The planning board is obligated to approve or disapprove the special use permit based on the law. The law clearly states that the kennel cannot “Interfere or conflict with the peaceful enjoyment of neighboring residential uses”.
The planning board refuses to consider noise when applying this law. They gave two reasons; First, because the town has no noise ordinance. Second because there’s conflicting information regarding the noise and kennels.
Both of these reasons are absurd.
First, you cannot consider the impact a 20+ commercial dog kennel is going to have on the peaceful enjoyment of neighboring residences without considering noise. The absence of a local sound ordinance is immaterial. THIS law requires considering the impact of noise on the community.
Second, noise generated by kennels is science. It’s not “subjective”. We know how loud a dog barks, we know the accumulated decibel level of 20 dogs barking and we know how loud that accumulated noise is going to be at given distances. It’s science and fact, there’s nothing subjective about it.
The decision to approve or disapprove this special use permit comes down to the planning board members. Planning board members whom are neither elected nor accountable for their decision.
We’ve provided them with the science behind kennel noise. They’ve rejected that information as “subjective”.
We’ve pleaded with them that the kennel noise WILL interfere and conflict… They’ve told us that is “arbitrary” because of the lack of a local noise ordinance.
This essentially means they’re ignoring the law, and ignoring the residences that are being negatively impacted by this commercial kennel.
I often work at home with my second floor office window having a direct “Line of Sight” to the kennel building location. A 15′ berm will do little to nothing in noise reduction for my office. I will hear those dogs barking whenever the outdoor kennel runs are open.
It will be impossible to work from home with the constant drone of barking dogs just a few hundred feet away. How can this possibly NOT interfere and conflict with my peaceful use??? How can it NOT interfere and conflict with YOUR peaceful use?? Yet the planning board is considering this “arbitrary”.
The decision to disapprove this special use permit MUST be made based on the law and the input of the neighboring residences. Residences whom have already stated the negative impact the kennel is having on their peaceful enjoyment…