"Eyesore" or natural beauty? Fort Lupton man to fight code enforcement in court
A Fort Lupton homeowner is planning to take a dispute over his lawn to court, after the city issued him a citation for allegedly violating city code. James Kibler said the city took issue with his decision to xeriscape his yard largely with plants native to Colorado.
"I began to shape my yard over the last three years to become this bee sanctuary, and I have been getting quite a buzz," Kibler told CBS News Colorado's Dillon Thomas.
Kibler has owned his home for six years. When he first purchased it, both the back and front yards were covered with rock.
Kibler, who says he loves Colorado nature, decided to replace all of the rock with soil and native plants.
He started the process by building himself a garden to grow foods, and then spent time researching native grasses and flowers. He said he selected many of the seeds he purchased locally by learning about their abilities to help pollinators like bees and hummingbirds.
"The drought-resistant native plants really called to me. It would be wonderful if I could bring a mountain meadow to my backyard and get the endangered species to come and pollinate there," Kibler said.
It took many months, but over time the plants quickly grew. But, just as quickly as his yard turned green, the complaints from his neighbors started piling in.
Many of the flowers and other plants started growing to be more than six feet tall.
"They were popping over my fence. People walking by began to complain to the city," Kibler said. "Saying that my yard was an eyesore. (Code enforcement said) absolutely everyone in the neighborhood had complained about it, and that it was ridiculous to grow this amount of vegetation in my yard."
Kibler was issued a citation for his yard and was ordered to cut all of the plants down to be no taller than six inches, he said.
He said the city declined to let him keep the plants in exchange for placing signs that described what they were and why they were beneficial.
"I was in tears. I was just out here cutting them down in tears. Having to destroy something that was so beautiful and is not hurting anything whatsoever," Kibler said.
CBS News Colorado reached out to the city of Fort Lupton, its police department and the code enforcement department multiple times in the past three weeks seeking interview or comment on this issue. However, nobody from city ever returned a call agreeing to respond to this story.
Kibler plans to take his fight to court, saying he doesn't have an HOA and should be able to grow plants that are native to the state.
He said he was seeking legal council as well, hoping to be able to regrow his property to where it was before.
"I have no idea why anyone would be upset that beautiful flowers are in their neighborhood," Kibler said. "I kind of feel like I don't belong in my own home anymore."
