The Lealsam Retreat kennel and cattery has been operating on the site at 108 Puddle Alley for several years.
Consent was sought for up to 15 boarding dogs and eight cats following a visit from the Dunedin City Council's animal control team after a barking complaint.
It was discovered the barking did not come from their property, but during the visit kennel operators Andy and Denise Reeve were advised they needed to apply for retrospective consent.
The couple also keep up to 15 of their own Samoyed dogs for breeding and showing, for which they do not need consent.
Five submissions were made on the application, two in support and three opposed.
At a public hearing on the application last month, some of the opponents, mostly rural neighbours, spoke of their opposition on the basis of the barking nuisance they believed the kennel created.
Accepting noise management would be the main issue, the Reeves outlined what they did to mitigate noise from their site, and hired a specialist noise consultant to produce a report for last month's hearing.
Noise evidence from the council's environmental health department was also heard.
A hearings committee of Crs Andrew Noone and Kate Wilson and Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board chairman Bill Feather last week decided to grant the consent, following consideration of the submitters' perspectives, the expert reports, a visit to the kennel and nine individual visits to people in the neighbourhood to assess the noise issues.
A letter to the Reeves, notifying them their application was successful, said the committee's overall feeling was that noise in the area was reasonably typical of a rural environment.
"The noise of barking dogs was heard from the subject site at times, but not on every occasion and when it was heard it was not considered excessive," committee chairman Cr Noone said.
The committee felt that while there were several opponents, there was a degree of goodwill from those in the area to work through the issues in a practical way, he said.
It felt the adverse effects of the proposal, minor as they were, could be adequately mitigated through the conditions of the consent. The conditions included establishing a complaints register, as part of a noise management plan.
The Reeves were not to board any further dogs until a noise management plan was signed off with the council.
A noise monitoring plan, as suggested by the council's consultant planner, was considered too expensive and not necessarily of any real benefit in identifying or managing noise effects, the letter said.
Attempts by the Otago Daily Times to contact the Reeves were unsuccessful.
Neighbour Kevin Meehan, who opposed the application, said he was disappointed consent had been granted and he would be making a complaint whenever the barking disturbed him.
