Severn Town Council has requested a staff report addressing potential changes to its Dog Kennel bylaw.
The move comes after a resident who operates a dog-care business discovered she would be contravening Township rules if she continued dog-sitting for-profit, due to the zoning of her residence where the business is operated out of.
Stephanie Dell, owner of the Northern Pawsitivity Daycare, is still hopeful things will change in her and others’ favour down the road.
Back in January, she was delivered a cease-operation order from the Township after she filed for a kennel license, which was denied because her property’s zoning is residential where kennels currently are not allowed.
She had then asked for an exemption to the rules so she could keep operating the way she was while Council further investigated the matter, but she learned Wednesday this wouldn’t happen.
The laws in Severn state that if you are going to use structures on your property to house four or more dogs or any number of dogs for-profit, you are operating a kennel and the zoning of a property determines if one is allowed.
If the zoning is Rural or Agricultural or Rural-Commercial you have to apply for a kennel license to operate a kennel on your property.
If your property is not one of these zonings, you are currently unable to apply for a license.
Township Mayor Mike Burkett tells us that the staff report requested Wednesday is aimed at looking at solutions which won’t be costly to residents who want to operate these businesses in residential zonings, because as its stands the required Official Plan amendment process is costly for individual owners.
“The report will give Council options on what we can do and the order of how we go about it and the public meetings that will need to be held,” he said.
This will take awhile, but in the meantime Dell plans to ramp-up other areas of her business which she is allowed to continue, including dog walking and essential care services in order to help keep her business viable.
Council’s reason for not approving her exemption request Wednesday was that they didn’t have the authority to grant one unless it was via the Township’s Official Plan and Zoning Amendment bylaw process. As it stands, according to the Township, Dell’s business would first require an actual kennel license under these laws. Due to her property’s residential zoning, she is not eligible for that type of license at this point in time.
“I think we just need to see how we can create space within the Township for this type of business to operate above board legally,” says Severn Councillor Wanda Minnings.
Dell first started the business so she could remain home with her son and her dog and also be that person for other people.
She says most of her customers are local but she also serves travellers at local resorts and Air BnB’s who have nowhere to look after their dogs.
“It’s not over yet,” says Dell. “It’s nice to see I had support from certain councillors. Now I’ve definitely brought (the issue) to everyone’s attention.”
