KANSAS CITY – The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District has affirmed a ruling in favor of Boone County in its case against a property owner who had built a detached garage and other structures in the public right of way.
In a ruling issued April 3, the appeals panel, which included Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Mel Fischer as "special judge," as well as Judges Alok Ahuja and Karen King Mitchell, affirmed a judgment entered by Boone County Judge Jodie Asel.
Defendant Seth Reynolds had appealed Asel's ruling, asserting that there was "a dearth of evidence" demonstrating that the structures he placed in the right of way -- a garage, privacy fence and satellite dish -- presented any harm to the county.
According to background information in the ruling, Reynolds had begun construction on his 40 foot by 40 foot garage at his property on Creasy Springs Road before June 2013, without having first obtained a building permit. The structure sat approximately 18 feet to 20 feet away from the paved road, in violation of county code that requires a 25-foot setback. Reynolds contacted the county on June 21, 2013, after he was told by a power company that he needed a building permit to relocate a power line that his builder advised was too close to the construction area.
He was granted the building permit on the same day as his request but was contacted four days later by email by a county land-use planner stating the garage was too close to the road and he would need to apply for a variance. Reynolds did not respond for approximately two years but proceeded to complete the garage, which he claimed to cost between $30,000 and $35,000.
When he applied for a variance sometime in 2015, the county Board of Adjustment rejected his request, whereupon legal action against Reynolds began.
The Boone County Circuit Court eventually issued a permanent injunction requiring Reynolds to remove the structures from the right of way, affirmed by the appeals court.
"[A]ny encroachment on a public right-of-way necessarily interferes with the rights of the public," states the opinion written by Mitchell. "Because the evidence indisputably demonstrated that Reynolds’s garage, satellite dish, and privacy fence encroached in the public right-of-way for Creasy Springs Road, it supported a determination that Reynolds interfered with the rights of the public."