Residents at odds over Hicksville dog facility

A proposed dog grooming and boarding facility in Hicksville drew howls of protest from some neighboring residents at a town board hearing Tuesday.

The application by property owner Cozir Corp. and lease holder Camp Bow Wow of Long Island Inc. is for a special-use permit and site plan approval for a facility of 7,488 square feet within an existing warehouse building in a light industrial district at 174 Miller Place.

The residents said they were concerned about possible noise, odors and traffic congestion.

But the applicant and his experts insisted neighbors would not hear barking, would smell nothing because all dog waste would be contained, and traffic would be spread out over time.

The town board put off a decision.

The applicant's attorney, Judy Simoncic of Uniondale, said the operation would be a franchise of Camp Bow Wow, which has 121 kennels across the country but none on Long Island.

David Oberman, who already holds a franchise in Rockland County and would run the new facility, said the total capacity would be 85 dogs with 20 to 35 on average staying overnight.

"No one will hear dogs barking from the outside" because of the building's extensive soundproofing and the distance between the facility and their homes, Simoncic said.

"Most of the dogs spend most of their time inside," Oberman said, although there would be a dog run outside. He added that the dogs staying overnight would be in separate "cabins" so there should not be a lot of barking.

"It doesn't smell," Oberman insisted, because all waste would be bagged and then put in closed outdoor trash containers.

Oberman's planning expert Charles Panetta said the facility would be at least 270 feet from the property line and even farther from the nearest house, but some neighbors contested that calculation.

Simoncic presented a petition signed by 24 neighbors who supported the application. But more than a half-dozen residents showed up to oppose the application.

"There's going to be noise," said one of them, John Torinese. "I can't see how the smell isn't going to affect us."

Another, Robert Kaplan, said 17 residents had signed a petition against the application, because, "That's a lot of dogs in one location."