Kennel decision will be appealed

GALVESTON — A woman who wants to open a dog sheltering service on the West End will appeal to the city council for a permit for the business after the city’s planning commission denied the plan for the business.

Judy Shorman and two business partners have bought a home at 18601 Warrior Road and plan to remodel the house to provide a sheltering service for dogs. Shorman said they would enclose the area under the elevated home to build a climate-controlled 2,100 square foot dog kennel. The business would create a 14,400 square foot play area for dogs on the 4-acre property.

But residents in the neighborhood said the kennel could drive down property values and create noise and odor nuisances.

Planning commission members said they were worried the business would affect quality of life in the neighborhood.

The property is not a part of the subdivision and was platted as a planned development zoning district, which allows a dog kennel as a permitted use on the land, but in January, the Indian Beach Property Owners Association rallied homeowners to petition the planning commission to deny the permit for the business.

Shorman would have needed four votes out of seven to get the permit.

With Dominick Sasser absent, the commission voted 1-4-1 with Nathaniel Wilson for the approval, Terry Conrad, Willy Gonzalez, David Miller and Johnny Smecca against and Joe Rozier abstaining.

“We do look at the quality,” Gonzalez said. “I think Indian Beach is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Galveston. I am definitely pro-business and pro-development. I do believe that the first people who shoveled dirt there meant for it to be residential. I can’t support this today the way it is presented. I have some concerns with the amount of dogs starting off at eight and going to 15 and something else happens ... Any plan development in this area should be on the edge of FM 3005 or the edge of the subdivision and not in the middle of the neighborhood.”

Under the permitting process, Shorman can appeal the decision to the city council.

“Galveston is an animal-friendly place,” Shorman said. “A lot of residents and visitors come with their dogs, and I think there is growing awareness for the need for services for pet owners.”

City laws allow up to four dogs per house, according to the city charter. If the roughly four acres were divided into half acre lots and developed, the area could house 36 dogs, but Shorman said she would house a maximum of 15 dogs at a time, and she has agreed to landscape the area.

She said they would use solid, white vinyl fencing and would be willing to meet other city requirements for the kennel.

But homeowners are disappointed the business owners are appealing the decision, Keith Godwin, president of the Indian Beach Property Owners Association, said.

“The planning commission carefully considered the application and information presented during two public hearings and soundly defeated this proposal for good reason,” he said. “To approve the application and allow a commercial business in the heart of a community comprised of 364 properties that are strictly residential would have gone completely against the city of Galveston’s Comprehensive Plan adopted in 2011.

“One of the tenets of the Comprehensive Plan is to maintain the character of the existing neighborhood. Clearly, a dog kennel established in the heart of Indian Beach would compromise, if not destroy, the character of our peaceful neighborhood.

“As one of the commissioners suggested, this is just the wrong place for this business.”

According to a city staff report, there are about 50 occupied homes in the subdivision near the proposed business.

“Nobody is even going to know we’re there,” Shorman said. “Our goal is to be good neighbors.”

Contact reporter Amanda Casanova at 409-683-5236 or amanda.casanova(at)galvnews.com.

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AT A GLANCE

WHAT: City council discussion of proposed dog kennel

WHEN: 4 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: City council chambers, City hall, 823 Rosenberg