Found cats | The association bought a house and invested 200,000 euros in it – Then the neighborhood rose to the occasion

In Vaasa Foundry animal home has had bad luck in finding a suitable cat house.

The found animal home for cats, called Vaasa’s cat house, was to move to a new address. Before the actual move, a nasty turn happened when the future neighbors unexpectedly decided to complain about the cat house to the administrative court.

The association that maintains the cat house, i.e. the friends of Vaasa’s homeless cats, had been granted an exemption permit, which allowed them to deviate from the site plan and thus move to the single-family area of ​​Vaasa’s Isolahti. The permit was granted by the Vaasa City Council’s Planning Division.

The chairman of the association Kirsti Koivulan according to about a dozen residents from the neighborhood complained about the exception permit granted to the cat house to the administrative court. The complaint cited, among other things, potential noise or odor nuisances.

Administrative Court denied the exemption permit for the cat house and sided with the neighbors in the matter. Vaasa city government did not appeal the court’s decision.

The end result came as a complete surprise to the association, Koivula describes the decision reached in the spring.

According to him, at the time of making the deals, the association still had the understanding that none of the neighbors objected to the cat house’s plans to move to the Isolahti area of ​​Vaasa. According to Koivula, the association had inquired about it in advance.

“We were in complete disbelief that this was not supposed to happen like this. This was like a wet rag against the face.”

Now the association pays maintenance costs for two buildings: the current building, which according to the association is in a state of demolition, and the new building located in the Isolahti area, where it cannot therefore move to.

The Isolahti house and its renovation cost the association over a couple of hundred thousand euros, even though the renovation was mainly done by volunteers. It is a one-story detached house built in the 1970s.

The purpose was to make the house suitable for cats placed in foster homes. According to Koivula, the association has about 70 cats and 30 kittens.

Now Vaasa’s cat house is for rent in Vaasa’s Palosaari, where the cats live in a dilapidated house. The association has been looking for new premises for cats for years.

This is already the second time that the neighbors were at odds regarding the move to the cat house. Last time, the move to the cat house garnered no less than five separate complaints, which is why the project collapsed right away.

Koivula is worried about how the association will continue to operate over the winter in a house whose heating system is failing and which has suffered water damage.

“The house is practically falling apart.”

The city of Vaasa has proposed replacement premises for the cat association, for example the barn located further away in Vaasa.

The association does not consider the city’s proposal for a barn possible. According to Koivula, the barn is in poor condition and would require considerable renovation.

“Belief seems to run out sometimes,” says Koivula.

“However, we think about cats and their best interests. We can fight for them. This is going to be expensive, because it is a low-income association. We don’t really have any options.”

The association collects funds mainly through the sales it organizes, membership fees, individual donations and fees collected from surrendered cats.

Association plans to start the exemption process with the city again, but this time with more detailed conditions. The cat association has been offered help from legal scholars for this purpose.

“We cannot accept the city’s proposal, so in itself the matter is not finished.”

He was the first to tell about the incident Over.