urban Carmel, who visits the dog park with his 101-year-old father.
“If Urban Carmel had not come to the park in September … we would have never known about this,” said Marian Brodigan, an organizer of Save Bayfront Dog Park.
By the time the dog park users found out, the money had already started rolling in for bike facility planning.
In June, a month after Boyle Park was ruled out as too small for a pump track, the City Council unanimously approved up to $115,774 for a “bike amenity” feasibility study and initial design work. The funds came from Mill Valley’s share of Measure A, the county parks sales tax.
Other players jumped in too. The Marin Community Foundation gave the county $20,000 in August for bike park concept plans. According to a county staff report, Mill Valley will lead the effort, partnering with a pump track builder and the nonprofit that accepts donations for the Mill Valley Pump Track Alliance.
“We heard about it long after the $115,000 was allocated and the $20,000 donation was made,” said Bob Levy, who has brought his dogs to Bayfront for decades.
The city’s June update on its priority “bike amenity” did not name a site. But every version since has listed a “greater feasibility study for opportunities to make recreational improvements in Bayfront Park.”
Those updates have also promised continued engagement with “bike amenity advocates.” None has mentioned dog park users.
During the Parks and Recreation Commission’s September meeting, Ashley Howe, the city’s arts and recreation director, praised the Mill Valley Pump Track Alliance’s community engagement and called its three-part plan a “big dream.”
“We’re working with the county on funding a concept design based on what the group’s ask is,” she said.
Howe later addressed the issue in an October email to a dog park user, copied to the dog park group and the full City Council.
“At this time, Bayfront Park has not been formally selected as the site for a bike facility, nor has a specific area of the park been identified for that purpose,” she wrote.
Three days after the Save Bayfront Dog Park protest, Howe told the commission the city expects to hire a consultant in early 2027 to lead outreach and a feasibility study, with ample opportunity for public input.
Dog park users say they’ve been overlooked before. They point to the $25,000 the city budgeted in 2021 to improve the dog park. Nearly three years later, the council approved a wash station, waste bag dispensers, benches and a new gate.
Since then, the city has installed only the gate, dog park advocates said.
The dog park improvement budget has $20,673 remaining, Howe reported. Staff and dog park representatives are working on cost estimates and priorities with a goal of making some improvements “as soon as feasible,” she said at the Nov. 4 commission meeting. She did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Brodigan said she’s offended that the city “moved so quickly” on money to study a pump track and “so slowly” on the dog park.
Pump track advocates say they’ve been waiting, too. Linehan said they’ve searched for a site for eight years.
“Nothing is being designed right now,” he said. “We’re listening to our neighbors and the users of the dog park.”
The Mill Valley Pump Track Alliance’s website, however, makes the case for Bayfront Park by name and calls for rebalancing the park’s uses to make room for a bike facility.
Both groups are guarding scarce ground. The nearest public bike park is at Stafford Lake in Novato. Bayfront is Mill Valley’s only dog park.
Local kids lost two informal bike jump spots this year. The school district tore out a beginner course at Edna Maguire Elementary School, and the county removed the nearby Scott Valley dirt berms riders had used for decades. Young bikers then asked the City Council for a legal alternative.
Quoc Phan, co-owner of Tam Bikes in Mill Valley, is all for a pump track. Comparing the ride to surfing, he said cyclists push their bikes down into each dip and lift their bodies up the next rise. Good riders can go around several times without pedaling.
“Two or three laps and I’m sweating probably more than if I pedaled up Tam,” said Phan, 61.
Fences and careful design could let bikes and dogs share Bayfront Park, pump track supporters said at recent Parks and Recreation Commission meetings. Cyclist Ryan Lofton noted that many conflicts come down to “seeing each other, slowing down for each other.”
The proposed bike facility’s footprint is also a bone of contention. On its website, the Mill Valley Pump Track Alliance says the project would take up about 21% of the dog park, which it measures at 4.3 acres. In an interview with the Pacific Sun, Linehan said that figure counts everywhere off-leash dogs roam, including the paths and the beach.
But he acknowledged that the grassy area is about three acres. At 40,000 square feet, the facility would occupy nearly a third of the dog park.
More than grass is at stake for dog park users. They worry about runoff from the asphalt pump track reaching the neighboring marsh and the impact on wildlife.
Older residents say the path bordering the dog park is one of the few places in town where they can walk without dodging bikes. Some come from the nearby Redwoods retirement community.
Above all, people don’t want to lose the peace. A bike facility could turn the quiet spot on the bay into “just another busy corner of life,” said Nikita Bogdanov, who runs and walks there a few times a week.
For some, the dog park has become much more than a place to play with a dog. Craig Fruchter has been a regular for years, and now his three-year-old granddaughter asks to go.
“I’ve made some of my best friends there,” he said.
For more information, visit Save Bayfront Dog Park at savebayfrontdogpark.org and the Mill Valley Pump Track Alliance at millvalleypumptrack.org.
