NELLIE (left) and Heart make friends on the floor. They’re emotional support dogs with the GGPD (Tribune photo).

A proposal to establish a regional canine training facility in a Garden Grove park is off and running – you might say off the leash – after it received approval of the city council on Tuesday night.

The council voted 7-0 in favor of a memorandum with the Garden Grove Unified School District for the use of land on the Warren Elementary School campus on Chapman Avenue (east of Harbor Boulevard), a part of which is used as Pioneer Park.

The GGUSD board approved the memorandum at its May 7 meeting. The agreement calls for the establishment of the facility to train both “apprehension” K-9s and “support” dogs to help people who are traumatized from accidents, violence and other mishaps.

Under the deal, the facility would be operated during a pilot period of 24 months, perhaps to be succeeded by a permanent replacement.

Such an operation could eventually serve not just Garden Grove, but any law enforcement facility in all of Orange County.

Also on Tuesday, the council heard a presentation on improvements to city facilities and parks, including expansions and upgrades at Woodbury and West Haven Parks. 

 Two city-owned swimming pools at park sites will undergo rehabilitation as well.

  The next meeting of the Garden Grove City Council will be on Tuesday, May 28 at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at 11331 Stanford Ave.