Having lost a legal challenge to establish an animal rescue facility on 20 acres of land off Alex Harvin Highway, Rick Turcotte has been busy clearing some hunting land off Silver Road to make way for the future location of Forgotten Tails Animal Rescue.
He and his wife, Ginny Turcotte, recently lost an appeal to a Planning Commission decision that stopped the rescue facility from being built.
Rick Turcotte said they could appeal to the S.C. Supreme Court, but are wary of the costs associated with further litigation.
"We're basically throwing in the cards and spending money to move the dogs," he said. "We can't afford to litigate forever."
County Administrator and Attorney David Epperson said he felt the county put forth a solid argument based on facts before 3rd Circuit Court Judge W. Jeffrey Young.
"We are happy with the ruling siding with the Planning Commission and county and we look forward to working with Forgotten Tails to help them relocate to an area that is zoned to allow the use they have," Epperson said. In September, Epperson said the Turcottes didn't get proper permits for the dogs at their place of business. Neighbors complained, he said.
When the Turcottes tried to get permits, they were denied and given 90 days to move the dogs.
After the Turcottes purchased the property off Alex Harvin Highway, they went back before the Planning Commission.
“The planning commission found it wasn’t compatible with the area and they denied it,” Epperson said, noting the Turcottes still erected pens. “The county had to get an injunction to stop that.”
Rick Turcotte disputes the timing and sequence of events. Epperson said the county’s position is that the Planning Commission heard testimony and decided the Turcottes didn’t meet requirements.
“I felt we made a good argument (before Judge Young),” he said.
Heavy equipment is currently being used to clear the Silver Road hunting property, Turcotte said, so he can transform and re-shape it.
"We've got to clear the trees and run water and electricity to it. It's on agricultural land out in the middle of nowhere," he said.
Turcotte thinks it's "a scary proposition" that the Planning Commission wields the power it does.
"I can't get my head around it," he said. "We're going to move out there out of people's hair."
The 20-acre plot of land across from New Covenant Presbyterian Church is going to be sold, Turcotte said, to recoup some of his expenses.
"We don't have much use for it now," he said.
And he's started getting fines for housing the rescued dogs at Gintek Inc. in the 9500 block of S.C. 260.
"It's cost me a lot of money. Everybody that supports our Facebook page disagrees with the decision," he said. "But we're not giving up. We're going to move our dogs and continue to rescue them."
