Lehi city needs to figure out how to let 6-year-old Dallin Hunsaker keep Chick at home.

Chick is a physical therapist who happens to be a quarter horse. He has helped Dallin, who has cerebral palsy, learn to walk, improve his balance and his muscle tone. But Dallin and Chick happen to live in a place in Lehi that isn't zoned for animals, which came to light when Hunsaker's parents approached Lehi city about swapping some land so they could install a straight fence line.

The Hunsakers say they intentionally bought land in Lehi because they were told they could keep animals, but they have since been informed that isn't so. Some neighbors are opposed to a zoning change or spot-zoning to accommodate that land use, saying it could hurt their property values.

The concerns of both groups are compelling. Yet, it would seem that cooler heads could craft a solution that would enable Chick to stay under a variance to the city's zoning ordinance that would reinstitute animal restrictions when Chick's services are no longer needed or when the Hunsakers sold the property.

No question, Lehi city is in a pickle in this case. When city councils or county commissions carve out exceptions to planning and zoning regulations, it almost always seems to come back to haunt them.

But sometimes, elected officials need to throw caution to the wind because a greater good can come from making an exception. This isn't the case of a spoiled little rich girl who wants a pet pony in the back yard. This circumstance involves a family that specifically bought a place in Lehi so they could keep a specially trained horse to help their son overcome his developmental delays.

If Lehi officials can't devise a legal means for this to occur, at the very least there must be a horse owner nearby who could give Chick a place to live and work his magic with Dallin.

The best solution, of course, would be to find some legal nicety that enables Chick to stay home and buy some goodwill with neighbors, who should be assured that any such variance expires if Chick leaves or the Hunsakers sell their land. No question, such an arrangement could result in headaches for Lehi planners and council members for a long time to come. But it is highly doubtful that any future applicants for zoning changes or variances could present such a compelling case for tweaking the rules ever so slightly and temporarily.