BURLINGTON — The conditions of local dog kennels searched recently have renewed public interest in the treatment of animals. But in Burlington the process began more than four years ago, when Code Enforcement Officer Robin Blair started rewriting the city’s animal code.

“The current animal code that we had is quite outdated,” Blair said. Some sections were written more than three decades ago.

Blair’s proposed animal control ordinance, scheduled to be taken up tonight by the City Council, includes new sections regulating everything from scientific experimentation — which would not be allowed — to lions, tigers and bears, which would be outlawed under a new exotic animals chapter.

There are also some smaller updates. Dog licenses would cost $5, up from $3 for sterilized dogs, and $20, up from $6 for unaltered dogs.

For people 68 years of age or older, dog licenses would be free.

Pet owners could have up to six pets, four of them dogs, under the ordinance. Birds and fish would not be counted.

Currently, owners may have just four pets total, but Blair said the trend toward small dogs makes it more reasonable for an owner to have four dogs plus two other pets such as cats.

Anyone who has more than four dogs would be required to get a kennel license, said Blair, and that means a public hearing.

Also under the ordinance, commercial kennels, shelters and pet shops would be required to provide animals room to turn around freely as well as food, water, sanitation and exercise.

Blair said another major change would be a $25,000 insurance or bond requirement for the owners of dogs considered “potentially dangerous.” Under city code, dogs are considered potentially dangerous if they inflict bites or menacingly chase a person when unprovoked.

“We are the only city that I know of that did not have an insurance requirement for a potentially dangerous dog,” Blair said.

Also included in the proposed 75-section animal ordinance are provisions making failing to scoop a pet’s droppings a $50 offense; requiring those who run over an animal to report the incident to a Burlington animal control officer or police officer; and mandating that police be notified when an animal bites a person.

Other business scheduled for tonight includes:

The council will consider signing onto a partnership aimed at securing more floodwater storage. The partnership, which Mayor Ed Brunz has helped spearhead, is being formed to pressure Puget Sound Energy to store more stormwater behind its dams to reduce the height of Skagit River floods.

Traffic impact fees — the fee developers are charged for generating car trips — jumped from about $400 to $3,834 last spring. The number softened slightly to $3,633 after developers complained, and now a bigger break could be coming.

In light of the recession and a drought in development, city staff have recommended the fee, which is based on the number of car trips generated between 4 and 6 p.m., be halved to about $1,800.

Fire Chief Mark Anderson will ask the council for a fire engine to be built and delivered to the city within a year, at a cost of about $400,000.

Public Works Director Chal Martin will ask the council to remedy what he recently called “a really pitiful in-house capability” to remove snow and ice from city roadways. Martin has suggested the city spend an additional $108,000 this year to buy two trucks with plows as well as two other snow-plow attachments, a sander and other equipment.

Martin will also seek council approval of a new Snow and Ice Emergency Plan.

“Basically in the past, our approach has been about 7 inches of snow on the (Burlington) boulevard and we plow,” Martin said in January.

He said that method got the city into “big trouble” with the last snowstorm and that the new plan and equipment request are an attempt to learn from that poor performance.

The council will consider an 11-lot townhouse and office development at Quin’s Court, located at 130 and 143 Sharon Ave. Staff and the Planning Commission have recommended approval if 14 conditions related to downspouts, curbs and other design and permitting elements are met.

Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at .