While out of town a month and a half ago, kennel owner Cindy Privette received a call from her son informing her of four Wake County Animal Control vehicles in her driveway. The officials told her via telephone there had been a complaint.

Privette called Mike Williams, director of the Wake County Animal Care, Control, and Adoption Center, and through the conversation learned there had been a complaint, but not against her kennel — they had arrived at the wrong address. But while there, and with a 70-dog kennel on the premises, officials asked for permission to inspect the operation and she granted it.

“I said yes, because if the county found anything wrong I want to know about it and fix it,” Privette said. “That’s no different than when AKC (the American Kennel Club) comes on random inspections, and I run my kennel on its reputation for quality.”

Privette pointed out the importance of a check being random, how it’s most beneficial to the dogs. There’s no time to prep the area for such check-ups, so it’s a real way to gauge areas that could use improvement.

But the inspection didn’t yield any violations in terms of the animals’ well-being. It did however bring shocking news to Privette and her husband, Gordon.

The two never heard any feedback from the county’s visit until they received a letter in the mail in the middle of March from the Wake County Planning Department informing them that the kennel needed a special use permit to operate a commercial business in a residentially-zoned area. Getting such clearance meant the Privettes needed to satisfy additional criteria for dog kennels in the county.

“Everything from building permits, the environmental department, health department, fire marshal — all of them would have to come check the kennel. I asked all of them what all they would require, and the more of them I asked the more ridiculous the price got,” Privette said.

One of the main issues with bringing the current kennel up to the commercial level is the Privettes’ actual residence, located just yards from the kennel itself. Plans call for a five-acre minimum for kennels of at least five dogs — placing the Privettes’ house inside what would need to be a commercially-zoned area.

That would mean the house, built by Gordon Privette’s great-grandfather in 1907, would have to be upgraded to accommodate a handicap-accessible ramp and bathroom. For space reasons, the bathroom would require an addition to the house — another large expense.

Updating the current kennel would require the Privettes to virtually tear down the existing structures and rebuild them. “It’s simply not feasible,” Privette said. “We could fix it up — put in new floors and fences — but we can’t tear it down and build it back up. It would cost as much to do that, if not more, as it would to build a new one.”

And that’s the real problem the family faces. Those same criteria apply to the kennel no matter its location, and since an updating the existing facility is not an option, building a new facility on the family’s 128-acre farm seems the only option at this point.

Privette estimates the cost of building a new kennel would be somewhere in the range of $115,000. If the Privettes did most of the work themselves, the lowest they say they could work the price down is to the $50,000-$60,000 range — still more than they can afford.

Privette said she’s contacted Wake County Commissioner Joe Bryan, who said he’d take a further look to see what options are available, but she said she’s starting to think there may be no resolution for the kennel in light of the costs.

“As long as they show a good-faith effort in coming into compliance, we try to work with them,” Brenda Coats, of the Wake County Planning Department said. “It’s basically on a time frame. The extension depends on the type of profits that are being made.”

Coats said the department is aware special use approval will be needed for Jafarm, so if Privette started a site plan and has someone working toward that next step, the department knows she’s trying to do what she can to come into compliance.

“Would we allow for it to go on for six months or a year, no,” Coats said. “But we know it takes time. Even if she said we can’t do this, and she has to find homes for the dogs, it’s still going to take her time even to do just that, so we try to be reasonable in our enforcement.”

Privette said it’s hard for her to fathom the need to meet such detailed criteria since her house, and the kennel, are located dead in the center of the 128-acre tract of land — and only family members neighbor the property on either side.

“He (one of the officials that spoke to her via telephone) said we could’ve operated 20 more years and no one would’ve cared, but by law, once they laid eyes on it, they had to pursue,” Privette said. “Taking the kennel away would be taking a big chunk of our lives and family away.”

Gordon Privette began building the kennels in 1993 with plans to operate it once he retires, which is thought to be within the next few years. Cindy Privette left her job at the Zebulon Boys and Girls Club one year ago. She now works at the kennel full-time and volunteers in the community.

“We do a lot of repeat and referral business. Our prices aren’t outrageous, we’re not in it for the money. We work with people and work to make the best matches between pets and people,” Cindy Privette said. “As for this, who knows what will happen. We’ll just have to continue to fight it.”