Columbia resident raises alarm over health and safety risks of vacant property
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Columbia woman is growing frustrated with a vacant property that she says is a danger to the community.
Marty Wallace was looking to move into a home in the 5400 Block of Thompson Road when she noticed a vacant property across the street. The house was falling apart, with items littering the backyard. This included piles of wood, cans, rusted filing cabinets, broken toys and an old car with a tree growing through it. The left side of the house is missing with wires, wood, and broken doors dangling off the side.
A curious Wallace asked her realtor to look into the property before buying a house.
“I did ask about the house across the street. They checked on it and we were told that they were remodeling, that they were renovating it and they were going to be moving back into it. No problem, really. I mean, that works. I didn't even think anything of it,” Wallace said. “Now, four years later, it's still that way.”
The house has been vacant for more than a decade. Wallace said animals have taken over and it smells like mold.
“Vagrants are going in there, animals are in there and it's just not a safe, healthy thing to have. It's part of spring and our property values down,” Wallace said. “There is not one neighbor that I have talked to in a two- or three-block radius that has anything positive to say.”
Boone County records indicate that the home belongs to a Howard Keith Fletcher. According to Wallace, when neighbors confronted Fletcher about the property, he said the home had sentimental value.
“He said that his children were born and raised there and he was the first one here and everybody moved in and built around here and now we want him gone. We don't really want you out. He's a nice guy and we want the property either fixed and habitable or gone,” Wallace said.
ABC 17 reached out to Fletcher for comment but has yet to hear back.
Wallace reached out to the City of Columbia for help, but the house is located outside of city limits, despite all homes immediately surrounding the property are zoned within city limits, according to the county's parcel viewer. Wallace then tried going to the Health Department, with little success.
“I went all the way up to Governor Parson and everybody has said they can’t get involved. He’s in the county the county doesn’t have regulations, his taxes are paid, nothing anybody can do,” Wallace said.
Despite some of the potential fire hazards, Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Fire Chief Gale Bloomenkamp said the Boone County Fire Department does not have jurisdiction over single-family residents unless they are deemed a danger to the community.
“We can’t tell people to do with their own house. Even if there was a fire in there we couldn’t tell them that ‘you have to tear it down’ We can tell them that it's unsafe but we can’t make them not stay there,” he said
Bloomenkamp added that, unlike the City of Columbia, Boone County has not adopted a property maintenance code that would address situations like this. Boone County Resource Management Director Bill Florea said his department does not have any record of complaints about the property. But, he added that Resource Management is in the process of researching it.
“The County’s process, at least in resource management, is really 95% reactive. We are really not staffed to drive around the county and look for potential violations so the best thing for people to do is to communicate with us,” he said.
Boone County Environmental Health Supervisor Crystal Smart said the health department handles all nuisance-related complaints in the county. According to Smart, there is an “active case with this property and it is under investigation.”
