A resident unhappy with a Unified Government Commission vote allowing her to have eight ducks on her property, instead of the requested 12, showed up at Commissioner Harold Johnson’s yard after the vote on Sept. 30.
Shortly after the vote at the virtual meeting, Commissioner Johnson spoke during the virtual UG meeting, “This person is outside of my house, and she is confronting my wife and my son.”
Corinna West, who wanted the UG Commission to approve 12 ducks at her urban farm, instead of the eight recommended by the Wyandotte County Conservation District, went to Commissioner Johnson’s Westheight area home after the vote to register her objection to him citing neighbors’ complaints that were not in the public record. She lives around two blocks from the commissioner’s home.
She said she was cited for disorderly conduct on Sept. 30 at Johnson’s property.
West said she went to the commissioner’s home because she wanted to express her dissatisfaction, because the commission entered testimony that should not have been admitted into the record. She said he had not responded to her earlier emails and phone calls.
During the virtual UG Commission meeting, Commissioner Johnson thanked West for the work she was doing in breeding ducks. He said he was pleased the planning and zoning department would recommend eight ducks, instead of the six allowed by the code.
Commissioner Johnson said at the meeting that when he saw the approval of the increase to eight, and the unanimous approval by the City Planning Commission, he looked at that as a good compromise.
“From my perspective I’d like to see how this goes over the next two years, then we can always make an application for more at a later date, if in fact we don’t have any problems with that,” Johnson said at the meeting.
He said he was not aware of any opposition submitted directly and formally through the zoning process, but he has been made aware of some opposition to it. Johnson made the motion to approve the special use permit for eight ducks, which later passed 9-0.
He was asked by Commissioner Jane Philbrook if the opposition was from people who live close to the urban farm.
Commissioner Johnson then asked Mayor David Alvey if it was appropriate to respond to that question, and the mayor indicated it was. Then Johnson said the complaint was from people close by.
West said on Friday that wasn’t the sort of complaint she could answer – it wasn’t specific. She said she could answer comments about plants on the farm, about water runoff or any number of things.
West had disputed the conservation district’s finding that she did not have enough wetlands plants on her quarter-acre lot. She said she counted more than 1,000 of wetlands plants, and she had photos of them that she presented.
West raises pounds of produce and fruit on her quarter-acre urban farm in the historic Westheight neighborhood, along with the rare duck breeding stock. She raises a rare Heritage breed of Cayuga ducks, a domesticated duck breed native to North America.
She is a micro-entrepreneur, she said, and she believes that having to jump through so many hoops for zoning is keeping other entrepreneurs away from Wyandotte County. Quite often, those with zoning issues have to hire engineers or attorneys to represent them, which is not always possible for a small business, according to West. She said she sees the local government as just working with their friends.
“It just makes me very angry the city will not play by its own rules,” West said about the complaint made to commissioners and not through official hearings and channels.
West had submitted eight positive comments from neighbors into the public record.
As a local advocate for the mentally ill, West said she has previously raised her voice about issues in the community.
If the UG Commission had held its meeting at City Hall, instead of online, it’s more likely that West would have said what she wanted to say at City Hall. She probably would have been dragged away from the podium, she said. The lobby of City Hall was open on Thursday night for residents’ comments.
West now has to consider what to do next. She is considering her options, but hadn’t decided as of Friday. Going to court over keeping $80 worth of ducks might not be a good option, she said. She already has 12 ducks, and four wll probably have to leave.
Having to sell the four ducks is a concern to her. She has emotional ties to them. West said she raised the ducks since they were hatched, and they even have names: Midnight, Shadow, Echo and Noncompliant.
Noncompliant is named after herself, she added.
“Sometimes being noncompliant is the key to recovery,” West said. “Sometimes, the key to change is the voice of dissatisfaction.”
She would like things to change so local regulations are not as difficult for small businesses.
A Kansas City, Kansas, police spokesman confirmed on Monday that West had received a citation for disorderly conduct in the incident. An attempt to reach Commissioner Johnson for a comment on Friday was not successful.
