Time for a long story, so sit back and enjoy.
The Timeline
I live at 9 W. Fifth St. in Parkville. It's been my curse to have to live next to the fiasco of a construction site that is 11 W. Fifth St. #9 and #11 are/were twins-same plans but #9 was built two years earlier, in 1902. When I moved here in late '02, #11 was vacant and in need of some repair.
#9 is owned by Carolyn Elwess, who inherited the house after the death of her husband David.
In 2003, Jeff Jones and two other individuals purchased the house at 11 W. Fifth. Jones began work on the house, putting on a new roof and removing the old siding. However, work stopped for reasons unknown at that time. We now know that Jones could not afford to do further work and could not obtain a construction loan.
Jones didn't do the roof himself-he hired a company who's first move was to block off my ability to drive in and out of my parking area. When the police arrived, two of the roofing employees got very nervous and fled the jurisdiction on foot. I was soon to learn that doing the courteous thing and letting neighbors know about construction issues was not a part of the Jones plan.
During the many months while nothing was happening, the neighborhood was treated to old tarpaper being blown off the Jones house during high winds. If Jones ever bothered to pick any of it up, I didn't see it.
In 2004, Jones sold the property to his mother, Patti L. Jones. Mrs. Jones has said that she purchased the property to obtain a construction loan for her son and he intended to live in the house once it had been completed. Funding was eventually obtained and work eventually began again on the home. Nobody else knew that at the time and Jeff Jones continued to assert publically that he was the owner of the property, including making that claim on city permits.
In August 2005, Jones began the removal of most of his backyard in order to build a three-car garage. On or about September 13, 2005, Jones had contractors pour concrete for this garage. Jones also called Carolyn to state he was raising the level of the alley and that she would need to increase the height of the retaining wall to prevent flooding of #9. Carolyn objected that the alley was city property and he had no legal right to make changes. She then called Public Works to complain.
Public Works stated that water issues would be handled by paving the alley. We learned later that at no time did Public Works communicate with Community Development during these weeks. Also, while pouring the concrete, Jones' trucks drove onto our retaining wall and cracked it in several places.
On or about September 22, 2005, Jones, in two separate incidents, spread at least three inches of gravel over the parking area, behind the house. I called Carolyn and she came to investigate. We also found several hundred pounds of waste concrete dumped on the property. Jones had also left a huge pile of gravel in the alley, preventing anyone from driving from 4th St. to 5th St. and vice versa.
We contacted the police but the officer who investigated stated Jones could not be cited for trespassing because the property was not posted. The officer declined to state why Jones could not be charged with illegally dumping this material on the property. I guess that in this officer's opinion, anyone can dump most anything on anyone's property.
Carolyn posted a No Trespassing sign on the parking area and at least when Jones contractors parked here, the police did run them off. Jones never cared about his contractors parking over here-when confronted about it, Jones claimed there was nothing he could do and in fact, those contractors were stealing his tools.
On September 23, Jones stopped to talk with Carolyn and asked if she liked the dumped gravel. She made it very clear that she did not. She warned him that any further trespassing by him would cause me to file criminal charges.
Jones continued to make changes to the alley, to raise it near the level of his garage. In some cases, this was done after Public Works issued permits to Jones, permitting him to block the alley. At other times, Jones blocked the alley without a permit. Through this period, we complained to the city about these illegal changes to City property.
It's now clear, by the way, that one of the many problems here was the faulty design of the garage by Jones. He failed to remove enough of his backyard to place the garage properly, so the only means in which to make the garage usable was to greatly increase the height of the alley.
As Jones continued his work through October, more gravel was dumped in the alley and Jones continued to raise the alley’s grade well over twelve inches in some places. By early November, the gravel overflowed our retaining wall-and to this day, it continues to do so. Public Works was again informed of the changes to the alley.
