W.O.L.F. Sanctuary gets OK to move, but not to expand

A packed, marathon meeting Monday night ended in compromise for the contentious relocation of Larimer County's W.O.L.F. Sanctuary.

Moments before midnight, Larimer County commissioners voted 2-1 to allow the sanctuary to move 30 wolves and wolf dogs from its current location near Rist Canyon to the Red Feather Lakes area. The sanctuary had requested approval for 60 animals in "phase two" of operations, which they said wouldn't happen until around 2022.

"I always try to put myself in the neighbors' shoes," Commissioner Steve Johnson said. "One barking dog is horrible. ... Sixty wolf dogs are never going to go away for these neighbors."

The commissioners also scaled back the number of public tours allowed at the new site. Two tours will be allowed five days a week instead of from the proposed three to four. The tours are a new addition for the sanctuary, which is unable to open its current location to the public due to road restrictions.

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About 300 people showed up to the special use review hearing, which clocked in at 5½ hours with roughly 70 comments from the public and presentations from sanctuary and county staff. Those in support of the move wore green, and those in opposition wore red, lending the meeting room an unintended festivity.

W.O.L.F. has been eyeing a move for years because of issues with its current location, including flash floods, fire risk, limited access and a lack of electricity. Sanctuary leaders said offering public tours have long been a goal for the facility, which rescues captive-born animals, pairs them off and gives them room to roam in enclosures.

W.O.L.F. stands for "Wolves Offered Life and Friendship."

"If we want to really fulfill our mission of education, we need to be open to the public," said Carol Mahoney, the sanctuary's development director.

The new location is a 160-acre plot off Larimer County Road 74E between the Red Feather Highlands and Glacier View Meadows neighborhoods. Nearly all of those who opposed the move at Monday's meeting are neighbors of the new location, although some neighbors spoke in favor of the move.

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Neighbors took issue with the noise from howling animals, the risk of animals escaping, the potential impact on property values and nearby livestock, traffic increases and more. A common theme in their comments: We were here first.

"Please place our needs above the desires of a business and dogs," said David Dunn, a Red Feather Lakes resident and veteran who said he moved to the area for peace and quiet.

Members of the opposition are considering their options for appealing the commissioners' decision, according to a Tuesday email to the Coloradoan from Rob Phillips, partner with the Rocky Mountain Business Advocacy Group and counsel for the opposition.

"Certainly we are disappointed," Phillips wrote. "We do not believe the Larimer County special review process has been properly followed, nor were the applicable standards met justifying approval."

Noise was the most-discussed topic at the hearing. Sanctuary staff said a noise study proves the facility wouldn't violate county regulations, but neighbors said they had refuting evidence.

Commissioner Johnson pointed out it's "really hard" to actually violate the county's noise ordinance.

The sanctuary hired an acoustics engineer to help them locate enclosures to minimize noise and meet county regulations, W.O.L.F. Executive Director Shelley Coldiron said. She added that the impact on neighbors at the new location would be “very minimal and very infrequent, if they heard anything at all.”

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At the current location, animals howl between five and 10 times a day for two to three minutes at a time, Coldiron said. She said they usually howl when a caretaker brings in meat at daily feeding time and sometimes at dawn or dusk.

One neighbor, Jessica Trusty, said she felt conflicted. She said she's been donating money to wolf advocacy groups for years and even asked people to donate to the cause for her wedding, which was held in Red Feather Lakes.

Still, "there's people who sacrificed their lives to get away from all the noise, and I know those people, because they live up in Red Feather," she said.

Many neighbors were concerned about the danger of an animal escaping an enclosure. The sanctuary's last escape incident was in 2013, when a female wolf-dog named Cree escaped twice. No one was injured in the incident, and sanctuary leaders said they've upgraded their enclosures since Cree's escape. The new location would have a perimeter fence as an additional layer of protection around animal enclosures.

Commissioner Lew Gaiter, who lives in the Glacier View Meadows neighborhood near the new location, said limiting W.O.L.F.'s initial occupancy to 30, with the potential for another special use review process for future expansion, gives the sanctuary "time to engender more support in the community" and add a community member to its board.

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Commissioner Tom Donnelly objected to the frequency of public tours, suggesting they make the nonprofit sanctuary more like "a for-profit zoo." He moved to allow public tours three days a week rather than five, but Gaiter and Johnson disagreed.

In the end, Gaiter and Johnson voted in favor of the move with amendments, while Donnelly voted against it. The approval is expected to be finalized at an upcoming commissioners' meeting, and sanctuary leaders plan to move to the new location by spring 2019.

Tours will begin soon after the move, Coldiron told the Coloradoan on Tuesday.

In the meantime, the sanctuary will kick off a fundraising campaign to help pay for the move. Leaders will later decide whether and how to pursue phase two and bring in additional animals.

"We're happy we're getting the opportunity to move forward," Coldiron said. "Of course we would have liked to get everything we asked for, but this gives us the opportunity to show that we can be good neighbors."