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After months of conflict with Berkeley’s Zoning Ordinance and some neighbors, the Milo Foundation has decided to close the doors at its 1575 Solano Ave. pet adoption store on June 1 and move to another location. 

News of the closure was posted on the Milo Foundation website Tuesday morning and visitors are being greeted by a similar message displayed on their store window. 

“We have told city officials that we won’t have any dogs in the store as of June 1,” Lynne Tingle, founder and director of the Milo Foundation, said Tuesday. 

Tingle added that although they were closing down the Solano Avenue location, the pet store was not going to disappear. 

Milo first approached the Zoning Adjustments Board in September 2006 to authorize the animal adoption agency’s continued use and plans for 1575 Solano Ave. and 1572 Capistrano Ave. 

According to the proposal, the exterior changes would have been limited to a new door, window and landscaping on the Capistrano facade and a new driveway gate, open space, and new windows on the Solano facade.  

Some area residents, however, described the business as a nuisance and asked ZAB to deny the request and not allow the Milo Foundation to continue its operation, arguing that it fouled the area with dog feces, drainage problems and barking at all hours.  

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque deemed the adoption store’s current use a “kennel” under the zoning ordinance in November—something that is prohibited on Solano Avenue.  

An amendment to the zoning ordinance governing pet adoption facilities was being considered by the City of Berkeley Planning Department in November, but nothing further has been done since then. 

“After Manuela Albuquerque called us a ‘kennel’ instead of a ‘pet store,’ it made the business illegal under the current zoning ordinance,” Tingle said. “Albuquerque hasn’t backed down from her ruling and with the innumerable restrictions that are being imposed on us, it’s becoming very difficult to carry on.” 

She said, “We can’t overnight dogs and we can’t take them out to the backyard. We weren’t able to do any of the improvements on the building we had hoped to do so far. We could go on fighting the city and the neighbors for a year and a half, and we’d probably win, but I think that’s distancing us from the real mission, which is rescuing animals.” 

Tingle said that the foundation would be looking at one or two locations in a commercial district that had open space and would allow overnighting of dogs.  

“We are looking at Emeryville, El Cerrito and Marin but we are not ruling out Berkeley either,” she said. “We have made lots of friends in the city, in the Berkeley City Council, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) and the City Planning Department and that means a lot to us.”  

The news has shocked friends of Milo in Berkeley who have sent dozens of e-mails to the foundation calling the decision a loss for Solano Avenue and Berkeley. 

ZAB commissioner Dave Blake said that it was unfortunate that the Milo pet store backyard was in a residential neighborhood. 

“They had a bad history with the neighborhood and although they did a lot to clean up their act, it wasn’t really helping the situation,” Blake said. “There’s a hole in our ordinance that doesn’t allow us to deal in a normal fashion with pet stores that deal in dogs. The existing ordinance only covers dog boarding which we call kenneling and that is not allowed in their district. It’s lamentable because they perform such a valuable service.” 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, in whose district the Milo adoption store is located, told the Planet that although he was sorry to see Milo leave Solano, it had been a difficult fit for that particular commercial district. 

“It wasn’t just a pet store. It was a hybrid,” he said. “It wasn’t just puppies and kittens, it was adult dogs and cats that were living there and there was no place to walk the dogs. I don’t think Milo thought of some of the difficulties and challenges they would have to face at that location. The neighbors had some serious concerns and I don’t think they could have been addressed.” 

Capitelli added that he hoped the decision to close down would not damage Milo in the long run. 

Michael Sandroff, a Solano resident and a member of the Solano Avenue Neighborhood Association—a group that has protested against Milo’s operations—told the Planet that the news had taken most of the neighbors by surprise. 

“It alleviates the problem for us but it definitely wasn’t what we had expected to happen,” Sandroff said. “However, we respect the decision.” 

He added that the inherent problem some SANA members had had with Milo was that the organization had wanted to have a large number of animals in the store. 

“The noise and smell impacted us greatly,” Sandroff said. “Legally, businesses on Solano Avenue are not supposed to have an impact on the neighborhood. In fact, none of the other businesses do.”