By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer
Alex and Jane Teimouri say the backyard of their 42nd Avenue home has been walled in by the concrete barrier erected by Bill McKay, a Kennewick banker who is building a 9,600-square-foot, $583,000 home on 46th Avenue.
McKay’s retaining wall would allow him to bring in fill dirt to level the backyard.
But he didn’t obtain a city building permit for the wall or tell the property owners association about his construction plans before the blocks were stacked up last October.
The Teimouris notified the city and the property owners association, for which Alex Teimouri previously was a director and member of its architectural design review committee.
McKay subsequently got a city permit and applied to the association for approval.
McKay learned from Jodi Landefeld, manager of the association’s office, that his wall did not appear to be “in harmony with the rest of the structures in Canyon Lakes.”
Landefeld said Monday: “The board never would’ve approved a 10-foot retaining wall.”
“Is it an eyesore? Yes. Who can deny that except McKay?” Landefeld said.
But McKay said he hasn’t “done anything with that lot that I wouldn’t be happy with as a neighbor.”
P. Craig Walker, a Richland attorney representing the association, said negotiations have been under way for five months.
Ken Miller, a Kennewick attorney representing Bill and Cynthia McKay, said the association has allowed similar retaining walls to be built in Canyon Lakes, even while Teimouri was on the architectural design review committee.
“This wall isn’t any different than others. The problem is the association has never uniformly enforced the rules,” Miller said.
But Teimouri, who resigned from the board months ago, said the association isn’t willing to enforce the “covenants, conditions and restrictions” created when Canyon Lakes was developed in the 1980s.
Walker told the Teimouris and a neighbor, Paul Dughi, by letter last week that the association board has prepared a lawsuit against McKay “to fully enforce covenants (and) retaining wall standards.” But it has not been filed.
A copy of the May 27 letter, which was provided to the Herald, admits past “intermittent compliance with the architectural review process and apparent disregard for the retaining wall guidelines.”
Consequently, the association may not have absolute authority to enforce, Walker noted. “In a neighborhood that size (more than 860 homes), it’s almost an insurmountable task to enforce the regulations,” he said.
But Teimouri says the association board has abdicated its responsibilities.
“The board has authority to take down that wall and send the McKays the bill. The board is choosing not to do enforcement,” he said.
The Teimouris circulated a petition last December calling for removal of the wall. It represented 19 neighbors.
Landefeld said the problem began when McKay started building without approval from the property owners association.
Miller said McKay bought the property from a developer who specifically had been exempted from the architectural review requirements. Miller said McKay thought that he, too, was exempt.
It was a mistake, Miller said, but not intentional.
And now the association finds itself caught between a 172-ton concrete wall and two neighbors.