RESPONSES TO NEIGHBORS’ CONCERNS ABOUT SPECIAL USE APPLICATION

Davidand Patty Haney, 4585 Arrowhead Drive: Mr. and Mrs. Haney live across the street from the Applicant’s property.

In general, their response stated they are not opposed to our running a kennel business out of our home as there has been one there for a long time and the previous owners of the property ran one too. Their concern was the on-street parking for clients dropping off and picking up their dogs.

Applicants’ response: We have already addressed the Haney’s concerns on parking. Again, we didn’t realize it was a problem and would have addressed sooner if someone had come to us. Our gates are now open during the 1 hour drop-off and pick-up windows so clients will come all the way down to the house which is a good 100’ off the road. This will alleviate any parking or stopping on Arrowhead Drive in front of our property.

Ken Hohag,4575 Vale Road: The Hohag residence is located to the northeast of the Applicant’s property and directly north of the property owned by the Morleys, which is next door and to the east of the Applicant’s property).

Pastor Hohag stated heis aware of the Applicants’ dog care and training business that has existed for approximately 5 years. He stated he does professional work in his back yard (planning, writing, phone calls), he is aware of the noise and distraction a dog business can have.

Applicants’ response: As stated in our Letter of Intent, our dogs are under human supervision at all times they are outside. We can guarantee that no incessant or repeated barking will come from dogs on our property. Pastor Hohag’s property is directly behind the property owned by Mr. and Mrs. Morley. Our small agility field where we do most of our training is a fair distance from his property, which borders the large agility field and our horse pasture. We only use the agility field a maximum of four times per month and always with supervision of the dogs.

The Morleys own two dogs who bark when left alone at night or during the day. It may be that the barking dogs Pastor Hohag hears are on properties other than our property. We ask that if Pastor Hohag has a complaint about barking dogs or any other problem which he believes comes from our property, that he speak with us directly so we can immediately resolve the problem.

Edward A. Gannon, 4685 Arrowhead Drive: Mr. Gannon and his wife, Eve, live on property located southwest of our property and directly across the street from the Morley property. Their concerns include: destruction of the wonderful atmosphere and privacy of the forest; property values devalued; 15-20 dogs consistently boarded at a time; no training observed; constant stream of cars dropping off and picking up dogs that partially block the road; dogs off leash; constant barking; honking horns; applicants are uncooperative when asked to control their dogs.

Applicant’s Response: Mr. and Mrs. Gannon initially reported our business to be in violation of County regulations after we got into a dispute with Eve Gannon over a business-related matter and we ended our friendship with her. Until the Gannons filed their complaint with the County about our business, they were also advertising and operating a dog day care and boarding facility on their own property, which was never approved under a similar special use process we are currently pursuing. All marketing and advertising for their business, known as “Eve’s Stay and Play” Dog Boarding, has been removed from the internet since the complaint about our business was submitted. We can provide evidence of their dog day care business at the hearings if requested.

We want to make it clear that we never intentionally violated the County’s land use regulations by operating our business on our property. As new arrivals to Colorado in 2012, we were not aware of the special use permit requirements when we bought our property, and we believed the use as a dog training and day care facility was allowed since the prior owner had operateda kennel for many years that provided boarding, grooming and breeding.

As shown in our letter of intent and as will be presented at the hearings on our application, our business does not detract from the natural surroundings of our residential neighborhood and it meets the spirit and intent of the Black Forest Preservation Plan. We immediately addressed the parking issue once we were notified it was a concern of the neighbors. Many neighbors have dogs that bark. The client dogs on our property are always supervised when outside and we do not take dogs that are incessant barkers.

Randy Morley, 4670 Arrowhead Drive: Mr. and Mrs. Morley live directly east of our property. The back portion of their property is adjacent to our large agility field. Mr. Morley’s response notes the following concerns: decreased property values due to a kennel, increased traffic/dust along Arrowhead due to clients dropping off and picking up their dogs; if the business is approved, the applicants will have no incentive to keep the dogs quiet or cooperate with neighbors; visual disturbance; dog charging the boundary fence; zoning doesn’t allow the business.

Applicant’s Response: Mr. Morley’s letter described one isolated incident in 2014 involving two dogs that were on his property and one of our dogs. Unless we are using the large agility field for training (maximum 4 times per month), none of our dogs are near the boundary fence with the Morley property. The interior fence in the area where the dogs are located when they are outside on our property (close to our house and driveway area) is an electric fence, so the dogs do not go anywhere near the Morley property.

Our property is zoned RR-5. A kennel is an allowed use under the current zoning, provided we obtain special use approval, which is what we are doing now. As stated in the letter of intent, the low impact use of our property as a dog day care and training facility is compatible with the rural residential character of the neighborhood.

We addressed the parking / traffic issue by having dogs dropped off and picked up at our house and not near the road. Any dust created by traffic caused by the small number of clients at our house cannot be compared with the dust created by high school students using Arrowhead Drive as a short cut to and from school, or by routine traffic on county gravel roads serving a residential neighborhood.

  1. From Enumerations understanding the garage, dog pen/storage & agility field will be the areas of use entirely for the business. If not accurate please clarity. 2. Are the dog pen/storage & Agility field fenced off areas or accrual structures? Please clarify. An address may need to be assigned for the commercial use to the property.
  2. Response The dog pen/storage and Agility Field are fenced areas are not actual strucutres. We are using the garage, dog pen/agility field for the business.

  1. If daily dog waste cleanup will occur, please explicitly state waste collection will occur daily in your letter of intent.
  1. Response – Dog waste is picked up 2-3 times daily and placed in sealed bins for disposal with the trash on Mondays
  1. Your letter of intent does not provide details about the activities onsite. Please be specific as to the number of dogs, hours of operation, mitigation efforts for surrounding properties, overall business plan, average daily traffic, how many customers/clients per day, etc. You will be limited to what is included in your letter of intent. 2. The director may elevate a special use to a public hearing. Should the decision be made administratively it may be appealed by either yourself or a neighbor.
  2. Response – please see updated letter of intent where this is all addressed in detail.
  3. The site plan does not show all property lines. Once the complete site plan is received there may be additional comments. 4. In the letter of intent explain what the agility field is used for. We need to ensure this is not an extension of a kennel/run.
  4. Response – please see updated map. The Agility Field is used to train Agility and is a free standing fenced field. Kenneling is only in our attached garage not outside.

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