Six years after buying a building for her business in Harrison, Kim Ringer can’t use it for the main reason she bought it.
Ringer said township zoning officials assured her and her late husband, Bruce, more than once before buying the former home goods store-turned-car dealership at 3041 Freeport Road in 2015 that they would be able to operate their business there, including a day care for dogs.
They had eyes on the building as it sat empty for a decade.
“When they came down in price, it was like, OK,” she said.
But, she says, within hours of buying it, a zoning officer told her otherwise. None of the assurances she says they got were in writing.
The day care remains in a former bank she owns in Tarentum, where Ringer’s Pet Dog Training has been for 25 years.
While a retail shop fills the front of the Harrison building and other rooms are used for classes, the former garage at the back intended to house the day care is unused. Since her husband died in December, the need for Ringer to get her business under one roof has become more urgent.
“I’m just bouncing from place to place,” said Ringer, who lives near the store in Harrison. “I can’t keep going back and forth between two locations.”
Harrison’s zoning hearing board recently denied Ringer a variance to operate a kennel at the location. While Ringer said dog day care is different from a kennel, Matthew Kalina, solicitor for the zoning hearing board, said that’s how it’s defined under the existing ordinance.
Kennels are not a permitted or conditional use in Harrison’s B-1 business zoning district, which covers Ringer’s building.
A day care for dogs is not defined in the township’s zoning, Kalina said. He said the zoning hearing board can only interpret and enforce the existing zoning ordinance.
Kennels are allowed in the township’s S-1, special zoning district. While Ringer’s property borders an S-1 area, Ringer said having her property rezoned to that would not work because of the amount of land the ordinance requires.
Ringer said a dog day care is a different model from a kennel. While a kennel has dogs in indoor and outdoor runs and they’re left alone, Ringer said dogs in her day care are supervised. They spend the day playing with each other, inside and out, and would go outside to relieve themselves on artificial turf in a fenced-in area behind the building.
Most dogs are dropped off in the morning and leave in the evening.
Ringer said she now serves 30 to 50 dogs each day at her location in Tarentum.
Dog day cares are located in business areas of other towns in the region, she said. The couple watched as franchises moved into the market.
“They’re everywhere,” she said. “Towns are welcoming them. It’s a service.”
Harrison Commissioners Chairman William Heasley said he has no idea who would have told the Ringers they could use the building for dog day care when the zoning did not allow it. Many of the officials present in 2015 are no longer with the township.
Ringer’s attorney, Robert Vincler, said they have not decided if they will appeal the zoning hearing board’s decision.
“Based upon the language of the ordinance, I tend to agree with the board,” Vincler said. “They, in fact, probably had no choice but to deny the variance.”
Ringer said she wants to convince Harrison to amend its zoning so that dog day cares are allowed in the business area, whether as a permitted or conditional use.
A conditional use would require additional township review and approval.
Vincler called Ringer’s business a “high-end babysitting business for dogs.”
He said the main objection is based on noise from dogs barking.
Ringer says things that cause dogs to bark in Tarentum are not present in Harrison, and soundproofing has been placed throughout the garage.
“I can tell you that Mrs. Ringer, before she accepts a dog into her day care, the dog has to go through a training process,” Vincler said. “She spends time with the dog to see that the dog will fit in with the other dogs and not be one that yaps and barks all the time.”
But to make the effort, Vincler said Ringer will have to front the money, and it could get costly.
“These people are really dedicated to their business,” he said. “They just want to be able to service their clientele.”
If able to operate the day care in Harrison, Ringer said she’d keep Tarentum as a place for owners to drop their dogs off and shuttle them to Harrison.
If she ultimately isn’t allowed to operate the day care in Harrison, Ringer said she’ll have to look for another building somewhere else.
“We never would’ve sunk the money into buying this building if we were told we couldn’t bring our dogs,” she said. “This is why we bought it, just for the dogs.”
Heasley said he hopes the situation can be worked out.
“We’d hate to lose her,” he said.
Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Brian at 724-226-4701, brittmeyer@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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