Dog grooming decision put in hands of Lewes panel

Sarah Prieto and Stephen Matthews will have to wait a little longer for a decision on whether they can open a dog grooming business in their Savannah Road row home.

The Lewes Planning Commission decided Oct. 16 to have its newly formed home occupation subcommittee recommend which home-based businesses should be allowed.

The panel is scheduled to meet for the first time at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 30, at city hall. It has a six-month deadline to complete its work.

A draft ordinance proposes categorizing home-based business as no-impact, low-impact, potential impact and prohibited. The full draft can be found at lewes.civicweb.net.

Dog grooming is currently not on the list of approved at-home businesses, which makes it illegal.

“I think to take it piecemeal like this is unfair to the applicant and unfair to the subcommittee,” said Commissioner Kevin Keane. “I understand it’s unfair to the applicant to linger for another six months, but we’ll honor that six months.”

Prieto, who is a certified dog groomer with 16 years of experience, wants to open a salon in the basement of her home at 405 Savannah Road. The home is in the middle of a line of historic row homes across from Beebe Healthcare.

Neighbors on either side are opposed to the at-home business, citing potential noise from barking dogs, odor and the already-hard-to-find parking on Savannah Road and side streets.

Jon Hill, who just purchased 403 Savannah Road, said he hopes the subcommittee considers the history of the homes, which are at least 136 years old.

“We’re very considerate neighbors, but I think all of us appreciate the fact that we’re in close quarters. We share a common entry and have all the common parking issues. We need to consider the applicant, but also consider the neighbors,” Hill said.

Prieto said she and her husband have taken further steps to try and cover all their bases.

“We’ve installed noise-monitoring systems. We put in cameras so we can tell exactly how many people come in front of our house. It’s an average of 100 per day, so having five extra people shouldn’t be an issue,” she said.

Prieto also said they have 15 to 19 available parking spots per day in front of their house and around the corner.

“We had a structural engineer come out and he said the walls are two-to-four bricks thick, so any noise isn’t coming through the walls,” Matthews said.

Prieto said she is now commuting to Virginia twice a week to work at her previous dog grooming job while they await the city’s decision.