Legal Question in Business Law in California

Man's Best Friend in Trouble!

I'm trying to start a home business. I want to train some dogs in my home. Although the MuniCodes say I can, the City Planners refuse to allow me stating that if I train 4 dogs from my home it would make too much noise or I would generate too much foot traffic. Neither is the case. I would only have 4 clients coming to drop off and pick up their dogs. Which means I would only have 16 visits in one month which is well below average foot traffic. The only opption I have been given is applying for a conditional use permit which is out of the question because it bars me from renting a home to live in. Any Ideas Around this particular Issue? At first I wanted to make some ''Dog Runs'' for the dogs to live in, in my back yard, but the codes say I have to keep the dogs inside, and I also can't train in my own backyard. In order to get around that I figure there is nothing wrong with training the dogs in a city park and letting them sleep in the house. I've also checked with Unincorporated cities and basically all of the legal wording says the same thing so I know I can but after calling 20+ cities I've found that no one wants to let me.


Asked on 3/15/06, 4:04 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Man's Best Friend in Trouble!

City planners, and most government officials, have their powers divided into two categories: discretionary and ministerial.

A decision to grant a permit or license may be either, depending upon the ordinance or statute involved. An example of a ministerial act is the issuance of a building permit...if the plans presented meet all code requirements and the builder pays the fee, the permit bureau has no authority to refuse to issue the permit. I would say the same thing is true of most license applications.

On the other hand, if the zoning ordinance allows your activity (dog training) only with a use permit, the issuance of the use permit is probably discretionary (otherwise, why have a use permit requirement?).

Whenever a governmental action is discretionary, the bureaucrats have at least some right to refuse your application.

Even then, that right is not unlimited; for example, the bureaucrat could refuse your license on the ground that the dogs might make too much noise, but not on the ground that the bureaucrat was allergic to dogs, or had his own competing dog-training business, or because you were African-American, etc.

A lawyer who was familiar with administrative law (the branch of law dealing with matters of this kind) could probably read the zoning and business-license ordinances of your town and tell you whether the refusal to license you is an abuse of discretion or not.

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Answered on 3/15/06, 7:18 pm


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