Zoning code adapted to changing view of kennels
Kennel has been added as a conditional use in C-3 Neighborhood Office-Commercial districts, with the Hot Springs Board of Directors adopting an ordinance last week amending the zoning code’s table of uses.
Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman told the board last month that kennel connoted an austere environment for warehousing animals when the zoning code was adopted in 2003. Contemporary associations conjure attentive care provided in a well-appointed location, she said.
The planning commission ruled 8-0 that such a service is consistent with conditional uses in the C-3 designation, which the zoning code defines as a buffer between low-density residential and higher-intensity commercial uses. The table of uses already granted conditional-use status for kennels in R-1 Suburban Residential and Agriculture districts. It’s a permitted use in C-4 Regional Commercial/ Open Display districts.
“Our definition for kennel was put together many years ago when kennel was a jail for dogs,” Sellman told the board. “I think what we see now in the industry is a much higher level of comforts for the animals, as well as the level of care the animals get. There’s training that goes on with the animals. There’s activities. It’s like being at a high-end hotel.
“The concept being used nationwide is to have it in an easily accessible area. It’s not to bury it out somewhere down a dirt road and leave your dog there and hope for the best.”
Tom and Ashley Hopkins applied for the amendment in June. Sellman said the couple has an animal day care and pet resort near Hot Springs Village.
“Mrs. Hopkins is very active in the professional organization that sets standards for doggy day care and doggy resorts,” Sellman told the board. “She is incredibly passionate about
bringing this to Hot Springs. They would like to find a location, which would then, once they find it, go to planning commission with a detailed site plan and conditions of operations for planning commission to consider.”
The Hopkins’ application for the amendment included a detailed description of the service they provide.
“A dog day care is operated just like a day-care facility for children,” the description said. “All dogs come in for a starting evaluation and temperament test, including excessive play and excessive barking.
“Day-care dogs are assigned to play groups based on size and play style and supervised by a highly trained day-care attendant at all times. An indoor play area along with an outdoor play area offer plenty of room to make new fur friends, and the human pack leaders provide constant supervision, safety and love.”
Sellman told the board the attentive care animals will receive and the lack of residences close to available C-3 spaces should mitigate noise concerns.
“Many of the sites in C-3 that are vacant are surrounded by C-3, so the level of neighbor exposure to noise and other negative impacts would be very site-specific,” she said. “And I’m told the dogs are not just let out into a fenced area, and, when nobody can stand the barking anymore, they bring them in. That’s not the way this works.”