Riverside Pet Shop to open instead of Riverside Bark Doggy Day Care

Riverside Bark Doggy Day Care isn’t going to open in Riverside after all, but Lisa Overocker has a new plan she hopes will work out.

She opened Gentle Hands K-9 Boutique at 813 W. 11th St. in June and began planning to expand her business next door to add a doggy day care.

The space is zoned light commercial, but Overocker discovered that the city considers anything more than four dogs a kennel, and it’s not zoned for that.

So instead, Overocker now hopes to open Riverside Pet Shop to sell fish, birds, rodents and some small lizards. Zoning won’t permit large ones, she says.

Even though the property is zoned correctly for a pet store, Overocker still needs a state license, and she has to convert the building, too, so she says the store won’t be ready for a while.

“I still have a lot of work to do in there.”