By Kelsey Koenen

October 26, 2007 | NIBLEY -- Some harried citizens attended the Planning Commission meeting Wednesday, due to complaints regarding the property of resident Ben Call at 524 W. 2600 South.

Call will be asked to attend the next meeting on Nov. 14 and specify whether the new addition to his property will be used for living quarters, and what headway he will be making regarding his land.

"His property has been a mess for over three years, he hasn't done any landscaping. He put in a chicken coop and the chickens died," Randy Smith, a neighbor, said.

Smith and his wife, who attended the meeting, spoke up about the half-acre property Call owns now and his most recent addition, an accessory building. On Sunday, it will be a month that Call has had this structure sitting on his lot with no progress toward a foundation or further construction. His neighbors are getting concerned with the safety, due to a giant hole where a stairwell used to be and the upkeep of his property as it is.

"I'm not looking at nice houses and yards, I'm looking at a junkyard. I'm living in the ghetto," Laurie Boehme, another neighbor, said.

Boehme along with Risa Smith brought two letters from other neighbors who are frustrated with the issue and the development of 2600 South. Boehme feels that Call has basically put two homes on a half-acre lot.

"The City Council has chosen to take a more limited view of a government's purpose. They [citizens] had proposed to them minimum design standards on homes and turned it down. The majority of the council felt it was not their responsibility to get involved in those sorts of things," City Manager Larry Anhder said.

Boehme looked directly at Anhder and asked if he was telling the citizens that they should just turn around and go home.

"We are a society of laws, not a society of people. Not following the whim of whomever, if the laws are not adequate then there is a process to change our laws," Anhder said.

The only option discussed for action among the planning commission was the nuisance ordinance, which doesn't allow an existing building to be used for junk, debris, and unauthorized vehicles, among other hazardous uses. This ordinance dictates that any structure not safely used within 30 days can be declared a nuisance on any Nibley property.

The commission voted unanimously to wait until Call appeared before them at the next meeting or they would possibly pursue the threat of the nuisance ordinance with his property.

"I'm just a little downhearted right now," Boehme said.

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