Copperfield residents ask Rapid City Public Works Committee for exceptions to drainage-easement enforcement

At the Rapid City Public Works Committee meeting on May 13, Copperfield subdivision residents urged the committee to exempt long-standing sheds, fences and garden beds from a recent city enforcement effort that asks homeowners to remove structures from a drainage easement by May 31.

The request came during the meeting's general public comment period. Lynell Campbell, speaking for neighbors including Sandy Cooper, said residents maintain the easement and that the city has not historically used or maintained the land. "The city will never use that so called drainage easement that's about a 90 feet wide by about a half mile long. The city has never maintained it nor the county before them. My neighbors and I do," Campbell said.

The residents said they received a letter from city staff, referenced in testimony as coming from John Olson, giving a May 31 compliance deadline. Jill Genowin said that after the notice she found code-enforcement workers had entered her backyard and that staff told her fence, gate, raised garden and shed were on city land and would need to be removed. Genowin told the committee her home was built in 1987 and that the structures behind several homes had been allowed for decades. "If you're going to force all tax paying homeowners on Copperfield Drive to move their once up-to-code sheds, then we are asking that you make sure that we're not just singled out and made an example of," Genowin said.

Residents described financial and physical hardship from the enforcement. Lynell Campbell said she spent $2,000 to remove a 30-year-old tree to make room for a raised garden bed after the notice. Henry Kaia said many Copperfield residents are elderly or otherwise unable to move heavy sheds and garden installations and asked the committee to consider exceptions or cooperation that would allow residents to continue maintaining the land. "We would all like to request for an exception, cooperation, to keep access, and have the shed there, to have all of our essentials for taking care of the land in the back," Kaia said.

Speakers asked for uniform enforcement across the neighborhood and the city, saying some residents have been told different things by staff. Genowin told the committee she believed promises had been made to some residents while others received strict removal orders.

Committee members received the public comments; no formal action on the Copperfield enforcement was taken during the meeting. The public-comment period closed before the committee voted on consent items.