Hoof it or Close it down... city tells rescue
The town's Board of Adjustment unanimously decided Monday night that the shelter was in violation of an ordinance regulating home-based businesses.
Penny Yocum, 33, owner of Pig Pals of N.C., said she and her husband are looking at other properties around the Triangle. She said they have not yet decided whether they will appeal the board's decision to Wake County Superior Court.
She called the board's half-hour deliberations "frustrating."
The six-member board heard three hours of testimony in May but delayed its decision until this month to look more closely at the town ordinance.
During Monday's meeting, the discussion focused on whether a nonprofit could be considered an occupation, as well as the definitions of the words "occupation," "gain" and "accessory building." Twice, the board consulted a Webster's dictionary.
Ultimately, board member Barbara Cantrell said the rescue shelter could be considered a business, even if it runs entirely on donations and volunteers.
"There's many definitions of gain other than monetary," she said.
The board also decided that the rescue shelter was in violation of three rules on home-based businesses: that it has more than one employee, was not on a list of approved businesses and is housed in an accessory building because the pigs use a row of small wood structures.
Two other board members said they thought the rescue shelter was also in violation of a rule on nuisances because of the traffic caused by visitors and the smell the 45 to 50 pigs create in the neighborhood.
Yocum said the board was interpreting some of the sections too loosely.
"By their definition of an accessory building, nobody who has a home-based business can have a doghouse," she said.
She said she and her husband are already looking for a 10-acre tract of land with a stream, trees and a pasture, likely in Chatham County.
"I think they're more animal-friendly there," she said.