Dec 17, 2024
The Vermont Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that home kennels are allowed under Williston's zoning laws, a win for a dog rescue in town that was denied a permit after neighbors complained about barking, parking and traffic problems. The ruling does not give Dawna Pederzani a zoning permit to run Vermont English Bulldog Rescue at her home on Lamplite Lane. But it should give her more options as a lower court reconsiders her case. “It was kind of like finding the pony you had always hoped for under the Christmas tree,” Pederzani told Seven Days on Monday. “We can walk the dogs outside now.” Pederzani has run the nonprofit, which rehabilitates dogs from shelters in San Antonio, Texas, out of her home since 2010. She transports dozens of dogs each month from high-kill shelters in Texas. At first, she only took bulldogs, but now she rescues all breeds. Most are matched with an adoptive family before arriving in Vermont. [content-2] But the nonprofit has grown in recent years, and now adopts out about 450 dogs. For a time, Pederzani was holding large-scale puppy adoption days — where she facilitated the adoption of dozens of dogs at once — at her home. But after neighbors started complaining, Pederzani moved those events to the nearby Green Mountain Masonic Center. Any dogs that were not adopted were brought back to her Lamplite home; typically, she said, fewer than five dogs. Still, neighbors complained to the town. Some started taking photographs of the rescue’s volunteers walking dogs around the block. Part of the problem was that Pederzani had not filed for an operational permit until 2021. She said Matt Boulanger, the town’s zoning administrator, had told her that she did not need to. But after receiving complaints from residents, Boulanger issued a notice of zoning violation, which meant Pederzani had to apply for a permit. Ahead of a permit application hearing in November 2021, the Development Review Board received nearly 70 written comments. “Our residential neighborhood is not an appropriate area to run a nonprofit dog rescue kennel due to traffic, noise, and safety concerns,” one resident wrote in a letter to the review board. Many of Pederzani’s clients and volunteers wrote in support of the operation. Ultimately, though, the development review board denied the permit. Pederzani appealed the board’s decision to the state environmental court, which upheld the board’s decision…
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