Thursday, June 14, 2007

Zoning for dog kennel tops commission's agenda

by Kenneth Lassiter

County commissioners remanded one conditional use permit back to the planning and zoning commission Monday while another permit for the same property was reviewed after 25 years of issuance.

George and Carolyn Jeffries of rural Perry own property along Ferguson Road just south of 39th Street. Carolyn Jeffries recently applied for a conditional use permit for a dog kennel at the site. The original request called for a boarding and breeding kennel on the property that was to house upwards of 20 dogs.

Eloise Tichenor, planning and zoning director, said the county has received noise and unrestrained dog complaints regarding the property over a period of the last two or three years and the Jeffries couple has been accommodating to the county. She said currently the couple has nine dogs at the property. County residents are limited to four dogs maximum with more than that requiring a permit. Tichenor said while reviewing the case the planning and zoning commission heard opposition from neighbors mainly in regard to noise, smell and related dog problems currently in place. The planning and zoning commission unanimously recommended denial of the permit.

Carolyn Jeffries submitted a rough development plan for the site, which would include a fenced yard with kennels. She said the dogs would be let out within the fenced portion for a couple hours while she cleaned out their pens.

Tichenor said after hearing of the planning and zoning commission’s recommendation for denial, Jeffries revised her proposal to include just housing for her nine dogs rather than allow the permit to be denied, as that would bring a year time limit into effect before she could reapply for a permit. Jeffries pleaded her case to commissioners as she said she simply wanted to be able to keep the dogs she has. She said her husband has had physical limitations but was able recently with the help of a neighbor to get a fence in place for the yard around the existing kennels at the site.

Jeffries said she would supervise the dogs while they are in the yard and, rather than burn their feces, which has raised complaints from neighbors, would bag it up and include it in the household trash. Tichenor said the changes to the proposal were “substantial,” which made the option of remanding it back to the planning and zoning commission for a new recommendation a wise course. She said five protest petitions had been filed on the matter but none were valid, which would have required a unanimous vote from commissioners to approve the permit.

After some short discussion, commissioner David Christy moved to send the proposal back to the planning commission for review and commissioner Francis Grollmes seconded the motion. It passed unanimously. Tichenor said the planning commission would reconsider the proposal at its meeting this month and commissioners would hear the matter again a week after that meeting.

Tichenor then shifted the discussion to a conditional use permit issued to George Jeffries in 1982 for boat and camper storage on the property. Tichenor said the county has received many complaints regarding junk vehicles and other salvage items on the property over time and she said the situation called for a review of the permit. She said four people contacted the county in opposition to the permit being continued but the planning commission had recommended the permit continue with three conditions. Those conditions were that a mandatory review of the permit be done in January 2008, that any violation reported to the county on the property be corrected within five days, and that grass and weeds on the property grow no taller than 12 inches.

Christy asked his fellow commissioners if the county should review the permit every year. They agreed.

Carolyn Jeffries said her husband’s physical condition kept him from doing much business at the site and that a couple other people had been responsible for some of the problems, which she was working to take care of. She said the couple’s riding lawnmower had been out of commission and was recently repaired, which allowed her to mow the site. She said she hoped to have the property in good standing with the county soon.

Christy moved to approve the permit with the planning commission’s recommended conditions plus a new condition of a yearly review of the permit. Commissioner Don Edmonds seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Christy said he would like to see the property get up to snuff as he had received between 10 and 15 complaints about it since becoming a commissioner in 2005. Edmonds said he wanted Jeffries to understand that if the problems don’t stop on the property, the couple could lose the permit. She said that she was working on the problems and would continue to do so.

Commissioners also Monday discussed fees at the health department with Eileen Filbert, department director. Filbert said she was recommending a 10 percent across-the-board increase in rates with rates affected by grants to go up 15 percent. She said some rates hadn’t been raised for three years and, rather than get the added funding through taxes, she was recommending the county raise fees. She said in some cases it would be a small hike, as a $10 vaccination would simply go to $11. She said the fee increase would also apply to the department’s environmental and wastewater fees. The fee increases will go into effect July 1.