Town and country clashed again this week – and the goats lost.
So did the neighborhood children, elderly ladies and moms and
babies who stop by daily to visit and give treats to five goats
cared for by Frank Dutra on Diana Avenue.
Town and country clashed again this week – and the goats lost. So did the neighborhood children, elderly ladies and moms and babies who stop by daily to visit and give treats to five goats cared for by Frank Dutra on Diana Avenue.
Dutra trucked off the goats, three horses and a mule to a friend’s 20-acre ranch in the Delta Wednesday night, bringing the property into compliance with city ordinances.
“If I don’t do this the city will take them and bill me,” Dutra said Wednesday afternoon. He had until midnight to move the animals off the land.
While livestock has lived on the property at 815 Diana, between Butterfield Boulevard and Highway 101, for many years – illegally since an ordinance requiring no more than two large animals on at least an acre was passed in the 1960s – the city did not bother them until complaints were filed.
“These goats are like pets to me,” Dutra said. “I’ve had them for a long time. I don’t understand why they are doing this to me.”
Dutra said he knows the horses are gone for good – he was just tending them for a friend. But, he hopes to get the goats, which he owns, back soon. Dutra is considering appealing to the City Council for understanding and possibly a variance.
While neither Dutra nor Bryan Trumpp, whose family owns the property, know which neighbor complained, they think it could be one of the people who moved into some now adjacent big, newly built houses. The area has been changing from rural to suburban for several years, with orchards and pastures nestled among new housing developments.
“They come down from San Jose looking for a rural life,” Trumpp said. “Why move to the country if you then complain about country ways.”
Dutra said one woman who owns a condominium behind the property asked to buy a small piece of the site.
“She wanted to put in a swimming pool,” Dutra said, “but the owners said no.”
Dutra thinks the woman may have been one of the complainers.
The problem started when land east of the Trumpp/Dutra property was annexed into the city limits in the 1980s and houses were built close to the pasture. The Trumpp property had been the eastern edge of the city limits since incorporation in November 1906.
“They built around me,” Dutra said. “I didn’t build around them.”
Ryan Martin, city code enforcement officer, said the first complaint was filed in April .
“We had more than one formal complaint,” Martin said, “and more than one informal complaint, too.”
Daniel Pina, the city’s animal control officer, told Martin he had a few informal complaints as well.
“The city evolved,” Martin said, “but the parcel has not evolved with the city.”
The city gave The Times three formal complaints received on the property after receiving a Public Records Request, though all names and addresses were blacked out.
One, dated April 19, 2004, just said “horses on property” and circled the selection “nuisance.” A second complaint on May 6 said “too many animals – health issue” but gave no details.
A third complaint, received, July 21 said, “The four horses/mules in the open field are causing the fence to break. The fences put up between houses are privacy fences, not livestock fences. These animals are only about 10 to 15 feet from (blacked out location). This violates city code.”
On Wednesday, at least three sides of the pasture were fenced with 6-foot cyclone fencing; a fourth fence was wooden.
Dutra said he could meet the distance requirements but that would leave only about a five-foot strip where the goats could roam.
Trumpp said most of their neighbors in all kinds of houses, new and old, favor keeping the goats who were there first.
“We have a petition signed by almost every neighbor,” he said. “We’ll be losing the country life. Where else are kids going to learn about these animals.”
“The animals have shade, water and a clean place to run,” Trumpp said. “They are checked by vets and are really healthy.”
Claudia Marquez, 12, and her little sister Sandra, 9, and brother Joel, just starting kindergarten at 5, brought leaves and apples for the goats. They live across the street from the fenced pasture.
“They love us a lot,” Claudia said. “We feed them everyday and they come to say hello. They are not smelly at all.”
The Marquez children have named the goats Billy, Nanny, Joe and Piggy.
Removing all the animals from the seven-acre parcel is more than the city required. According to Planning Manager Jim Rowe, who spent considerable effort on Wednesday reading and interpreting ordinances covering animal possession, Dutra would have been able to keep any two of the animals plus his dog.
Rowe said the only way more animals, livestock or pets, can be allowed is if a variance, which requires a $3,000 filing fee, is granted by the City Council.
“It’s unbelievable,” Trumpp said of the city ordinance that treats family pets and livestock differently. “You can have five dogs on a quarter-acre but you can’t have five goats on seven acres.”
Besides entertaining the neighbors, the goats keep the weeds mowed in Dutra’s pasture, eliminating the need for polluting gas-powered weed eaters, which have been known to start fires, Dutra said.
Also, Dutra isn’t allowed to disk the property because of a recent city ordinance designed to protect burrowing owls.
Neighbor Natasha Wist is also upset over Dutra’s animal troubles and mourns the loss of the animals and the rural atmosphere of the area.
“Why is it that the general plan can be amended (to build new auto dealerships between Walgreens and the neighborhood houses instead of multi-family housing) but these people can’t get a simple permit,” Wist asked.
