Sparks flew at the December 6 Gardiner Town Board meeting after councilwoman Carol Richman attempted without success, for the second month in a row, to persuade her colleagues to impose a moratorium on all dog-breeding in the Town. Richman, an attorney, strongly recommended additional changes to the Kennel Law passed in February 2022. She expressed concern that the differing standards for commercial versus noncommercial breeders could be construed as a violation of Interstate Commerce law.
February’s update to the law added the line “Breeding dogs for commercial purposes is not allowed” to the Legislative Intent section of the Dog Control chapter of the zoning code, although this prohibition had already been specified in the Kennel Law under the definition of “Commercial Kennel.” Noncommercial breeding is not prohibited, although the definition of “Noncommercial Kennel” limits the number of dogs in residence to ten. Richman argued for including such limits under the Legislative Intent section as well.
“I think we need to have a limit on the number of dogs being bred – not just commercially,” she said, predicting that “Commercial kennels will be angry,” construing the law as it stands as “arbitrary and capricious.” “I see a lawsuit arising out of this,” Richman added. She urged that the existing Kennel Law be submitted for review to David Yaffe or Hamburger, Maxson & Yaffe, LLP, an attorney recently retained by the Town Board for another purpose.
Richman has other quibbles with the existing Kennel Law, one of which involves the parameter in the Housing section that allows a kennel to exist on a five-acre lot, but requires setbacks of at least 100 feet from any property lines. She said that Zoning Board of Appeals chair Rich Cerruto has reached out to her with concerns about the ZBA being asked to grant variances of this provision of the law, because five acres would be insufficient. “Rich calculated that they would need a ten-acre parcel to get the setbacks defined in this law, and it also would have to be a perfect square,” she explained. “Every proposal would have to go to the ZBA.”
In addition, Richman questioned the Kennel Law’s provision limiting the number of adult foster dogs in a private home to one at a time, except for bonded pairs. “I don’t understand why. Animal rights groups would have a problem with this,” she predicted.
Both councilman Franco Carucci and supervisor Marybeth Majestic agreed that the 100-foot setback requirement appears to be unworkable and needs to be reduced. But the consensus of the Board was that any needed tweaks to the Kennel Law could be implemented within the general update of the Zoning Code that is planned to commence in 2023, rather than as a separate effort requiring a moratorium. “For me, this does not rise to the level of an emergency,” councilwoman Laura Walls said.
“I agree with Laura regarding the importance and significance of this,” said councilman Warren Wiegand. “The Comprehensive Plan [passed in 2022] is a major document that’s going to be guiding this Town over the next ten years. The Kennel Law does not rise to the same level of importance that we should put the Town’s effort and money behind.”
“Until we get sued,” Richman retorted. Clearly frustrated when not one other councilperson expressed support for her recommendation that Yaffe review the Kennel Law, she blasted what she called “the lack of respect that I get when I bring something up that I think is a problem. I feel like I’m wasting my time on this Board.”
“Please don’t feel that you’re being singled out,” said Walls, offering to share accounts of some of the times when issues that she felt strongly about failed to gain traction with the rest of the Board.
“Oh, I am,” Richman said heatedly.
“It’s not personal,” Carucci replied.
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