What started as a dispute between neighbors over driveway rights has turned into a verbal and legal spat involving Clarkston city officials.
Wompole Drive resident Bruce Whitmer has protested city council decisions and procedures in connection with decorative rocks he placed at the end of his driveway last summer.
Wompole Drive is a small, formerly private street on Clarkston’s northeast side. The street is now a public street, but does not conform to current-day specifications. The homes on the street were built long before modern zoning ordinances, and property lines follow some unexpected angles.
All those details came into play on Dec. 13, 2004, when city council members grudgingly agreed to try to mediate between Whitmer and his neighbors, Thomas and Lynne Swayne.
The two homes are located at the end of the Wompole Drive cul-de-sac, with their respective driveways splitting away from the end. According to a plat map, however, the Swaynes? driveway actually crosses Whitmer’s property to have access to the street.
Last year, Whitmer filed two police reports saying the Swayne’s vehicle backed into his driveway and damaged his vehicle. Then he used an asphalt saw to cut away about three feet of the Swayne’s driveway frontage and placed decorative boulders at the street’s edge.
The Swaynes protested the move, saying they had no safe access to Wompole Drive.
‘You can’t back out of the driveway,? said Lynne Swayne at the Dec. 13 meeting.
‘If we’re talking about safety, I think my safety counts,? Whitmer countered.
In the midst of protracted arguing at that meeting, city engineer Gary Tressel and attorney Thomas Ryan spoke of a city ordinance requiring a clear right-of-way and citing potential safety hazards for emergency vehicles.
Despite Whitmer’s offer to move one rock back, the council unanimously voted to order Whitmer to move all the rocks back at least three feet within seven days. Failure to follow the directive would lead to the city DPW moving the rocks back seven feet and billing Whitmer for the services, the resolution said.
Whitmer later charged that the Dec. 13 proceeding was unfair on several counts, including lack of notice that the issue would be discussed at that meeting and the alleged failure of City Manager Art Pappas to provide him with documents apparently obtained by other parties prior to the discussion.
The council-set deadline passed, but Whitmer moved only one rock. The DPW used their equipment to move all the rocks back from the street, leading Whitmer to accuse the crew of shoddy workmanship and the city council of violating the city charter by passing a ‘resolution? with a penalty against a citizen.
‘The council specified no rule, law, ordinance or charter provision in the issuance of this resolution,? Whitmer wrote in a Dec. 20, 2004 letter to Pappas, ‘but provided for a penalty against me.?
At the Jan. 10, 2005 council meeting, Whitmer and others raised the protest again, accusing the council of being ‘arbitrary and capricious.? That led council members to defend their action because of the neighbors? failure to be neighborly.
‘It only came to this because you two [Whitmer and the Swaynes] couldn’t fix it,? Council Member Kristy Ottman said.
‘We didn’t pick a fight here,? Council Member Daniel Colombo said. ‘We didn’t resolve any problems. We just moved some rocks out of our right of way.?
‘You should have gotten a lawyer and gone to court instead of coming to us,? Council Member Walter Gamble said to Whitmer.
‘This is a no-win situation for everybody,? said Mayor Sharron Catallo. ‘We try not to get involved with neighbor-to-neighbor issues.?
Property conflicts involving Whitmer are not new. He has cited a September 2001 injunction prohibiting city personnel from ‘doing anything upon my property,? and said city officials are being hypocritical by not enforcing the right-of-way requirements elsewhere on Wompole Drive and elsewhere in the city.
Whitmer has an ongoing feud with Corian and Robyn Johnston, who own another Wompole Drive property which abuts Whitmer’s land. In 2002, Whitmer raised issues with Robyn Johnston’s holding a seat on the city planning commission after she voted for revised setback requirements which allegedly benefited her property.
In the latest controversy, city officials say they are in the right. Pappas said Whitmer’s complaints about Freedom of Information issues stem from his general requests for ‘anything and everything.?
‘You have to ask for specific things,? Pappas said. ‘Everything he’s asked for that I’ve got, I’ve let him see it or make copies.?
Pappas knows the Wompole Drive circumstances are complex, but said the latest issue is simple.
‘The only thing the city is involved with is the rocks in the right of way,? he said. ‘He had rocks on the right of way, he was asked to get them off and he didn’t get them off.?
Ryan, meanwhile, said Whitmer’s claim of a charter violation is without merit.
‘It’s not a penalty,? Ryan said of the DPW’s action and the pending financial charge. ‘It’s an extra service necessitated by his moving the rocks into the right of way, and we’re going to bill him for it.?
The cost of the DPW work, estimated at more than $500, has yet to be billed to Whitmer, however.
‘I think they’re afraid to,? Whitmer said last week.
Pappas said he’s waiting for direction on the bill.
‘I don’t know if we will or not,? he said on Monday. ‘It will be up to the city council to decide what to do.?