Del Rey Oaks officials revisit the rules around a central park amid neighbor complaints.

Del Rey Park is one of two parks owned by Del Rey Oaks, and sits just behind City Hall, in the canyon long ago carved out by Arroyo del Rey. It’s home to a dog park, a baseball diamond, a basketball court and a playground. It also has two barbecue grills the city rents out – at least one of them is reserved on most weekend days of the year, per city officials – but in the past year, it’s increasingly become a problem for some residents, who have amplified their concerns about both noise and parking as it relates to the park.

Both issues appear to have become the cause du jour, and both were discussed on Sept. 27 during a Del Rey Oaks City Council meeting. From the outset, City Manager John Guertin and Assistant City Manager and Police Chief Jeff Hoyne made clear that they did not have updated ordinances for either issue for the council to approve; they wanted to bring them to the council’s attention to take direction on how to address them.

Both the noise and parking complaints related to the park have increased over this past year, Guertin says, which he suspects is related to people reemerging from their homes after so much time spent inside during the height of the Covid pandemic.

“I’ve been getting more and more concerns from residents, and I want to make sure we’re addressing these things in a timely manner,” Guertin told the council.

Hoyne added that the city’s ordinances on both issues were written long ago, and put officers in a difficult position of not being able to enforce their intent because the language in the ordinances is so vague that any alleged violation might not hold up in court.

On both issues, those who spoke at the meeting were mostly residents along Angelus Way, the eastern side of which is adjacent to Del Rey Park. (Those same residents were among the most vocal opponents of FORTAG, a bike and pedestrian path which is envisioned to travel down the street without so much as adding striping on the roadway.)

Resident Ryan Durham, who lives near the park, was among them, and told the council, “I’m not the type of person who wakes up everyday and thinks, ‘How can I complain about the park today?’ That’s not how I operate.” Durham added that because of “sustained loud music over several hours, there’s not really a place in your house you can get away from it.”

Both barbecue pits were reserved both Saturday and Sunday Oct. 8-9, City Clerk Karen Minami says, but on Saturday afternoon neither was in use. Instead, there was just a baby shower, which appeared to be a low-key, family-and-friends affair with about 20-30 people. Hoyne says that at 3pm, an officer walked through the park and did not hear any loud noise.

At around 4pm, three anonymous calls complaining about noise came in, but officers – one standing outside the police station, just above the park, and another who made a drive-through – found no issues with noise.

Hoyne says he expects to be able to present refined ordinances on both issues early next year, and that the city is looking at what other municipalities have done to address similar concerns.

“It’s a hot-button issue in the city,” Hoyne says, “people are very aware of it.”