Cedar Rapids council changes land-use, zoning to support dog kennel

The Cedar Rapids City Council last night, on an 8-0 vote Tuesday night, agreed to change the city's future land use map and the zoning for a property at 1201 Eighth St. NW so Canine Corner & Cats Too, a pet day care and kennel, can get into compliance with the city's zoning ordinance.

The unanimous council vote did not come before City Council member Chuck Swore said he sympathized with the kennel's new next-door neighbors who moved into a renovated flood-hit home in January never imagining the noise they would encounter from the kennel, owned by Glenda Fillenworth.

“I wouldn't want to live there,” said Swore, who visited the neighbors, Brian and Christine Wagner, 1219 Eighth St. NW, in recent weeks to listen to their complaints first hand.

Swore said both the city and the Block by Block neighborhood revitalization program, which sold the Wagners their house, should see what they can do to lessen the kennel's impact on the Wagners. Swore said the situation is “what we created” for the neighbors, apparently a reference to the many years the city let Canine Corner operate as a kennel on a residential street in violation of the city's zoning ordinance.

Ten people wrote to the city in support of Fillenworth, and 27 others signed a petition supporting her.

A neighbor across the street and Linda Seger, president of Northwest Neighbors, last night called Fillenworth a credit to the neighborhood.

Swore noted the support but said “there is a difference” living 13 feet away from the kennel, as the Wagners do.

The zoning change will require Fillenworth to construct a 2,400 square foot enclosure, soundproof it and keep the animals she boards inside.

The new enclosure will take up much of her existing backyard, though she will not have to use the enclosure for dogs she considers her own. Fillenworth rescues Belgian shepherds, and in September she said she had 10 of those on the property in addition to 30 to 40 dogs in the day care and kennel. The shepherds, which are the dogs that most annoy the Wagners, are hers and not part of the business, she has said.

Fillenworth still must win approval from the city's Board of Adjustment for conditional-use permits to allow her to run a kennel in a C-2 commercial district and to allow her to live in a commercial district.

In approving a C-2 for the property, the council last night approved a zoning “intended for major intersections” where there are drive-through restaurants and larger drug and grocery stores, according to the city's zoning standards.

Fillenworth's property, which had been zoned for offices, backs up to commercial property on Ellis Boulevard NW, which is partly a commercial street, though her street is a residential one.