City Rock Piles Violate Height Requirement

January 21, 2010|By Brian Heap | KWCH Eyewitness News

WICHITA, Kan. — The real Rocky Mountains are few hundred miles west of Wichita. For Brian Hopkins and his wife, they're just on the other side of the backyard.

Since the 1970s, the City of Wichita has used a maintenance yard near I-235 and W 3rd Street N to store asphalt and concrete left over from road projects until the material is reused. Over time some piles grew as high as 36 feet. And it appeared the sky was the limit.

"It's just a real eyesore," said Hopkins "I couldn't believe they could allow it to be this high."

Hopkins never made a formal complaint to the city. He just assumed the city was following the rules. Our FactFinder 12 Investigation revealed that wasn't the case. We learned the city has a conditional use permit for the maintenance yard that dates back to 2002. The document sets a 12 foot height limit on the rock piles. We went to the city for answers.

"It was a disconnect in terms of the communication within the city," said Assistant Public Works Director Joe Pajor. "The maintenance folks that operate this yard weren't aware of the condition until you brought it to our attention."

Pajor told us the city is concerned with being a good neighbor. Within 48 hours of FactFinder 12 asking about the height limit, heavy equipment operators were attacking the piles.

"When we became aware of them we instituted remediation efforts," said Pajor, who estimated the problem would be corrected by March 1, 2010.

Pajor said he didn't feel there was a double standard in the way the city enforces code violations for citizens versus itself. He said if a citizen was in violation, he would be cited and given a period of time to correct the problem.

Hopkins doesn't hold a grudge. He's just glad to see action.

"I'm glad that we've gotten it straightened out and now that we can bring this down, I'll have a better view of the skyline here in Wichita, Kansas," he said.

That means no more rocky mountains.

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