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Local groomer wins variance and conditional-use permit to keep storage building
Summary
The Stephens County Board of Commissioners approved a variance and a conditional-use permit allowing Kelly Sabetti to keep an accessory building at 192 Richardson Street and to operate a home-based pet grooming/boarding business; commissioners voiced both support and public-safety concerns before approving the measures.
Kelly Sabetti, owner of Ivy League Boarding and Grooming, told the Stephens County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 23 that she placed a storage building at 192 Richardson Street to hold grooming equipment after closing a previous location and that moving it would be prohibitively expensive.
“I’m broke because I just spent my whole retirement and savings on the business for the past year,” Sabetti said in remarks to the board, describing site constraints of fences and trees that she said made relocating the structure impractical. Planning staff noted the planning commission recommended approval of the conditional-use request but recommended denying the variance to allow the building in the front yard.
Supporters spoke in favor during the public hearing. Client Wiley Helm told the board he regularly uses Sabetti’s services and that there are no nearby boarding options: “If you Google boarding in Stevens County, Georgia, nothing pops up except for Ivy League grooming,” Helm said, urging approval.
During the board’s deliberation one commissioner raised public-safety concerns about the building’s proximity to neighboring structures, noting the volunteer nature of local fire response. “When you put that building there with no setback from the property line, you now have a house, an accessory structure, and another house in extremely close proximity,” a commissioner said, adding that extended volunteer response times increase the risk.
Despite the safety concern, commissioners voted to approve both the variance request (item 6) and the conditional-use permit for a home-based business (item 7). The board did not record a roll-call tally in the transcript; approval was announced by voice vote.
The board’s approval allows Sabetti to continue using the existing accessory structure for her pet-grooming and boarding business. The county packet and the planning commission record were referenced during discussion; board members offered to help privately with relocation costs if denial had been necessary.
