As time ticks down on the six-month moratorium on the processing and approval of permits for dog kennels and breeding facilities that was imposed in Gardiner in February, the Town Board has been tweaking its draft for a new local law that would regulate kennels. Noting that she has been keeping the Ulster County Planning Board apprised of progress, as required whenever a moratorium is adopted, town supervisor Marybeth Majestic said at the board’s April 6 meeting that she expected the new law to be ready for a public hearing in May.
Councilman David Dukler, who has taken the lead on drafting the new kennel law, said that he had rewritten the original draft following consultations with Gardiner’s dog control officer and Planning Board member Josh Verleun, and also reviewed recommendations by the Buffalo Municipal Law Clinic, which specializes in animal-related legislation. “I learned a lot more about dog kennels than I had intended,” Dukler joked.
Verleun had been one of a group of neighbors who objected to the application last year by Springtown Farmland, LLC to open a kennel on the site of a former horse farm at 163 Denniston Road. That application has since been withdrawn.
“We first looked at the law with this facility in mind,” Dukler explained. “But our proposal was not addressing other than commercial kennels.” He cited noncommercial kennels, people fostering animals in their homes and people raising puppies for personal applications such as hunting as examples of activities that would be regulated under a kennel law but were not specifically covered in the initial draft.
According to Dukler, the amended language is now in the hands of town attorneys for review. “The lawyer has to bring it into compliance with the rest of the code,” he said. The draft legislation will be posted on the Town of Gardiner website in advance of the public hearing.
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