Animal rescuer moves, but is she following land use rules?
| Thursday, Jun 25 2009 04:53 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jun 25 2009 04:53 PM
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Tehachapi chihuahua rescuer Kimi Peck has moved her animals onto the property once inhabited by accused animal abuser Cynthia Gudger.
Peck had until Tuesday to remove about 200 dogs she was keeping in a home on Water Canyon Road in the hill south of Tehachapi under a ruling from the Kern County Board of Supervisors that determined her animal shelter was in violation of county zoning ordinances.
But it appears she's only moved into another home where her shelter is illegal under those same land use rules.
Kern County Animal Control Director Guy Shaw said Peck has told him she will likely stay on the Bear Valley Road property for only a short time.
"She had told me she's moving out of the county. She told me that she bought a piece of property but escrow won't close until August," he said.
The property is owned by Susan Marlowe, Peck's accountant. But according to legal documents, Marlowe is in default on the loan she took out to buy the land. A trustee's sale was scheduled for March but no sale of the property has been recorded.
The home and warehouse sit just outside the exclusive community of Bear Valley Springs. The location became a refuge for Gudger, who went by the alias Anita Gilbert in Tehachapi, after she fled Riverside County just before she was arrested on animal cruelty charges there.
Riverside animal control officers released animals they had seized from Gudger to Marlowe. The animals, and the carry-cases with Riverside animal control markings, were found in a warehouse on Marlowe's property when Kern County Animal Control raided the property and arrested Gudger in July.
County Supervisor Don Maben, who represents Tehachapi, said Peck needs to keep her nose clean on Bear Valley Road.
"If she takes care of her animals, and keeps it clean and there are no neighbor complaints, she may have found her place," Maben said.
According to Kern County mapping records, the Bear Valley Road property is zoned agricultural. County ordinances require operators of an animal shelter to obtain a conditional use permit to begin operating an animal shelter in an agricultural zone, said county Planning Department Director Ted James.
Supervisors ruled that Peck was running a shelter on Water Canyon Road, so it appears Peck is in violation of county zoning laws on the Bear Valley Road site as well.
"She knows better than that," James said.
