By Tracy Lund

November 20, 2006 | SMITHFIELD -- Anyone living in Smithfield who owns three or more dogs, or five or more cats, will now have to obtain a special kennel/cattery permit from the city.

A zoning amendment created by Smithfield Planning and Zoning Commission and sent to the City Council for approval is being sent back to planning and zoning for some fine tuning.

The council considered zoning ordinance 17.32.100, Special Provisions for kennel/cattery conditional use permits, but were met with many questions from Smithfield residents as well as council members themselves. As of now the city will not issue a permit for dogs without a homeowners policy in place in case of accidents like dog bites. This becomes an issue because some insurance companies will not give homeowners policies to just anyone with a dog.

Char Izatt, deputy city recorder, said some residents can't get the homeowners policy required by the city.

"I had someone call and tell me that State Farm and American Family will not give a homeowners policy to people who have certain breeds of dogs," Izatt said. "Of the current kennel owners in Smithfield, none have dogs which have bitten, it's the people who own one or two dogs who have had the problems with biting."

In Smithfield, no insurance means no kennel permit.

James P. Gass, city manager, said he doesn't think people who live in apartments should be able to have kennels because of the multi-family use.

Izatt, who admits she is a dog lover, said, "with 2,600 households or more, if we narrow it down like that, we are taking benefits away from some [who live in apartments] and not others."

The original plan of the planning and zoning commission in amending the issue was only to give the staff of the city offices the power to issue conditional use kennel/cattery permits so not every person who wanted one would have to come before the planning commission. In the hearing, the commission had many suggestions they felt needed to be written into the amendment before it was passed.

The council said that as the law is now, the conditional use permit stays with the property. If one property owner has toy poodles or small breed dogs and moves, another owner could come in with large breed dogs under the same permit.

Dean Clegg, city recorder, said, "rather than the permit going with the property it should go when the property owner goes."

Councilwoman Kris Monson said, "I think that's smart, can we state that the conditional use go with the person? If a renter moves out, the permit expires then, not in three years."

Councilman William "Dee" Wood would like to see no kennel permits at all issued on lots smaller than 10,000 square feet.

Because there were many questions the council decided the amendment needed to be sent back to the planning and zoning commission. Monson said, "if we are making changes, I would like it to back to planning and zoning. They worked hard on this, I hate to just change it."

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