East Cobb News

The Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to hold a request for a dog- training and boarding business at an East Cobb home after lengthy discussion and disagreements among neighbors.

After mulling over stipulations to include in a recommendation for approval, the board voted 5-0 to continue to September a request by Anne Crispell for a 24-month land-use permit at her home on Leafwood Drive (you can read the case filing here).

Her residence is located on a cul-de-sac in the Stratford subdivision, located off Terrell Mill Road and across from Brumby Elementary School and East Cobb Middle School.

She said she’s been keeping the dogs of friends and others she knows at her home since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the most dogs she has had on her property at any one time is six.

Some are boarded there while their owners are on vacation, and others receive dog training. She lives in the home with her husband and two-year-old child and two dogs of their own.

Crispell is a professional and licensed dog trainer, and says she works with dogs who need to learn behavior modification. She says the dogs who board with her do not do well in a sheltered environment.

But neighbors have complained that the dogs at times have been a nuisance, making noise while unattended in the back yard, and have engaged in dog fighting.

Crispell said she received a citation from Cobb County Code Enforcement that was left on her front door in May, saying she was running an improper home business and didn’t have a business license.

During sometimes tearful testimony Tuesday, Crispell said she never intended on making this a business, but was trying to help friends who have had difficulty boarding and training their dogs.

“This is the perfect opportunity for me to make a difference in our community,” said Crispell, who according to Cobb property records has lived in the home since 2018. “I’m helping families who are struggling with their dogs.”

A neighbor who lives across the street, Ryan Simmons, vouched for Crispell, saying that some of the complaints are “alarmist and inaccurate.” He said the dogs he’s seen are well-behaved and that “there’s no nuisance or evidence of harm” and that there’s widespread support for her in the neighborhood.

But while he was the only resident who spoke in support of Crispell, there was vocal opposition for the dog-boarding part of her business from other neighbors.

Michelle Kubea, who lives next door to Crispell, claimed she’s the only person “who’s seen what absolutely goes on there,” including “countless acts of neglect” and violent dog fights from her back patio.

James Gilmore and Kristina Hopkins, who live behind Crispell on Countryside Place, said they’ve seen the same thing, and said neighbors on their street are solidly opposed to allowing a dog-training business.

“It’s just not appropriate for a residential area,” Hopkins said.

Crispell denied that the dogs she’s taking in exhibit violent tendencies, and she showed a slide of two of the dogs she’s kept laying on a sofa, with her child nearby.

“Do they look dangerous?” she said, referring to the dogs. “No. I’m a mother. I’m not running a dog park. This is a controlled environment.”

When Planning Commission member Deborah Dance asked about the claims of dog fighting, Crispell said that it was “totally false.” She explained that dogs can be naturally aggressive in ways that might seem excessive, and “then I have to make a correction.”

She said that she needs to get approval for the business because it’s the family’s only source of income, and that they wouldn’t living be there for another two years, as they would be looking to live “in a better school district.”

Dance, whose District 3 includes the East Cobb area, said of Crispell’s business that “I think the current use is too intense” for the neighborhood. Unlike some other cases on Tuesday’s agenda that involved home-based business, “this one is on a different footing.”

The board discussion included suggestions that only one dog be allowed to be boarded at any given time, and a maximum of four dogs in total.

Crispell told Dance she’d be open to restrictions, and said that “I’ve taken so many precautions to make sure the impact has been minimal.” She said she has never been contacted or cited for nuisance issues.

But neighbors disputed her claims that Cobb Animal Services has never received complaints about the dogs.

Gilmore said while he supports Crispell having a dog-boarding business, “it needs to be in the proper setting.”

Right before the vote, Dance urged the parties to talk things over after the meeting—Crispell’s was the last case on the agenda—because “there may be a better way to do it.”

Related stories:

• RaceTrac delays rezoning request on NE Cobb historic site
• Tom Cousins, developer of Indian Hills, dies at 92
• RaceTrac proposed on former site of McAfee House
• Plans for children’s camp at Paper Mill Road home withdrawn
• Editor’s Note: Apartments and the future of Cobb schools

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