STUDIO CITY : Woman Gets Permit to Keep 20 Cats on Estate

A city hearing officer Friday granted a New York City woman a zoning permit to keep her 20 cats in a $100,000 house she built for them on a Studio City estate, ruling against neighbors who said the cats would create health problems, bother dogs, disrupt traffic and attract coyotes.

But the administrator said he will review the case in a year to ensure that the cats remain indoors, a condition of the permit exempting Francine Katzenbogen from the city’s three-cat limit per household. Katzenbogen was also required to limit the number of cats to 20, provide proof that they have been spayed or neutered, and dispose of cat litter daily.

Katzenbogen, who lives in Brooklyn, said she will likely bring her cats in about a month, after the zoning appeal period is over, to the million-dollar estate she has bought on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. She said she plans to spend several thousand dollars to transport them by private plane.