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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, September 28, 2015 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 10 of 27 9. #15-3768 MICHAEL AND LISA LARSON, PROPOSED ORDINANCE AMENDMENT RELATED TO DOG BOARDING AND GROOMING IN B-1 ZONING DISTRICT (continued) Barnhart noted the Council is not looking at a specific conditional use permit tonight but looking globally at a text amendment that would allow those types of uses. At the last Planning Commission meeting and City Council meeting, there was some concern from the neighborhood based primarily on noise. Barnhart noted Adogo near Ridgedale is located right across from residential and in the beginning there was significant opposition to it. That facility was ultimately approved and there have been no complaints. Barnhart noted Orono’s B-1 district does back up to some residential and so there is some reasonable concern associated with the use. Barnhart stated predominantly the ratio used is one dog per X square feet. Medina has one dog for 60 square feet and Minnetonka uses one dog for 80 square feet. Richfield did not have a ratio but they limited it to 50 dogs based on the size of the building. Barnhart suggested imposing the same type of ratio at this facility. Cornick asked if they are all small dogs or bigger dogs at these other facilities. Barnhart stated Medina is not limited to small dogs. McMillan asked if this revised draft ordinance is attempting to do some more refining of kennel locations. Barnhart stated the section provided tonight is not in the zoning code and is under the animal section of the City Code. The underlined language is the proposed new language. Barnhart stated he is not recommending approval tonight since it has not been fully refined unless the Council decides it is not an appropriate use. Council Member Printup noted last week the Planning Commission heard an application for a conditional use permit allowing dog daycare. Printup asked what type of comments were received during the meeting regarding the proposed use. Barnhart stated last week there was a review of a conditional use permit based on the approval of a similar ordinance. Comments were received from the neighbors in opposition to the project but the Planning Commission also received a comment in favor of the proposed use. Barnhart indicated there was quite a bit of concern expressed from the area property owners regarding noise and how that would impact their day-to-day life. Barnhart stated he attempted to address those concerns with performance standards. The biggest concern was that dog barking is a sharp intermittent noise. McMillan noted a number of the other sites are located close to freeways, which probably helps to mitigate some of the noise issues. McMillan indicated she did not make it up to Puptown today, but noted that facility is also pretty much surrounded by industrial. McMillan stated in her view the other facilities are located in noisy areas, which is different than the building located in Navarre. McMillan stated her concern in this instance is there was talk during the Planning Commission meeting of doing a $1 million renovation to the building with the soundproofing. McMillan stated given the amount of the investment, she would hate to have an issue with the neighbors. If the dogs are indoors all the time, it may not be an issue, but if the dogs are outside, that may impact the neighbors.