City digs in at Richland 'junkyard' house. Owner makes plea to save items

Armed with a court order, Richland officials began cleaning up one of the city’s thorniest nuisance properties Monday morning.

C. Watts Trucking, a Kennewick firm with expertise in cleanup, will spend the week plucking construction materials and other debris from the property around the fire-damaged duplex at 2100-2102 Pullen St.

The contract is worth up to $200,000.

The project began with a loud thunk as the first load of material dropped into a metal waste container.

It was an anticlimactic moment for a saga that began at least two years ago when Richland Code Enforcement first cited the property owner, Taylor Knipp, for violating city codes with the growing pile of debris around the house.

Images showed old vehicles, boats, trailers, ladders and more overflowing the yard and engulfing the house.

Neighbors press council

As Knipp missed deadlines to clean up, neighbors peppered the Richland City Council with demands it do something about the growing nuisance.

Behind the scenes, code enforcement deadlines passed and the amount of material only increased, spilling onto the public sidewalk and street.

The city hired a contractor to clean up the public rights of way but without a court order, it couldn’t tackle the privately owned property itself.

Last year, the city asked Benton County Superior Court to declare the property a nuisance and issue an order of abatement.

Before the court could act, the city’s fears that the debris was a fire hazard came true.

Two-alarm fire

On June 4, a two-alarm fire sent plumes of smoke into the neighborhood. When firefighters couldn’t reach the gas shutoff because of debris, a contractor dug up the street and capped the line at a nearby intersection.

On July 10, Benton County Superior Court Judge Andrew Howell granted the city’s request. He told Knipp he’d had years to clean up on his own.

Howell’s order meant the city could step in to address the nuisance without violating Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure.

The city notified Knipp the cleanup was imminent over the weekend.

Knipp in turn reached out to the media Sunday, saying he was seeking access to collect personal items and promising he was ready to undertake the cleanup on his own.

However, the court’s order prohibited him from entering the property and declared there would be no salvage rights to items removed.

Monday, as a backhoe crawled through the fence to begin work, Knipp argued with city officials, then walked away to record the work. He did not comment.

Cleanup excludes residence

Neighbors may be pleased to see work begin, but this week’s project will not fully clear the property.

The court order addresses only the items in the yard, not the duplex itself. It could take a new legal process to secure or even remove it.

Everything removed during the abatement process is being dumped at the Richland city landfill.

The city will file a lien against the property to recover the costs of cleaning it up and removing material from the rights of way.