MILFORD — A local kennel's plans to add a pet crematorium have gone up in smoke.

The Planning and Zoning Board last night rejected the application of the Snowflake Kennel in Devon to change a regulation to allow such a facility here. "I don't know if I'm going to appeal; I have to talk to my lawyers," the disappointed Snowflake owner Robert Mickolyzck said today. "People need something, with the economy and to get closure."

Mickolyzck, whose business also provides grooming, veterinary services and "doggie day care," said the crematorium would have been a logical expansion of his offerings.

"I'd be working with the city's animal shelter, and pet owners whose animals have died could have the pet's remains within a day," he said. "It can take two weeks to get them back now." There are pet crematoriums in Stamford and Westbrook, Mickolyzck said. City Planner David Sulkis said the board's vote should not have come as a surprise. "I indicated early on that I could not support this. If the regulation were changed to allow this in a light industrial zone, it wouldn't have affected just his property." PZB members were concerned about the impact of the crematorium on the neighborhood. Snowflake's property is in a light industrial zone on Rowe Avenue. Crematoriums are not allowed anywhere in Milford.

Mickolyzck's application requested a change in the regulation to permit crematoriums only in light industrial zones.

Sulkis said that those zones are meant to provide a

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transition and a buffer between residential areas and commercial districts. State law allows crematoriums on at least 20 acres of land, but that regulation pertains to facilities for human remains, Sulkis said. Winthrop Smith Sr., a local funeral director who once offered crematory services for pets, said the demand is there. "We used a crematory in Glastonbury, but we had to stop offering it because we were getting too busy," Smith has said earlier.