Archive for Thursday, September 18, 2008
Edwardsville horse rescuer vows to fight
Resident says ordinance unfairly singles out his rescue operation
Sam Davidson says he'll challenge an Edwardsville ordinance that would restrict the number of horses he can keep. Davidson keeps 38 horses on his nine acres of land, but the new ordinance would restrict the number to no more than 18 animals.
September 18, 2008
The city of Edwardsville and a property owner whose horse-rescue operation inspired a recently adopted ordinance soon may be at loggerheads.
In July the City Council passed Ordinance No. 870, which restricts the number of animals that may be kept on private animal lots in agricultural- and residential-zoned districts by the number of acres available to graze, and requires manure piles, stables, feed and corrals to be at be at least 100 feet from adjacent residences.
Sam Davidsonon lives at 937 Edwardsville Drive, where he has nine acres of land on which he keeps 38 horses, most of them part of his horse-rescue operation.
Under the ordinance Davidson would be limited to a maximum of nine horses, unless he kept them in stalls at all times, and then he could have 18 horses.
Davidson doesn't think the ordinance is fair or legal.
"They wrote an ordinance that just pertains to me," he said.
He plans to fight the city on the matter, and said his legal grounds include what has been called the Kansas "right to farm" law.
It appears the statute Davidson referred to, however, is intended only to protect farmers from nuisance lawsuits.
Likewise, Davidson's hope that the city law may violate a state law requiring a "grandfather clause" - which allow pre-existing activities to continue - in zoning ordinance amendments may be unfounded.
That's because the new Edwardsville law is an amendment to the city's animal control regulations, not its zoning ordinance.
Davidson said he thinks the Edwardsville ordinance was passed because of his neighbors' connections to city officials.
"It's a very clannish little town," he said.
In the discussion at the City Council meeting when the ordinance was passed, Davidson said, Mayor Heinz Rodgers said those complaining of the runoff and smell from Davidson's property "lived here a long time."
"I don't care," Davidson said. "I pay taxes. Why don't they look after me?"
Davidson said the ordinance seemed especially unfair after he'd invested an estimated $100,000 in improving the property, and his own time and labor in moving several hundred yards of dirt to improve drainage and an open sewer, both of which had been sources of complaints from neighbors.
In late August, Davidson received a letter from Edwardsville Police Chief Mark Mathies requesting a meeting between Davidson and city officials, and a walk-though inspection of the property to ensure compliance with the newly amended ordinance.
Davidson told the Chieftain he would not let police officers on his property for such an inspection without a warrant.
If it comes down to it, he said, he's prepared to fight in court.
"We'll see how far it goes," Davidson said, and that it would depend on the city's actions as to whether he'll sue.
As for the ordinance's legality, City Administrator Mike Webb said the city's attorney, Reed Walker, helped write it to ensure the ordinance complied with state law.
Mathies said the Edwardsville Police, and not just codes enforcement, was involved partly because animal control is in the purview of his department.
"It's not technically a law-enforcement matter," he said.
Mathies hoped the situation could be resolved without confrontation.
"The letter was in a spirit of cooperation," he said. "We just want to go out and say what can we do to help."
Mathies said the deadline for Davidson to respond to his letter regarding the requested inspection was Friday.
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Comments
sldavidsonfarms (anonymous) says…
Our name is Davidson not Donaldson , And I said the city council was clannish not the cities persons , We think the cities people are hard working younger persons and it being run by the 37% of older persons living in the area . . and far as the smell & runoff there was none , is what I said . They never proved it . and the so called runoff was supposed be causing aliege in neibors pond which was Duck Weed which we proved to the city council .