Williston
ECRWSS PRSRT STD US Postage
PAID
Permit #15 Williston,VT 05495 POSTAL CUSTOMER
MARCH 23, 2023
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
Dog rescue dispute appears headed to court BY JASON STARR Observer staff
Can a dog rescue operation function in a residential neighborhood without using a backyard? Is it OK for volunteers to walk homeless dogs around Lamplite Lane just as anyone else can stroll the public road? These are the disputed questions that are likely to land a feud about Williston’s Vermont English Bulldog Rescue in court. The nonprofit’s founder, Dawna Pederzani, said she plans to appeal last week’s decision by the Williston Development Review Board (DRB) to deny her a permit to operate the dog rescue as a home business, overturning a zoning office decision in January to grant the permit. Vermont English Bulldog Rescue has been taking in and adopting out homeless dogs from Pederzani’s house for 14 years. But last fall — with complaints from neighbors about parking, barking and traffic intensifying — it was issued a zoning violation by the town. The violation required Pederzani to seek a permit from the DRB to continue operating, an application that the board denied in November. Pederzani submitted a second application in January after agreeing to scale back the operation and conduct its most intensive business — receiving vanloads of homeless dogs from out of state and matching them with families — at a different location. Zoning Administrator Matt Boulanger issued that permit with a few conditions of approval, giv-
ing Pederzani until the spring to create an off-street parking spwot and a plan for waste removal. Pederzani also began to limit use of her backyard to walks of one dog at a time supervised by a volunteer, no longer using outdoor cages. A group of 16 Lamplite Lane residents hired attorney Mark Hall to help them appeal Boulanger’s approval to the DRB. Last Tuesday, the board took testimony from Hall, several residents, Pederzani and a few of the nonprofit’s volunteers, then entered a private session to weigh their decision. Back
“The DRB had their minds made up going in. It was clear that they felt I was wasting their time.” Dawna Pederzani Vermont English Bulldog Rescue
in open session, the board unanimously overtuned Boulanger’s decision, denying the dog rescue a permit. If the board confirms its decision as expected on March 28 by approving the meeting minutes, a 30-day appeal period will begin. “I will appeal,” Pederzani said in an email Tuesday to the Observer. She does not think she was treated fairly during last week’s hearing. “The DRB had their minds made up going in,” she said. “It was clear that they felt I was wast-
ing their time … The Town of Williston has a duty to treat its citizens in a respectful and fair manner … I was not.” The appeal would be heard in Vermont Superior Court’s Environmental Division, Boulanger said. In its decision, the DRB found that Vermont English Bulldog Rescue violates a prohibition in Williston’s bylaws on home businesses using outdoor workspace in a residential zoning district. “The dog rescue … uses the backyard to exercise the rescue dogs,” the decision states. “This is deemed a material part of the home business.” That was a point that the neighbors emphasized during the hearing. “The use shall be entirely within the dwelling,” Hall said, quoting the town’s regulations on home businesses. “There is no exception to that language. In this case, the outside of the (house) is integral to the business itself. It cannot function without that.” Hall also noted that dogs are routinely walked around Lamplite Lane, although Pederzani has likened that to the freedom anyone has to walk on public roads. “The road and its shoulder are public property,” Pederzani wrote in a home business plan submitted to the zoning office. “Any person can come into any development to walk their dog provided that walker and dog are acting within the law.” That is a point that an Environmental Court judge may have to see RESCUE page 2
SPRING SERIES THE MARNA AND STEPHEN WISE TULIN
t Care Part on
rs ne
Verm
COMMUNITY EDUCATION
•
• N
RO
NC
E
CE
TE
F E XC E L
LE
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
Margaret Krause poses with one of her paintings for ‘The Loop,’ an art show running this week at St. Michael’s College. OBSERVER PHOTO BY JASON STARR
Vermont artist reflects on a first visit to the Rockies BY JASON STARR Observer staff A lifelong Vermonter has put all of her sensory and emotional experiences upon visiting the Rocky Mountain West for the first time into a senior capstone art display at St. Michael’s College this week. Margaret Krause is a native of Middlebury who spent countless hours at her dad’s office in Williston as a child, doodling, daydreaming and painting. Now an Art and Design and Education Studies double major set for graduation in May, Krause has set up a series of acrylic
paintings at the college’s McCarthy Arts Center for a weeklong showing. The exhibit, entitled “The Loop,” is inspired by Krause’s visit last summer to Utah and Wyoming, a camping road trip with friends that brought new sights, smells, thoughts and feelings for the Rice Memorial High School graduate. “It’s the stuff you see in books when you are growing up, then when you actually get there you have to adjust to appreciate the beauty of what is around you,” she said. “Looking at it, it doesn’t feel real. It’s so massive see KRAUSE page 2
ERNIE AND JOE: CRISIS COPS, A FILM SCREENING AND PANEL PRESENTATION April 13, 2023 | 6:30-8:00 pm Zoom webinar panel with Q&A. | 802-488-6912 Registration required at www.howardcenter.org