Sketch courtesy of city of Hoove
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American Pet Resorts wants to put a 15,000-square-foot dog boarding and grooming facility on 2 acres at the corner of Stadium Trace Parkway and Brock's Gap Parkway in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama.
Residents of the Chestnut Ridge and North Ridge subdivisions in the Trace Crossings community scored another victory in their fight against a proposed dog boarding facility Monday night.
For the second month in a row, the company that wants to put a Pet Paradise dog boarding and grooming facility on 2 acres at the corner of Stadium Trace Parkway and Brock’s Gap Parkway asked for a continuance after members of the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission voiced concerns about the proposal.
Representatives for American Pet Resorts, after first seeking a delay in March after zoning board members expressed concerns, made an extensive presentation to the zoning board Monday night, highlighting additional measures the company would take to stifle dog barking.
The company said it would put up an 8-foot-tall brick wall around the outdoor portions of the facility and put sound-absorbing materials on the inside of the wall. The company also said the exterior walls of the building would consist of masonry materials with concrete filling to reduce the sounds coming from inside the facility. Additionally, ceilings would be insulated with spray foam to reduce noise, attorney Charlie Beavers said.
No more than 175 animals would be permitted in the facility at any given time, and no more than 75 dogs would be allowed outdoors at the same time, Beavers said. Aggressive or excessively noisy animals would not be permitted in the outdoor areas, he said.
American Pet Resorts also hired a sound engineer to analyze the noise impact the proposed facility would have on surrounding residential properties.
The sound engineer, who analyzed a similar existing facility in Snellville, Georgia, said he conducted sound tests at that facility and at the site in Trace Crossings and doesn’t think the dog barking would be loud enough to bother people in the closest homes. The closest homes are at least 400 feet away, and the dog barking would wash into the ambient noise, meaning residents likely would hear traffic more than the dogs, he said.
The sound-absorbing materials that would be utilized by Pet Paradise and the dense vegetation surrounding residential areas likely would mitigate dog barking to the point that it wouldn’t be an issue, he said.
Greg Williams, a board member of the Chestnut Ridge homeowners association, said he wasn’t buying that. The facility in Georgia was in a flat area, and Trace Crossings is not flat, Williams said.
Chestnut Ridge and North Ridge are up on a ridge above where this facility would be, and the sound likely will travel up the ridge, he and other residents said.
Chestnut Ridge resident Nancy Carr said she lives half a mile away from Bumpus Middle School and can hear the children at the school when they are outside, laughing and playing.
The Pet Paradise boarding facility is a lovely facility, but she hopes the company will find another place to put it, she said.
“It will do significant harm to everybody’s quality of life that lives around that area,” Carr said.
Jim McKittrick, another Chestnut Ridge resident, noted that American Pet Resorts has a completely enclosed facility in North Carolina. While he doesn’t want a pet boarding facility at this location at all, if there has to be one, it should at least be fully enclosed like the one in North Carolina, he said.
James Inman, the real estate acquisition manager for American Pet Resorts, said his company has determined that it doesn’t want fully enclosed facilities. Its customers prefer facilities that give dogs an outdoor exercise yard, he said.
Hoover zoning board Chairman Mike Wood said the proposed Pet Paradise facility is great, but “I just don’t know if it’s at the right location. The sound I think is the big issue.”
Wood asked Inman if his company would rather have a fully enclosed facility or try to find another site.
Inman at first said his company loves the site it already has picked out and believes it has put enough noise mitigation tools in place to address residents’ concerns, but after consulting further with his attorney agreed to seek another continuance to further study the issue.
Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice, who also sits on the zoning board, encouraged Inman to think about the success that the Pet Suites Resort facility on John Hawkins Parkway has had with a facility that does not allow dogs outside at all.
The zoning board plans to take up the case again at 5:30 p.m. on May 9.
