Kennel Permit Places Orange County Rural Buffer and New Hope Creek at Risk

Tell us more!  So where is the proposed kennel exactly and what are the existing county rules about kennels?

I'm a relatively new member of the Planning Board (since Jan. of this year) & I have not heard about this.

I don't think the Board of Adjustment grants a special use permit. Am I wrong? It soundslike the kennel is a possible "permitted use" and that's what the BOA affirmed.

I don't know how superior court proceedings are run, but I do know that it is imperative that we have as many people as possible in the courtroom supporting our cause--overturning the decision of the board of adjustments to grant a class B special use permit to allow placing the kennel in the rural buffer.Allowing a large boarding kennel is personally troubling for two reasons--1) there is no way such a facility, boarding 20 to 30 dogs, adjacent to the New Hope Creek floodplain can operate without injecting significant bacterial and chemical polution into the creek.  Studies by the EPA and numerous municipalities across the country have pointed out that runoff contacting even casual and incidential dog fecal deposits can contribute dangerous levels of E. Coli, Fecal Coliform, Salmonella, and other agents harmful to humans--and of course, other species who come in contact wih the bacteria.  Dogs not only  have to poop, they also have to be bathed, dipped, and treated for a variety of conditions that require chemical applications.  Again, there is no way this polution ca be kept from the waters of New Hope Creek.  2) Permitting this kind of commercial operation in the rural buffer that many of us, including the board of commissioners and the previously configured Orange County Planning  Department, have fought long and hard to maintain over the years, begs the question--what next.  I have been around long enough to know with certainly that once a door of so-called opportunity is opened for one, it will soon be flattened by a self-serving hoard of "opportunists". By the way, the proposed kennel boarding compound would produce at least a ton and a half of dog feces per year, if a minimal number of small-to-medium sized animals are housed there.

Before we get our knickers in a twist, let's consider the nature of this buiness.  The word "kennel" implies noise and stinky conditions and unhappy animals; but their website gives me a much different impression.  Are the neighbors afraid of noise, dog pee, traffic, or what? Is it there already? 

the immediate neighbors--all of the above.  Other concerns--watershed polution and threat to the integrity of the rural buffer have been spelled out. trawick Ward

This thread brings up an important issue that OC citizens need to discuss.  We have an urban boundary and some see that as an environmentally progressive stance and something of which we should be proud.  I am one of those people.  However, I don’t often hear a discussion of what that means.  It seems to me that having this boundary says something about both sides of the line. On one side promote density; provide urban amenities and transportation centers.  On the other side discourage density and other urban pursuits but not necessarily businesses that are consistent with a rural environment.  I think often people have forgotten this coin has two sides.  I lived in what is now the rural buffer from 1984 to 2000.  I don’t know whether it was the rural buffer when I moved in but at some point I learned that it was the rural buffer.  A neighbor explained what that meant.  It meant you needed at least 2 acres to build a house.  Maybe that has changed but I remember thinking that’s a Chapel Hill idea.  The way things work around here, what we will get, at least in the southern part of the buffer, is one house on every 2 acres (and probable an expensive one).  That didn’t sound like much of a rural buffer to me.  At the time I didn’t think of the other side of the coin, what it meant for the now confined urban area.  Since then I moved into Carrboro’s northern transition zone, I’ve come to understand better what it is all about.  When I moved, just nine years ago, the Carrboro NTZ wasn’t that much different than the rural buffer that I moved from.  I was about the same distance from I-40 that I had been with similar density.  It is now much more urbanized and considering the issues presented by the boundary, which I have come to understand, I see this urbanization as environmentally positive.  Unfortunately, I am no longer sure that there is much of a political commitment to this understanding of the boundary.  I believe, this is a discussion that needs to occur.  I believe the discussion about Carrboro’s NTZ (which I guess on some level has begun) should also include a discussion of the rural buffer and the implication that having a boundary and a rural buffer has for the NTZ.      Now about the specific issue that began this thread. Without having a clue as to what the law says (I am also not a lawyer) boarding and training animals seems like a perfectly reasonable pursuit to have on the rural buffer side of the boundary.  From what I have learned from this thread, it seems like it might not be appropriate for this particular parcel of land.  There are seemly very good reasons to oppose this project but I think not because it is an inappropriate activity for the rural buffer.  In my opinion the risk is related to environmental concerns and perhaps other concerns but I don’t think this development puts the rural buffer at risk.

The concept of a "rural buffer" is defined by "environmental concerns." The establishment of a buffer is to restrict or prevent developments and activities that theaten environmental qualities deemed  essential for its preservation.  To me, the idea that an activity can be inappropriate and raise "environmental concerns" without threating the integrity of the buffer itselt, is logically inconsistant.   

Why?  If environmental impacts are equal.  One of us is having a logical short-circuit.

Horse shit, sludge, and dog shit are totally different forms of excretion, with vastly different levels of environmental threat, and if you don't know the difference, I'm not going to waste any more of my time, josting with Lilliputains!