COLUMBUS, Ind. — A Bartholomew County dog breeder is asking planning officials again to have a kennel northeast of Hope after a request three years ago was denied due to allegations the facility would be a “puppy mill.”
In December 2017, Aaron and Lena Oberholtzer asked the Bartholomew County Board of Zoning Appeals for conditional-use approval to operate a kennel in an “Agriculture: Preferred” zoning district.
The couple said they wanted to breed up to 100 small dogs a year on a 55-acre property in the northeast corner of the intersection of County Road 950 North and 500 East.
One month later, the application was rejected 4-1. The consensus among most of the appeals board members was that a large dog kennel is not the best use of land zoned as prime agricultural.
On Sept. 22, Aaron Oberholtzer again filed for a conditional use application to operate a dog kennel.
Oberholtzer says he decided to seek a permit after being visited by both Bartholomew County Animal Control Officer Mark Case and a representative of the code enforcement office. Both county representatives said they had received complaints regarding dogs on the property, Oberholtzer said.
“I wasn’t at all aware that anybody was complaining or had concerns,” Oberholtzer said. “I don’t know why they didn’t let us know. Are they scared to talk to us?
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
