Residential Animal Shelter To Get Hearing

Susan Lambert will get a second chance this week to make her case for keeping the animal rescue operation she runs on her family's land off Altamont Lane.

Planning commissioners delayed action last month on a special exception that will legalize the kennels Lambert installed on her five acres last fall when she opened Community Animal Rescue and Education Shelter.

Lambert and a group of supporters founded CARES after leaving the Suncoast Animal League more than a year ago. In the intervening months, the nonprofit shelter has taken over much of the property where Lambert lives with her husband, Buel, and her mother-in-law.

Buel Lambert also runs a construction business from the property. Late last month he was cited by Pasco County health inspectors for having three unlicensed diesel tanks on the property after his neighbors complained.

The two largest tanks were removed Aug. 1, but the Lamberts face fines from the Department of Environment Protection, county records show.

"We had absolutely no idea that we were illegal," Susan Lambert said.

Planning commissioners delayed last month's hearing on the kennel permit so Susan Lambert could verify her relationship with Pasco County Animal Services, which sometimes sends animals to her.

The special exception will apply to part of the Lamberts' property, which actually comprises two parcels - a 1-acre piece where the Lamberts live and a 3.5-acre piece that include a second house and the bulk of the kennel operation. The larger parcel is the subject of the special exception, according to county records.

Lambert's neighbors say her rescue operation disrupts their lives and they'd like to see it shut down. Lambert houses the dogs near the rear of her property, putting them within a few dozen yards of neighbors Mike Galluppo and Craig Oakes, who live behind the Lamberts on Jam Lane.

As the rescue operation has evolved, the Lamberts' relationship with their neighbors has become increasingly acrimonious.

"One person should not be able to take away the quality of life of an entire neighborhood," Oakes said last week.

Galluppo last month spoke against Lambert's special exception request and gave planning commissioners a copy of videos he made of dogs barking night and day on the Lamberts' property.

Galluppo said he accepted noise from the parrots and cockatoos Susan Lambert raises for sale. But the dogs are another story, he said.

"If there'd been dogs here, I never would have bought my house," Galluppo said. The Lamberts recently built a wooden fence between their land and Galluppo's.

Galluppo, Oakes and other residents of Jam Lane live on tracts of about an acre that were carved from parcels that were once about the size of the Lamberts' land.

Lambert said she is taking measures to move the dog kennels away from the corner of her land nearest Oakes and Galluppo. She has begun dismantling a kennel built partly on land owned by Darrel and Cindy Nolen, who live on 10 acres behind the Lamberts.

She also has built a kennel on the opposite side of her property to house dogs that bark. The kennel faces a wooded tract with no residents.

Lambert says she hopes ultimately to move her rescue operation to another site where it won't disrupt her neighborhood, but at the moment lacks the funds to do so.

County zoning rules let Lambert have up to nine dogs on her property. The special exception will let her expand that number to 25, a figure that doesn't count puppies up to 4 months of age.

Galluppo, Oakes and the Nolens all say that's too many animals for the Lamberts' property. If planning commissioners approve the Lamberts' special exception, the neighbors say they'll appeal to county commissioners.

The planning commission meets at 1:30 p.m.Wednesday at the West Pasco Government Center, 7530 Little Road, New Port Richey.