Dream house disturbs neighbors

LIBERTY LAKE – Paul Shields and his wife, Heather Amity, plan to spend their 18th wedding anniversary in court, defending their Liberty Lake dream house from what they say has been a nightmare of litigation.

What really irritates them is that they’re being sued by neighbors because of a mistake by Spokane County officials.

“None of this is our doing,” Amity said. “None of it. We’ve done everything we were supposed to do all along the way.”

Shields and Amity built their house at 23524 E. Third Ave., with a valid permit, approved by county commissioners in October 2006 with full knowledge that the house is about 8 feet too tall.

Commissioners Mark Richard, Todd Mielke and Phil Harris – later replaced by Bonnie Mager – considered that the best solution to a problem created when two county planners bungled a regulatory review.

Neighbors Mike and Sheryl Koch, Joel and Jodi Zellmer, and Gary and Ellen Bernardo don’t like the commissioners’ solution, but so far have sued only Shields and Amity.

Mike Koch (pronounced “Cook”) contends Amity and Shields had no right to exceed the height limit even though they had official permission.

“If someone messed up and gave me a permit to do something that was incorrect, that still does not give me the right to build in front of you in excess of a code that was designed to protect you,” Koch said. “You’re still obligated to honor the rights of the people around you.”

The Kochs, Zellmers and Bernardos filed a claim with the county last August, seeking $250,000 for alleged diminished property value and asking the county to reduce the height of the Shields-Amity house.

County officials didn’t respond within the mandatory 60-day waiting period, opening the door for a lawsuit that still hasn’t been filed.

Mielke said he finds the failure to sue the county “interesting.”

“On its face, it would seem like they don’t believe there is enough legal basis for them to challenge the fact that the county issued the permit,” Mielke said.

If so, Mielke added, he doesn’t understand why the neighbors would think they have grounds to sue Shields and Amity.

Mielke and Richard empathized with the couple, but Shields and Amity think commissioners should do more. They don’t think they should be spending thousands of dollars to defend themselves for what the county officials acknowledged was their mistake.

“It’s such a huge financial burden,” Amity said. “Every month, we get these massive legal bills.”

Shields said the bills have been as much as $7,000 a month, and are expected to total as much as $60,000 to $70,000 after the trial that starts June 2 – on his and Amity’s wedding anniversary.

They’ve asked for reimbursement in a counterclaim against the plaintiffs, but have little hope of success.

“We’re finally moving into this house and the joy is just being sucked out of it because of two things: a county that won’t stand up for its responsibilities and some pretty predatory neighbors,” Shields said.

“We may not respond when he needs it, but we’re going to continue to look at this,” Richard said. “I’ll do everything I can to try to make sure that the county takes care of any legitimate interests if we, in fact, created harm.”

However, Mielke said commissioners “can’t just go out and hand out money.” If they’re “within the letter of the law,” there may be no basis for settling with the neighbors, he said.

Commissioners have little choice but to honor a building permit once it is issued, Mielke said.

Shields said he thinks he and his wife are being sued because scale of their new house convinced neighbors they are “extremely wealthy.”

“They don’t realize we’re doing this on a shoestring,” he said.

The construction and furnishings were deeply discounted by vendors associated with the couple’s Antler Expressions business, which specializes in décor for hunting lodges. Shields said the house is to serve as a by-invitation showcase for the vendors’ customers.

The couple’s symbiotic arrangement with Mountain View Log and Timber Frame Homes developed after problems, including litigation with another contractor, delayed the project almost three years. Although plans changed from frame to log construction, the original building permit remained in force with a few changes.

The height that planners Bill Moser and John Nunnery mistakenly approved wasn’t reviewed when the permit was modified. Mark Holman, one of three assistant directors in what is now the Department of Building and Planning, said Nunnery had left the county before the mistake was discovered and Moser was not disciplined.

Holman said there appeared to be confusion about who was doing what at the time of the mistake.

“There have been discussions with staff, and we have revised processes so it won’t happen again,” he said.

The building permit issued in April 2002 authorized the house to be 50 feet tall even though zoning and shoreline regulations allowed only 35 feet. The actual height has been elusive because of a steeply sloping lot, but consensus now puts it about 43 feet.

By the time building inspector Kevin Myre caught the mistake in July 2006, there was no inexpensive solution. With delay-caused costs mounting, county commissioners paid Shields $80,000 for their losses and authorized them to build their home as planned.

Shortening the house to qualify for a standard 10 percent variance would have cost more than $100,000 – perhaps as much as $300,000 – and the structure still would have been several feet too tall.

In fact, some of the improvement would have existed only on paper. County officials proposed an artifice: Pile dirt around the house to make the ground higher.

Shields and Amity said their plans were too far along – massive logs already had been sawn – and they filed a claim asking the county to compensate them for delays. If the county wanted their plans modified, it should pay for that, too, they said.

Commissioners decided it would be better to approve the existing plans and pay for alternate housing and other costs associated with county-caused delays.

Mike Koch thinks Shields and Amity should have used their settlement to redesign the house and comply with codes.

Koch and Shields each accuses the other of duplicity.

Shields said he warned Koch, before Koch moved into the neighborhood, that he planned to build a house that would block Koch’s view of Liberty Lake. But Koch said Shields didn’t tell him how tall the house would be or show him plans, as Shields claimed.

Realtor Susan Kirkland confirmed that the two men had a discussion in her presence, but said “nobody had specifics at that time.” She also confirmed that Shields, on another occasion, complained about a sign claiming a “lake view” for the house Koch bought.

Koch contends Shields should have known about the height limit when he received a copy of the regulations as part of a garage variance years before starting construction on the house. But Mielke said commissioners “had no reason to believe that Shields did anything wrong in this process.”

Although the Kochs took the lead in suing Shields and Amity, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor dismissed them as plaintiffs in February because they exceeded a 21-day limit for challenging the height of the house Shields and Amity planned to build.

Koch said in a court document that a county official told him on June 27 last year that the house would be too tall, but he didn’t file suit until Aug. 3.

O’Connor declined to dismiss the Bernardos and Zellmers because Koch said he didn’t tell them the house was too tall until July 28. A jury must decide whether they knew about the problem more than 21 days before the lawsuit was filed, the judge said.

If a jury finds the Bernardos and Zellmers went to court quickly enough, it may turn to the question of whether people can be held liable for exercising a building permit.

In Shields’ view, “The bottom line in this whole thing is, ‘What homeowner anywhere can feel good about doing their projects if their building permits don’t hold water?’ “