Fighting City Hall
We love fighting City Hall. And frustrated taxpayers are turning to us to help expose the stupid things government does. This time, the call for help came from Wharton.
Variance Fiasco
There are few things that piss off Texans more than the government messing with their property… Their neighborhoods…. That’s why this fight in Wharton is not just about inches… it’s about property rights.
See if you can find some of the viral attacks made in public speaking.
It’s these city council moments that go viral on social media.
But before the fireworks started.
All Texas council meetings begin with a prayer… And then the pledge of allegiance to our flags.
Kim Yurek used her for a few minutes at the microphone to remind her town council what the pledge means to her.
Did you not just pledge allegiance to one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all? Where’s my liberty to legally access my own property?” said Kim Jurek
Kim lives in Wharton, Texas….A small town about an hour south of Houston along highway 59. population 8900……
This is where she calls home…. A patio home in what’s called the Mayfair subdivision.
They were built more than forty years ago and the city code has special rules just for them.
“They have special definitions for patio homes that my yard ends… theirs starts,” said Kim Jurek.
But Mayfair was never fully completed decades ago… And this past January the resilience group sought to change that.
But owner Blake Meuth’s vision would change the way the patio neighborhood looked.
“To allow for me to be off of the property line. so, I wasn’t building directly on her property line,” said Blake Meuth.
It didn’t matter how the neighborhood has looked like forever.
“We are not going to go and build on a property line and connect it to an existing home. That is not a quality execution. That is not good for anybody,” said Blake Meuth.
But that’s not what the city code says. or what Kim Yurek wanted.
“Why he couldn’t just build up like the rest of the houses. Like what it says in the city code, patio homes are supposed to be,” said Kim Jurek.
Her neighbor Donna agreed.
“I think it’s being pushed down her throat and ours as a community,” said Donna Wilson.
First thing that meant for Kim… The outside wall of the house next door to her won’t enclose her patio. Like everyone else who lives there.
“To have a nice brick wall wouldn’t that be nice? that’s what I expected,” said Kim Jurek.
The house next door would now leave the back of her garage exposed. important to her.
“Okay, normally they would build the house,” said Andrea.
“And i wouldn’t have to worry about this,” said Kim Jurek.
On January 20th Meuth went to the Wharton planning commission with a request to get the cities ok.
What’s called a variance request.
The Wharton planning commission approved it… As did city council just 6 days later….
But Kim, the person who would have to live next to whatever Blake did…
She didn’t have a clue it was even happening… Until workers showed up to start digging foundations for the rest of Mayfair.
“I’m not mad, I just have in my heart what’s right and what’s not right. and that’s not, I would not have bought,” said Kim Jurek.
And Kim has been going to city hall ever since then to find out why she was kept in the dark…
“I’ve been going to city hall every day the first week and I went to city hall again Monday and I just they lie by omission, there’s things they know that they could tell me, but they don’t, it’s not to their advantage,” said Kim Jurek.
Hurricanes have never flooded Mayfair but because of changing flood rules over time foundations of the new houses would have to be poured a foot higher…. Resilience homes planed on making them two feet higher.
“It takes away from the look, the esthetic of the neighborhood,” said Donna Wilson.
Blake said the city approved the plans… And they did. But the city apparently missed the two-foot elevation issue.
“Well then that is his misunderstanding, that is not what our code says,” said Gweneth Teves.
Longtime city manager Joe Pace passed the buck too.
“So, I didn’t do anything. City council made that decision,” said Joseph Pace.
“They threw you under the bus. They stated that everything involved in this matter resulted from actions that the council voted to approve,” said Kim Jurek.
Kim had already asked us to investigate. Suddenly an unsymmetric city was changing their tune.
Kim found what she thought was a smoking gun in the city ordinances… More people should read them.
“Where’s my justice? your ordinance section 1876 establishes an appeals process that is approved and required by the city. That means you,” said Kim Jurek.
But how could Kim stop what was happening if city didn’t warn her it was happening and she’s right.
“There is an appeal process, but it is a 10 day window. so, after the approval was granted, she had a 10-day window to appeal,” said Gweneth Teves.
“I was never notified of my 10 days to appeal,” said Kim Jurek.
“And she didn’t know about it because y’all didn’t notify her about it, so,” said Andrea.
“The city manager told us the lack of zoning in Wharton meant notify neighbors in advance wasn’t mandatory. But that’s not very neighborly Mr. Pace,” said Andrea.
And what happened here should be a warning for folks in every Texas town.
Does your city notify you if a new neighbor wants to change things?
“I believe that neighbors should be notified and we’re going to do that moving forward for sure,” said Joseph Pace.
But how does that help Kim and her neighbors.
“According to the Texas constitution and texastatues.org, a municipality cannot permanently prohibit legal and physical access to private property because doing so amounts to an unconstitutional taking or denial of due process,” said Joseph Pace.
That may explain why the city attorney Paul Webb is trying to give Kim a way to eventually gain access to the back of her garage.
“When they sell it there’ll have to be an exception for her to get to her property so she can maintain the bricks or whatever is on that line,” said Paul Webb.
But he claims he sees no legal reason to nullify the original variance…in other words… Too late. Too bad.
But why should Kim need a lawyer to sue.
“It’s just an… unfortunate, incident that we’re working out now, and it’s not going to happen again,” said Paul Webb.
“Maybe if you had taken the time to educate yourselves, you might not have approved the original variance,” said Donna Wilson.
“Good comeback donna… And at the city council meeting we came to resilience homes was back on the agenda … With yet another variance. At least this time the neighbors were warned.
You just said, what the variance, the letter I got is not the same thing, it’s different.
And suddenly a rubber-stamping city council was taking a closer look.
“With all the… The tension surrounding the current house being built and the variance that was approved in January, I’d just like to look into it before making a decision,” said Greg Hippel.
Kim met with the city attorney just days after the council meeting… and now he’s presented her with a possible solution.
The builder has agreed to build two fences from her house to the house next door…
One in front one in back… To make it look like they are connected. One of the fences will be gated to give Kim easy access.
As Webb writes quote: “without any possibility of being accused of trespassing.”
But Kim Yurek is still not sure the issue is totally settled.
“I want to see some accountability for not being notified,” said Kim Jurek.
We’d suggest the city think of something.
“Well, are you glad you went to Dolcefino media?” said Andrea.
“God yes, ma’am. You have helped me tremendously because I was, I was lost,” said Kim Jurek.
“I want the people to know and that’s what the media company does is let people know what cities and politicians and these types of people are doing that are elected are doing to their citizens,” said Kim Jurek.
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