DEERFIELD — The Zoning Board of Appeals, at the applicant’s request, continued the public hearing on two special permits for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Regional Dog Shelter’s proposed new location to June 9.

In a brief meeting Thursday evening, the board continued the hearings, pertaining to a general special permit and another to exempt it from zoning bylaw 3710, which prohibits uses that cause noise “perceptible without instruments more than 200 feet from the boundaries of the originating premises if in a non-residential district.”

The shelter is proposing an approximately 7,000-square-foot building with indoor and outdoor kennels, larger dog runs and parking for staff, volunteers and visitors off the cul-de-sac at the end of Plain Road East.

While the first special permit has been considered by the ZBA for the last several months, the Friends of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Regional Dog Shelter — the nonprofit formed to raise money for the shelter’s services — filed an additional application to exempt it from the noise ordinance.

The noise coming from the shelter, which the applicants say will be less than the ambient noise from Interstate 91, is expected to be the crux of neighborhood opponents’ concerns. The ambient highway noise, according to Berkshire Design Group’s application, is about 65 decibels, while a dog barking 275 feet away would be about 51 decibels.

Attorney John McLaughlin, who is representing several Plain Road East and Mill Village Road residents, argued before the Planning Board on Monday that zoning bylaw 3710 falls under section 5450, the site plan review bylaw, which in turn states an application must meet “all applicable provisions of this zoning bylaw.”

However, the Planning Board determined the noise concerns were under the purview of the ZBA.

The dog shelter, which received site plan approval from the Planning Board on Monday, will come before the ZBA at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, June 9, at Town Hall and on Zoom. Documents related to the project, including the site plan, special permit applications and peer review, can be found on the calendar on the town website under the Planning Board and ZBA agenda items.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.