Southern Oregon Humane Society is planning a new pet adoption center in its first new location since the organization was founded more than nine decades ago.

The nonprofit no-kill shelter will request zoning permits Thursday evening at the Medford Planning Commission meeting as part of plans to build a new kennel and adoption facility on more than 4 acres on an industrial cul-de-sac off Commercial Drive in Medford.

The new facility will be located near the Medford airport and east of the Rogue Valley expressway in northwest Medford, according to documents in the Planning Commission’s agenda packet.

Amenities on the property will include dog exercise yards and a closed-loop walking path shaped like a dog bone. 

The architect for the new facility is Shelter Planners of America of Arlington, Texas, which has designed shelters across the United States. According to documents submitted for SoHumane to the Planning Commission by CSA Planning, the planned shelter facility is designed “to mitigate the issues commonly associated with kennels, including odor, noise and waste disposal.”

It states that the kennels are “thoughtfully designed to minimize potential impacts to surrounding properties,” and the site will include perimeter fencing everywhere except the parking lot and driveway “as a secondary measure to prevent animals from leaving the property accidentally.”

SoHumane is currently located at 2910 Table Rock Road, where it has been since it opened in 1928.

The shelter has had no complaints in the residential area in at least the 15 years that code enforcement records have been online.

Calls to the organization were not immediately returned Wednesday or Thursday, but according to SoHumane’s proposal, the organization “has long outgrown the space we currently have.”

“With the new location our animals will have significantly better living conditions, and our staff will be able to provide opportunities for supervised outdoor activities rather than having to take dogs for walks in the surrounding neighborhoods and along a busy road,” the proposal states.

The organization also hopes that the extra room in the new facility will allow for a second veterinarian. One veterinarian currently works full time at the Table Rock Road facility.

SoHumane currently has 25 employees including 10 full-time positions, plus about 350 volunteers.

The Table Rock facility typically shelters 30 to 40 dogs at a time and up to 75 cats and kittens, with dogs averaging 16 days at the shelter and cats averaging 24 days. Combined, about 1,300 animals are adopted out by the shelter every year.

The Planning Commission will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Medford City Hall council chambers, 411 W. Eighth St. For more information and a link to the livestream, click here, or see medfordoregon.gov and click the “Meetings” tab.