Finally, on or about November 7th, 2005, Public Works visited the alley and told Carolyn that there would be no more permits issued to Jones to block the alley. The city employee stated that he expected paving to begin soon. Shortly thereafter, a concrete entrance was poured at Fifth St. We noted that this entrance was level with #9 property, allowing runoff water onto the property that had been previously diverted by the retaining wall. Public Works said the City would examine the problem and would make necessary repairs. This conversation was on November 17th.
On November 18th, Carolyn spoke with Alderman Deborah Butcher and expressed her concerns about the alley. Deborah contacted Public Works and asked to be kept informed. On November 21st, Jeff Rupp, the Director of Public Works, personally inspected the alley and noted that the Jones garage project “had created errors in grade control and elevation.” He stopped the planned paving and intended to construct concrete curbing down the alley to prevent water from damaging adjacent properties. He wanted to do this work and then have the alley paved in the spring. He also said that Jones would re-grade the alley before the paving. However, we were unable to obtain answers as to why Jones was allowed to make any changes in City property in the first place.
On December 6th, 2005, Mr. Rupp informed Carolyn that the entire garage project was done without a permit. It was at this time we learned that there had been no communication between Public Works and Community Development regarding this situation. Mr. Rupp stated that Jones would have to obtain permission from the Board of Zoning Adjustment to keep the garage and in order to do so, might have to pay to repair and pave the alley. Mr. Rupp gave me a ballpark estimate of $14,000-17,000. The City did issue a stop work order. (Not that it stopped Jones. We called the city numerous times regarding continued illegal construction at #11. The city did send over representatives to halt the illegal activity).
In early January 2006, we were notified of a pending BZA application in regard to the garage. This hearing was eventually continued to January 31st. In the meantime, Mr. Jones violated the stop work order. A notice was placed on that property prohibiting further work.
The staff report prepared for the BZA proceeding noted that Jones had shown his garage plans to Community Development but had been told the City would not approve them. Rather than submit new plans, Jones built his garage according to the disapproved plans.
On January 31st, the BZA voted 4-1 to deny the request.
On March 1st, Jones appealed the BZA decision. Jeffrey S. Jones v Board Of Zoning Parkville Mo, #06AE-CV00661.
However, on October 16, 2006, this lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice. This dismissal served to uphold the BZA decision. We were assured by City staff that there was no settlement between the City and Mr. Jones that would have prompted this dismissal.
Therefore, it is inexplicable to us that the city offered Jones the same deal he was offered prior to the BZA hearing. In return for being allowed to keep the garage, he would have to pay to return the alley to its original grade and pay to pave it.
In early January 2007, I got suspicious of the whole thing and did some research. I discover that Jeff Jones was not the owner of the property at 11 W. Fifth and had not been since sometime in 2004 when he sold it to his mother. Jones had been masquerading as the owner-including in circuit court-for well over two years before being discovered. Most damning, however, is that this critical piece of information was discovered by me. No city employee was aware of this crucial fact, including apparently its legal counsel in the lawsuit. City staff had been negotiating with the wrong person since the beginning of this alley controversy in September 2005.
The city contacted Patti Jones and some progress was made. For one, she evicted her son from #11 and promised to take steps in regard to the alley. She stated that it would be fixed by the end of May 2007.
Didn't happen. In fact, not much of anything happened. In what we now know to be typical Jones family behavior, she had surveyors trespass on #9 in the summer of '07. Mrs. Jones also put up a 'for sale' sign on #11, telling callers she wanted $600,000 for the house. In that no house in the history of Old Parkville has sold for more than $500,000 (and that house had a real yard and a real garage and didn't look ugly), there was zero chance of that happening. A local real estate agent thinks the most they could get for the house right now is $240K. With Mrs. Jones having claimed she's got $600K in the property, well, it's an ugly loss. That's what happens when people without knowledge of real estate speculate.
The present status as of April '08? We're told Mrs. Jones has put the money in escrow to return the alley to original grade and pave it. The city expects work to begin on May 5, 2008. If we're really, really lucky, the water runoff issues will end and that garage will be Old Parkville's very first loading dock.
