FAYETTEVILLE — Concern about barking and odors prevented a new doggie day care business from locating in Fayetteville.
The Fayetteville City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday night to deny a development permit that would have allowed Barking Bed and Breakfast to locate on a 2-acre site on Old Farmington Road, near a handful of Interstate 540 hotels and a residential community.
“I feel like it’s important that we consider the businesses that we have,” said Shirley Lucas, a council member, who did not support the pet day care center.
“And the neighbors,” she added. “One or two dogs barking is a nuisance. I don’t care if they’re next door or two blocks away.”
Only council members Matthew Petty, Sarah Lewis and Kyle Cook voted to allow Barking Bed and Breakfast owner Melanie Chambers the conditional-use permit her facility would have needed. She intends to take her business plan to Johnson.
“They want my tax dollars over there,” Chambers said after the council vote.
The doggie day care would have accommodated up to 80 dogs. What raised the most contention among neighbors was the provision to allow up to 25 dogs outside at a time, even though the dogs would not be allowed out after 6 p.m., according to conditions of approval set by the Fayetteville Planning Division.
The measure has already been before the Fayetteville Planning Commission, where it failed 6-3.
Not everyone believed a dog hotel is incompatible with a similar facility for people.
“This business has no adverse effect on our customers,” wrote Christopher Talley, a manager at Microtel Inn and Suites in Bentonville, in a letter to the Fayetteville City Council.
“I do not lose business because of Doggie Days Day Care,” he added of the dog boarding facility located 175 feet from Microtel.
If the possible threat of noise from barking dogs wasn’t enough for residents in the Old Farmington Road area to oppose the plan, other pet byproducts were.
“How many liters of ‘No.1’ that comes out of 80 dogs, is probably pretty significant,” remarked Jeff Hawkins, who lives in the area and is the executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission.
In other business the City Council approved the city’s 2010 budget. The budget calls for substantial cuts, because of revenue estimates roughly $2.5 million less than this year, said Paul Becker, Fayetteville Finance Director. City employees will not see a raise and more than a dozen positions will go unfilled. But the administration is not calling for a cut in services.
“I guess it is what it is,” Cook said. “There is no wiggle room. And I appreciate staff and the mayor to not have to cut any services.”
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