CAMDEN — The Camden Planning will decide at its mid-January meeting  whether the relocation of the PAWS Animal Adoption Center to the former Camden First Aid building on John Street requires a full site plan review, or qualifies as a minor development application, thereby falling solely under purview of code enforcement officer Steve Wilson.

At its current location on Camden Street in Rockport, PAWs cares for homeless and abandoned dogs and cats and contracts with Camden, Rockport, Lincolnville, Belfast, Northport, Searsmont, Liberty and Islesboro to take their stray and otherwise needy animals. In early December, the nonprofit said it was pursuing acquisition of the Camden First Aid building in Camden, and which has been sitting unoccupied since last spring when that emergency medical nonprofit ceased operating. The closing is expected to take place today, Monday, Dec. 30.

With two conditions, Camden’s Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved at its Dec. 19 meeting to grant a special exception to PAWS to operate at 124 John Street. The ZBA granted the special exception, but asked for proof of the organization’s nonprofit status, and required that PAWS work with Wilson and the police department in creating a auditory and visual buffer zone with neighbors.

The ZBA voted after addressing concerns about potential noise, especially dog barking, and after determining that the PAWs shelter would be a quasi-public facility (a recognized public purpose. Several citizens attending the meeting told the ZBA they anticipated unwanted noise.

“Barking dogs would  be an annoyance,” said Camden resident Paula Marshall, who lives on hearby Mechanic Street. “Camden does have an ordinance about dogs barking.”

The shelter had initiated a $2.2 million fundraising campaign to upgrade its facility on Camden Street. It has been in that general location for decades, expanding from the site of a former small house behind Camden Hospital for Animals to its current larger facility on Camden Street.

When the Camden First Aid building came on the market, the PAWS board of directors saw an opportunity to save money in a structure that suits its purposes. Constructed in the 1990s, the 8,244 square-foot building is currently assessed by the town at $816,000. The parcel is four acres in size.

At the Dec. 19 ZBA meeting, John Scholz, of Camden, represented PAWs as one of the nonprofit’s vice presidents. He requested the ZBA grant a special exception for the building to be used as a quasi-public facility, a purpose that had previously been granted to Camden First Aid by the town. The property sits in the Traditional Village District.

A quasi-public facility according to the town’s zoning ordinance is recognized for public purpose, such as an auditorium, library, park or museum, and is operated by a nonprofit or a public entity other than a municipality.

Scholz described to the ZBA anticipated building improvements and operations, saying the structure would not change in size.

A portion of the pavement on the east side would be torn up and converted to dog runs. The dogs would be out in that area when the indoor facility is being cleaned.

The facility would not be run as a boarding establishment, he said.

The existing garage would be converted to dog pens.

Permanent staff positions include the administrative director, development director and shelter manager. There are volunteers, the number of which will fluctuate, said Scholz.

“Four to eight people at the most, would be the most involved there at any one time,” he said. “We are going to have more people than where we are,” he said, noting that the shelter has hopes of increasing its adoption efforts, and the hours it will be open may increase to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week.

He noted that the Pope Memorial Humane Society of Knox County has 40 to 50 visits a day of people looking at dogs and cats.

“We hopefully expect to have an active participation,” said Scholz. “We can expect some activity there on a ongoing basis but that will fluctuate on a given day.”

The dogs would not be in the runs at night, and only periodically during the day.

Scholz said the existing facility has no noise complaints on file with the Rockport Police Department. He said there was one minor incidence with the church next door there. The two-acre dog park on Camden Street is not part of the shelter operation but is managed by a subcommittee of the PAWs’s board. The park will remain where it now is, he said.

The shelter dogs will continue to be exercised as they are now, daily by volunteers who walk them along the streets.

At the meeting, a representative of the John Street Methodist Church, which is across the street from the Camden First Aid building, said the church is concerned about potential noise and traffic, especially on Sunday.

“I love animals, and I’m not against whole idea,” said Mazie Cox. “I just don’t think it’s an appropriate place for dogs across from my church.”

Scholz responded about the noise, saying there have been no noise complaints in Rockport from the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

“We have not had a complaint from the church,” he said, nor any complaints from a residence across the road there.“When lights are off, one can reasonably agree that dogs tend to go to sleep. They don’t tend to bark unless someone is there.”

He suggested a five-foot tall hedge be planted to help buffer noise.

Former CFAA director Julia Libby told the ZBA that her organization was careful not to run sirens and make noise. 

“I think we probably had a lot more traffic than what animal shelter will have,” she said, adding that CFAA also held classes twice a week.

“I think the traffic will be a lot less than when we were there,” she said.

 Camden resident Sharon Gilbert said she was formerly a member of the nearby Garden Institute, adding that there was dense vegetation between the CFAA building and the garden’s property.

“The outdoor pens seems to be in a dense area, where there is a buffer to help with the noise,” she said. “What is existing there along those properties will help with the noise.”

 Steve Dailey is a trustee of the Methodist Church. He said at the meeting: “We are concerned about the noise,” and said the town needs to take a “good, hard look” at the potential for noise.

The Garden Institute and Merry Gardens Housing Associates (elderly congregate living next door to CFAA) authored a Dec. 18 letter (see attached PDF) questioning the use of the property by PAWs as a qualified quasi-public facility. The letter said the use “is significantly more similar in nature to a clinic for animals than any of the defined examples of quasi-public uses or municipal or institutional uses permitted within the town.”

The two entities asked the ZBA to consider the definition of a clinic in determining whether or not this shelter was appropriately classified as a quasi-public facility.

“The category of ‘Quasi-Public Use’ is not intended as a catchall to include any undefined use for which a nonprofit or other public agency wishes to apply,” they wrote. “When an undefined use comes before a board for review as a special exception, the board should determine if they can rely on a similar use that is already defined in the ordinance.”

They argued that an animal shelter should be defined as a clinic for animals, and that animal shelters should not be allowed in districts where animal clinics are prohibited.

The three biggest abutters of the CFAA land are Merry Gardens and the Garden Institute.

While the ZBA did acknowledge the letter at its Dec. 19 meeting, board members disagreed and voted that the shelter is a quasi-public facility because it serves municipalities.

The Camden Planning Board will next take up the matter of the proposed shelter relocation in January.

Neighbors opposing the ZBA decision could request a reconsideration, if they submit a letter to the town within 10 days of the meeting.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657.