Dog rescue dispute appears headed to court

BY JASON STARR Observer staff

Can a dog rescue operation function in a residential neighborhood without using a backyard? Is it OK for volunteers to walk homeless dogs around Lamplite Lane just as anyone else can stroll the public road?

These are the disputed questions that are likely to land a feud about Williston’s Vermont English Bulldog Rescue in court.

The nonprofit’s founder, Dawna Pederzani, said she plans to appeal last week’s decision by the Williston Development Review Board (DRB) to deny her a permit to operate the dog rescue as a home business, overturning a zoning office decision in January to grant the permit.

Vermont English Bulldog Rescue has been taking in and adopting out homeless dogs from Pederzani’s house for 14 years. But last fall — with complaints from neighbors about parking, barking and traffic intensifying — it was issued a zoning violation by the town. The violation required Pederzani to seek a permit from the DRB to continue operating, an application that the board denied in November. Pederzani submitted a second application in January after agreeing to scale back the operation and conduct its most intensive business — receiving vanloads of homeless dogs from out of state and matching them with families at a different location.

Zoning Administrator Matt Boulanger issued that permit with a few conditions of approval, giv- ing Pederzani until the spring to create an off-street parking spwot and a plan for waste removal. Pederzani also began to limit use of her backyard to walks of one dog at a time supervised by a volunteer, no longer using outdoor cages.

A group of 16 Lamplite Lane residents hired attorney Mark Hall to help them appeal Boulanger’s approval to the DRB. Last Tuesday, the board took testimony from Hall, several residents, Pederzani and a few of the nonprofit’s volunteers, then entered a private session to weigh their decision. Back ing their time … The Town of Williston has a duty to treat its citizens in a respectful and fair manner … I was not.”

The appeal would be heard in Vermont Superior Court’s Environmental Division, Boulanger said.

In its decision, the DRB found that Vermont English Bulldog Rescue violates a prohibition in Williston’s bylaws on home businesses using outdoor workspace in a residential zoning district.

“The dog rescue … uses the backyard to exercise the rescue dogs,” the decision states. “This is deemed a material part of the home business.”

That was a point that the neighbors emphasized during the hearing.

“The use shall be entirely within the dwelling,” Hall said, quoting the town’s regulations on home businesses. “There is no exception to that language. In this case, the outside of the (house) is integral to the business itself. It cannot function without that.”