Foster City's Off-Leash Hours Now Start in the Dark

Foster City's code opens the off-leash window at five parks at 5 a.m. On Sunday, November 15, the sun comes up over Foster City at 6:49 a.m. That leaves 109 minutes between when the window opens and when the sun rises, and the gap keeps widening through the end of December.

The rule is the same as it was in August. The sun has moved. Daylight saving time ended at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026, and the off-leash hours didn't shift with it, because they're written into the Foster City Municipal Code as fixed times on a clock. For anyone whose dog's day starts with a run on the grass, the morning routine now runs on a shorter daylight budget than the posted hours suggest.

The Window Is Set in the Code

Section 6.04.060 of the municipal code, updated by Ordinance 675 in 2024, lets dogs go off leash in two situations.

1. The fenced dog park in Boat Park, near the corner of Foster City Boulevard and Bounty Drive, as long as the dog is with a person reasonably competent to control it and that person has no more than three dogs.
2. Areas designated by the Parks and Recreation Director at Catamaran, Edgewater, Boothbay, Farragut and Sea Cloud Parks, from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. daily. At Sea Cloud the window runs from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Sundays only.

Everywhere else in the city's parks and on public property, the default is a leash. The same chapter requires immediate cleanup of dog waste. The city's dog park page lists the same five parks and the same morning hours.

The three-dog cap has been in place for years. The Daily Journal reported that the limit was posted on the Boat Park gate long before it was enforceable, and that the Parks and Recreation Department asked to put it in the code so it could apply to the morning parks too. In that article the department described the limit as being "about control and capacity."

None of this mentions sunrise. The three hours sit in the same place on the clock in June and in December, so the share of them that falls in daylight swings with the seasons.

How Much of the Window Is Daylight

Using timeanddate's sunrise tables for Foster City, here is how the 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. window breaks down over the next seven weeks. Civil twilight is the stretch before sunrise when the sky is light enough to see without streetlights.

On December 31, the first 114 minutes of the 180-minute window come before civil twilight begins. Add the half hour of twilight and only the last 37 minutes are in full daylight. A walk timed for 7:15 a.m. is in daylight in mid-November and still before sunrise by New Year's Eve.

Sea Cloud's Sunday extension matters more this time of year than it does in summer. The extra hour from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. is all daylight, so on a late-December Sunday the daylight share of Sea Cloud's window goes from about 37 minutes to about 97. No other park in the code has a weekend extension.

Where the Off-Leash Areas Are, Park by Park

The off-leash areas don't take up the whole of each park. The city's dog owner flyer places them by the nearest corner:

• Edgewater Park, at the corner of Edgewater Boulevard and Regulus
• Boothbay Park, at the corner of Edgewater Boulevard and Boothbay
• Catamaran Park, at the corner of Shell Boulevard and Catamaran
• Sea Cloud Park, at the corner of Pitcairn and Sea Cloud, in the back of the park
• Farragut Park, which the municipal code names among the five designated parks

The city adds a rule that shapes where a dog can actually run. Dogs aren't allowed on synthetic turf at any of these parks at any time, which matters at parks built around sports fields. The city describes Sea Cloud as baseball diamonds, soccer fields and lawn area, and describes Catamaran as a large turf area with two lighted tennis courts.

Lighting is the other thing that changes with the season. The city lists a lighted softball diamond at Edgewater and the lighted tennis courts at Catamaran, and neither of those is the dog area. At 5:30 a.m. in December, a headlamp or a light-up collar does more than any park fixture will.

There's also a change coming at two of these parks. In an October 6, 2026 report, the city listed synthetic turf replacement at Sea Cloud and Catamaran Parks among the capital projects its parks staff was working on, alongside court resurfacing and City Hall landscaping. Dogs are kept off synthetic turf at all times, so the fields being replaced aren't part of the off-leash allowance. City notices are the place to check for any work schedule.

The flyer's courtesy list applies at the morning parks too. Owners fill any holes their dogs dig, puppies under six months stay out, and human and dog food, treats and glass containers are prohibited.

Boat Park Doesn't Depend on the Sunrise

When daylight in the morning window drops under an hour, the fenced run next to Boat Park picks up the slack. It's the only off-leash space in the code that isn't tied to a 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. window.

The city describes it as a 20,000-square-foot fenced area with separate runs for large and small dogs, synthetic turf and decomposed granite surfaces, a watering station, and tables and benches. It shares Boat Park's parking lot, and Boat Park lists restrooms. The run has been open since October 2000, and the Daily Journal has called it one of the most-used dog parks in the county.

That gives a winter routine two parts. A dog that gets its run on the grass at Catamaran or Edgewater has to fit into a daylight slot that shrinks to about half an hour by late December. A dog that runs at Boat Park can go at noon or after work. The three-dog limit and the expectation that the owner can control the dog apply at both.

Boat Park also has a busy morning on Saturday, November 14. Animal Wellness Day, a free grooming event organized by Foster City residents Vishal and Aninza Grover through the nonprofit Aasara, runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the dog park. It offers nail trims, ear cleaning, teeth brushing, paw-pad trims, sanitary trims and face and eye-area trims, and it goes ahead rain or shine. Appointments were by advance registration, and the Eventbrite listing shows them sold out. Dogs with appointments stay leashed, cats come in carriers, and every pet has to be fully vaccinated. The city calendar listing notes that the event is community-organized, not hosted by the city.

The Paperwork Behind the Morning Run

The rules that let a dog run free also come with conditions. Foster City's code requires a rabies vaccination for dogs and an annual license for dogs over three months old, and the off-leash exceptions assume the dog is licensed where licensing applies and that the owner can control it. The city's flyer also asks owners to keep current rabies tags on the dog's collar. This is general information, not legal advice. The code text and Foster City Parks and Recreation at 650 Shell Boulevard are the sources for how the rules apply to a specific dog.

By the last days of December, sunrise reaches 7:23 a.m., leaving 37 minutes of daylight before the off-leash hours close at 8 a.m.

If you're weighing a move within Foster City and want to know how close a street sits to one of these morning parks or to the Boat Park gate, Julie Flouty is glad to help. Let's Connect.