Charitable shelter or nuisance kennel?

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — Sullivan County will always need organizations to take in homeless dogs, but if charitable shelters fail to comply with a town’s new laws, they might become nuisance kennels.

The Cochecton Planning Board faces a quagmire because two problematic shelters under its purview may not need to comply with the new Cochecton Kennel Law until May of 2007.

At the June 26 planning board meeting, Larry Hoffel, who represents Brother Victorian of the Lazarian Society, and Gloria Smith, owners of the two different shelters on Pinewood Road, requested time for his clients to put together Special Use Permit (SUP) applications to continue operating during a five-year period of amortization, a moratorium which allows non-conforming kennels to continue operating as long as they comply with the zoning law of 1998. A new Kennel Law amended the Zoning Law of 1998 on May 13, 2002.

Meanwhile, neighbors insist that both properties house too many unlicensed dogs and have become a nuisance.

Further, the town has recently exhorted both property owners to comply with the law, and at a May 14 town board meeting, officials even considered pursuing both cases at the Supreme Court.

Hoffel said he is ready to hold the town liable if the planning board withholds the rights of Victorian and Smith to continue under the period of amortization.

But planning board member Robert DeMan pointed out that all kennels needed to apply for SUPs within 30 days of the amended law.

“You’re asking for leniency for being in violation for over a year,” DeMan said to Hoffel.

Hoffel reminded the board that he and his clients intend to comply. Yet to what provisions of the law they will comply remains undetermined.

The amended Kennel Law requires a minimum of 10,000 square feet per lot area per dog, a minimum of 300 feet between each kennel and adjoining property lines, and the dogs must remain inside between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. The law also prohibits expansion in the kennel or its population beyond 1998 levels.

As the applications proceed, the planning board will identify the maximum number of dogs each kennel can accept according to 1998 standards. No one knows exactly how many dogs live at each kennel.

“The magic number is how many dogs presently live at each shelter,” planning board member Earl Bertsch said. “And, driving by, it looks pretty bad. Something needs Continued from page

to be done before we grant the special use.” He said he wants to see a plan for how both owners will address the actual problems, though Victorian does not agree that unlicensed dogs are a problem.

While Town Attorney John Keating said that the State of New York requires all dogs to be licensed, Victorian argued that his not-for-profit organization should receive the same treatment as the S.P.C.A., which he said often keeps unlicensed, homeless dogs.

“State police and elderly people have been bringing dogs to my shelter for 21 years. We’ve done what nobody else has done,” Victorian said. “They serve God well who serve his creatures,” he said, citing the motto of the Lazarian Society. He insisted that his primary objective is to seek compliance with the local law.

Negotiations will continue at the next meeting on July 31, where the planning board and an appointed attorney will identify what that compliance must look like.