Owner of Racine County dilapidated barn sues village officials to block demolition order | Local News

YORKVILLE — A fight over a rickety barn on Spring Street is entering its second year, as property owner Steven Jenkins challenges the village’s authority to force him to demolish the barn.

Jenkins said the village is exaggerating the repair costs while also violating his constitutional rights by enforcing property standards on his barn while ignoring similar problems elsewhere.

The Village of Yorkville has refused to grant Jenkins a building permit to repair the barn, saying that local government has a right to require demolition of properties in such severely deteriorated condition.

The dispute, which is pending in Racine County Circuit Court, pits village officials against a longtime resident who contends that his government representatives have been harassing him for years.

The court fight ignited when Jenkins filed suit to prevent the village from forcing him to bulldoze his barn, with no trial date scheduled and no end in sight.

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As Jenkins’ attorney, Douglas Rose, put it, “It’s an unfortunate situation for everyone.”

Village officials, who have hired a Milwaukee law firm to defend them, are declining to discuss the matter.

Yorkville Village Board member Cory Bartlett declined to comment except to say of the dispute, “It’s going through the process that we follow on properties in this condition.”

Other board members could not be reached for comment.

Village Administrator Michael McKinney referred questions to the village’s attorney, Joseph Wirth, of the law firm Wirth + Baynard, who also could not be reached.

The parties are due back in court Nov. 4 for a conference on the status of the civil suit pending before Circuit Judge Mark Nielsen.

Jenkins is seeking a court injunction barring the village from ordering him to raze his barn, as well as a finding that the village has violated his rights to due process, plus unspecified monetary damages and attorney fees.

Just north of Union Grove along Spring Street, Steven Jenkins purchased his five-acre hobby farm in 1987, and has had repeated problems with Yorkville village regulations over the years.

Via Google Maps

Jenkins, who bought the property at 17806 Spring St. in 1987, says village officials have insisted on regular inspections of his property and claimed they have flown aircraft and drones overhead to capture surreptitious photos of the property.

“It’s a very harassful thing,” he said.

Starting in the early 1990s, Jenkins said, the village at first cracked down on his collection of antique trucks, then forced him to get rid of a dog-breeding operation. After telling him that certain equipment and other items must be moved behind the barn to meet property standards, he said, now officials want to demolish the barn itself.

Meanwhile, he said, other property owners in the area have similar property maintenance issues, but the village is not taking action against them.

“These guys have enough power to harass anybody they want,” he said. “It’s just disgusting, man.”

Terrence McMahon, a longtime village board member until 2018, said the village was at odds with Jenkins many times over public health and safety issues on the Spring Street property. McMahon acknowledged that similar issues existed elsewhere, but he said Jenkins’ property was much worse during McMahon’s time in village government.

“It was very extreme,” he said.

According to the lawsuit, filed in May 2021, Jenkins’ barn is valued at $182,000 for tax purposes, and Jenkins believes it could be repaired for $9,000. Jenkins is a carpenter and a construction manager.

The village contends that the barn is worth only about $15,000, and that repairing it would cost $100,000.

Jenkins sought a permit to repair the barn, but officials instead issued an order to demolish it. The village contends that it has the authority to order properties razed when repair costs exceed a formula starting from a base of 50% of the property’s assessed value.

Yorkville officials have agreed to withhold enforcement of a raze order while the lawsuit is underway.

The barn owner states in his suit that the village’s enforcement actions against him are “motivated by an arbitrary non-public purpose to target the plaintiff and force the plaintiff to lose property.”

Village officials have responded by denying that they violated Jenkins’ rights or that they were exaggerating problems with the barn. Their attorney has told the judge that the village’s actions are “justified, objectively reasonable, necessary, carried out in good faith, and with sufficient legal cause.”

Photos: Historic round barn moved to new home

Kyle Vesperman plans to spend about $100,000 to move and restore this historic round barn. He was on hand Thursday as it made its way across farm fields to his farm on Stage Road south of Lancaster.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Workers with Dairyland Power Cooperative lower power lines Thursday morning to allow the 45-foot-high round barn to be moved across a farm field south of Lancaster.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

A crowd gathers along Old Potosi Road south of Lancaster as a historic round barn is moved to a new location 3 miles east to Vesperman Farms, where it will be used for weddings and other events.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Hydraulic lifts suspend the 150-ton barn as it’s transported by Heritage Movers to its new location. The move began Tuesday and concluded Thursday.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

The remnants of aa foundation which held an historic round barn remain at the site following its move in Lancaster, Wis., Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

JOHN HART STATE JOURNAL

Vehicles park and drive along Fairview Road in the town of Lancaster, Wis. as an historic round barn is transported nearby Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

JOHN HART STATE JOURNAL

Jenny Stillestad offers warm apple cider donuts to spectators Thursday parked along the roadway as a round barn is transported across several farm properties in Grant County.

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The interior supports create a maze for the round barn that was constructed sometime between 1902 and 1922.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

The weathered exterior of the round barn is seen as it’s moved to a new location south of Lancaster.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Cindy and Mark Rupp record the move of an historic round barn in the town of Lancaster, Wis., Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

JOHN HART STATE JOURNAL

Shortly after 11 am Thursday, the round barn approached Vesperman Farms, south of Lancaster, where it will be used for weddings and other events.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

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