Lewes council approves home-based biz ordinance

Sarah Prieto and Stephen Matthews were obviously frustrated and dejected after Lewes Mayor and City Council officially ended their two-year fight to open a dog-grooming business in their rowhome at 405 Savannah Road.

Council voted unanimously April 13, to approve a home-based business ordinance that bans dog grooming in any residential neighborhood and any animal-based business in homes with shared walls.

In public comment after the vote, Matthews lashed out at council for what he called applying inconsistent standards to animal businesses.

“You’ve already established the core concerns over the past two years,” he said. “You’ve stated that noise, odors and disturbances from dogs can’t be mitigated and that these impacts interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of residential properties. By your own decisions and compromises, finish the work, put the community first and ban dog ownership in attached homes.”

Prieto also expressed her frustration at the process, but said she is not going away.

“Going forward, we plan to have dogs from our first responder friends and local dog rescues stay at our house and expect not to be bothered. I will be donating my skills back to the community, bathing and grooming dogs out of the kindness of our hearts and not for commercial gain,” Prieto said.

Prieto said instead of a dog-grooming studio, they might rent their basement to traveling nurses who work across the street at Beebe Healthcare.

The battle pitted neighbor versus neighbor in the four-unit block of rowhomes.

The adjacent homeowners argued the grooming business would send noise and odor through their shared walls and create a parking bottleneck.

Patricia Lazik, a veterinarian who lives at 401 Savannah Road, came to the April 13 meeting to thank council for putting neighbors first.

“It’s been a long, hard road for me,” she said. “I’ve come to almost every meeting. I’ve had to shorten my work hours and take off from work. But it was worth it, because I think we’ve got it right now.”

The ordinance separates home-based businesses into either low impact or high impact, to be determined by the city manager or a designated staff member.

Proposed high-impact home businesses will be subject to the city’s conditional-use process. That process includes review and recommendation from the the Lewes Planning Commission, and a vote by mayor and city council.

In explaining their votes, council members said the ordinance was the result of hard work and compromise.

“We’ve taken a lot of time to look this over and taken a lot of public input. We had good support for this at our last meeting,” said Councilman Joe Elder.

“What I’m really proud of is, it supports our residential communities and they are being protected by this ordinance,” said Councilman Tim Ritzert.

“We have to think about the overall impact to residents, and that’s what we did,” said Councilwoman Trina Brown-Hicks.

“I continue to think it’s overly burdensome to a lot of applicants, but I reluctantly support this, because it was the best product we could come up with,” said Deputy Mayor Khalil Saliba. 

Mayor Amy Marasco said impact is a more modern way to consider home businesses, instead of the previous list of what is permitted.

She said it is important to recognize that home businesses add value to the community.

“We never really talked about it, but being a home business, you’re not driving to work and it’s eyes on the street,” she said.