Residents rally to support local rescue
Published 1:37 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
SNOQUALMIE – An animal shelter in Snoqualmie is one step closer to having all the permits it needs in order to operate within city codes.
The Snoqualmie Planning Commission voted unanimously after a public hearing on Monday, April 15, to recommend that the City Council issue the Three Rivers Rescue animal shelter an unclassified use permit.
The permit is required by the city for residents who have activities on their properties that fall outside of those allowed by normal zoning codes.
“I don’t believe I’m a kennel,” said Kim Howard, who runs Three Rivers. “I shouldn’t need this.”
A majority of the citizens’ comments presented to the Planning Commission were in favor of Three Rivers, encouraging the city to let Howard continue taking in pets.
“If you want to be uplifted and you don’t have anything to do, just go to Kim Howard’s,” said Nancy Rice.
Opposition to the granting of the unclassified use permit was backed by stories that Three Rivers was not fully responsible for the animals in its care. Peggy Fursman, a neighbor to the animal shelter, said she had experiences where she saw dogs run through her yard and get very close to her friends and a young child.
“A residential neighborhood is not the proper place to run a private kennel,” Fursman said.
Other comments came from those who supported Three Rivers but were leery of granting it a permit, in fear that such a designation might negatively affect the value of surrounding properties.
“I would like to see it go along as it has been,” said Rita Lessard, who shares a property boundary with the shelter. “But you should not license something in the middle of a neighborhood.”
Since the city derives its animal-control laws from the county, citizens and members of the Planning Commission had many questions for Ben Leifer, manager of animal services and programs for King County. Leifer said that the county allows someone with a lot the size of Howard to have up to three animals before she would have to get additional permits. Those permits, which cost $75 a year, would allow Howard to keep up to 10 dogs on her property.
Eunice Grubb, an animal advocate from Redmond, argued that the law says the county allows eight animals before a rescue like Three Rivers needs to obtain permits.
“She [Grubb] has been a very passionate advocate for those interpretations,” Leifer said. “But we enforce what is under Title 11 [the law limiting the number of animals to three].
In addition to the unanimous recommendation by the Planning Commission, other steps outside of the meeting have expedited the approval of the permit as well.
Howard said she was originally told by the city that she would have to pay $700 in order to process the unclassified use permit. But after several people voiced support for her rescue, she said she was told by the city that the fee had been dropped to $50. In addition, she was told that the fee had been paid by an anonymous donor.
“I think they [the city of Snoqualmie] just got caught doing something they knew was wrong,” Howard said.
