Boulder County planners recommend approval for Niwot Road dog kennel with limits on outdoor dogs and water source review

The Boulder County Planning Commission on July 16 recommended that the Board of County Commissioners conditionally approve SU-24-0003, an application to convert an existing agricultural building into a dog boarding kennel at 12350 Niwot Road in northeast Boulder County.

Planning staff presented the application and recommended approval subject to 19 conditions based on the applicant’s supplemental narrative. Sam Walker, the county planner who reviewed the file, told commissioners the proposal seeks a special use permit to allow up to 20 dogs to be boarded on a legal 10-acre agricultural lot. Walker said the proposal includes a sound-mitigation plan, limits outdoor dogs to no more than five at a time, and would keep most of the parcel in agricultural use. “We found that the proposed use would be compatible with the surrounding area specifically with that mitigation plan,” Walker said.

The applicant team—property owners Garrett Hawes and Jessica Kittle and their agents Aaron McLean and Brian Horan—said the operation is intended to be a…