Limit 3 pets: Upscale N.C. town refuses to allow more
BILTMORE FOREST, N.C. — The Stoneciphers say they won't spend one night in their newly renovated 6,700-square-foot historic home until the law changes — and they've fighting City Hall to make it happen.
The new property owners in this exclusive enclave found that they've run up against the town's pet ordinance, which limits the number of animals to three. Debra and Harry Stonecipher own a dozen cats, all of them indoor felines that have been neutered or spayed.
“These are family members. They are not something we would ever consider abandoning or leaving behind,” she said. “The last thing I want to have happen is move into that house with my family and have police show up with some kind of search warrant and try to take them or do something. I’m not prepared to live that way.”
In April, the couple approached the town board, offering to pay a pet fee and vowed that as their existing pets die they would own no more than six felines. Through documents and their lawyer, they explained that the cats, most of them rescued from kill shelters, now are fed in a downstairs kitchen area and receive top-notch veterinarian care.
How cat photos helped a woman get her Internet back
In a unanimous vote, the three commissioners rejected the couple's terms without discussion, prompting the Stoneciphers to file a lawsuit in May against the Asheville suburb with fewer than 1,500 residents.
On Saturday, the Stoneciphers sent letters to residents they hope to call neighbors, explaining that they are not litigious people and never had filed a lawsuit previously. They considered selling the house they intended to make their retirement home if their cats are barred but opted to take legal action after receiving support from some in the community, which cozies up to the renowned Biltmore Estate and has its own 135-acre country club.
The couple brought the issue to the Board of Commissioners themselves after discovering the pet limit in reading the code as they neared the end of a 15-month, multi-million-dollar home restoration.
They are law-abiding people and wanted to be above-board rather than make a secret of animals they cherish and often discuss with friends and acquaintances, Debra Stonecipher said.
The existing ordinance likely dates to the Biltmore Forest’s 1923 incorporation, Town Administrator Jonathan Kanipe wrote in email. In his research, he can find no citations or enforcement action being taken against residents who have more than three pets.
He also does not believe a resident ever has approached the board about a waiver, as the Stonecipher’s have done.
“I certainly would not attempt to speak for the commissioners, but I believe they are comfortable with the town's ordinance as written and did not wish to grant a written waiver in this matter,” he wrote.
A trial date has been set for June 2017 though the Stonecipers hope mediation will occur long before that date. They and their tribe currently live in the Asheville area.
Among the issues the suit raises is the vague nature of the ordinance, which does not define the types of animals it covers. Livestock generally is not allowed, but it’s unclear if four hamsters also would run afoul of the rule or if an aquarium full of tropical fish are in violation.
Kitties litter the set of Key and Peele's 'Keanu'
In its more detailed ordinance, Asheville allows homeowners to have six pets. Residents with more can appeal to the animal control officer, who has the authority to raise that number in individual cases.
The Stoneciphers purchased the Biltmore Forest home in September 2014, moving to Asheville to find a facility that could care for her ailing father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
The area had always piqued her interest, but with her father in need of care, they rushed ahead with their own retirement decision and bought a residence known as the Knight House, completed in 1927 for a founding director of the Biltmore Estate Co.
Homes in Biltmore have a median value of about $900,000, compared to $235,000 in Asheville, according to Zillow.
Along with major repairs to address a wet basement and replacement of systems in the aging house, they refurbished the home to its period. Those architectural renovations prompt a discussion from Debra Stonecipher almost as passionate as a conversation about her beloved cats — almost.
Among the clowder of cats, the oldest is P.J., a Maine coon whose too-quick early growth required that titanium pins be implanted in his hips. More recently, he suffered seizures that nearly left him impaired and blind.
The youngest: Baby, found as a kitten on a rainy evening in a parking lot. Part of his head was scalped and smashed in, but he was brought to her veterinarian, which treated him for weeks before trying to find him a home.
“Nobody wanted to take him, maybe because they weren’t sure what they were getting,” Debra Stonecipher said. “They called me because they take care of our cats. I said, ‘If I come and see him, that’ll be it.’ ”
He made the crew an even dozen.
Pets on trains a hit for Amtrak and riders
The Stoneciphers spent careers in the aerospace industry, and she said she knows they are fortunate financially. Their donations to causes and charities long have included animal rescues.
“We have the intent. We have the means,” Debra Stonecipher said. “We have the time and the patience to take this as far as we need to take it, so we can live in our home with our family, which poses no threat or disruption to anyone.”
Follow Tonya Maxwell on Twitter: @factsbymax
