Long Beach is moving forward with potentially creating a new dog beach closer to Downtown after the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to direct city staff to start looking for a second location.

Long Beach already has an area of its shoreline dedicated to dogs and their owners in the 4.1-acre Rosie’s Dog Beach that opened in Belmont Shore in 2003. That beach is open to dogs from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and provides bags and scoopers for pet owners to clean up after their pets and has become home to a number of dog-centric events over the years.

However, Councilmember Cindy Allen is asking the city to create a second site closer to Downtown to make dog beach space easier to get to for people living Downtown and West and Central Long Beach.

“This is an issue of accessibility and our city needs and wants another dog beach,” Allen said.

Allen represents the city’s 2nd City Council District, which runs from Alamitos Avenue to Bluff Park along the city’s shoreline, and she’s requesting that a potential new dog beach be located in that district.

The city’s 2nd and 3rd City Council Districts are the only two with beachfront areas.

While dogs are required by city ordinance to be leashed at all times, Rosie’s Dog Beach provides a rare opportunity outside of a dog park where dogs are allowed to legally be unrestrained in the city.

Allen hasn’t mentioned a specific location for a new dog park, but she asked for city staff to bring a report back to the council to consider in the next 60 days that would include potential sites as well as a preferred site and operating rules for dog owners.

The council voted unanimously to approve the report Tuesday. Because the dog beach will likely be in the area of the Coastal Zone where the California Coastal Commission must approve permits for use, any future dog beach location would have to be approved by that body before the city can open it to pets.

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Jason Ruiz covers City Hall and politics for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @JasonRuiz_LB on Twitter.