The City of Fayette has filed an injuction against the Howard County Ambulance District, asking a court to prohibit the district from building a new base on land it recently purchased but that is zoned for single-family residences.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, June 16, by city attorney Erin Wiseman, seeks an injunction by the court after the city council denied the district a zoning request to build a new facility inside a neighborhood that is zoned RS-1. At the heart of the matter is the city’s sovereignty to enforce its own zoning laws. The ambulance district argues that it is not subject to those laws. The city disagrees and is asking the court to grant an injunction against the district.

The city’s petition, filed in Howard County Circuit Court, states, “The Howard County Ambulance District should be enjoined from operating any government related business located at 205 S. Williams, Fayette, Missouri and within a zoning district RS-1 until and unless appropriately approved by the City of Fayette through the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Alderman.”

As has been reported at length by the Advertiser, the dispute has been developing over the last several weeks. In November, the ambulance district purchased four adjoining lots on the corner of South Williams and Cooper streets, approximately two blocks south of its current base. The district says it has outgrown its current base, which was built sometime in the 1990s in the parking lot of the Keller Building on the corner of South Williams and West Davis streets. It wants to build a new base that will not only fit their larger ambulances but also better house two full-time crews in a nicer building where family members can visit when personnel are not responding to calls.

While the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved and passed on the request to the city’s Board of Aldermen, the city denied the zoning variance after hearing from a group of neighborhood residents who vehemently opposed the new construction. They say the roads are not wide enough to accommodate large ambulances and point to ongoing sewer issues and problems with water runoff.

City council members also cited the lack of formal construction plans submitted with the request.

Ambulance District director Frank Flaspohler said the new building would plan for water runoff issues and would not contribute more waste to the sewer than a regular home. He also said the base would be built in such a way as to benefit the neighborhood and said it could contain a playground or sheltered bus stop for area children. He contends that having a nicer facility will help attract more employees to the district.

Flaspohler and the ambulance board also cite the need for the ambulance base to be on Highway 5, since approximately two-thirds of calls are to either the New Franklin or Glasgow areas. Building a base elsewhere in Fayette would result in longer response times, he claims. The current base is located one block off Highway 5. The proposed site is also one block from the highway.

On Tuesday, May 12, the city council voted 5-0 with one abstention to deny the ambulance’s zoning request. After the vote that night, the board gathered across the street, and the next day the district’s attorney, Frank Robert Flaspohler, issued a letter to the council declaring its intent to build there anyway, claiming the city does not have the jurisdiction to deny the permit because the base is a public facility.

That action further ramped up tensions between the city, the ambulance district, and neighborhood residents.

However, the ambulance board has since voted to pause their plans to build in the neighborhood in order to look for a better site. When the board met on Wednesday, June 10, members spoke with five neighborhood residents and tried to ease tensions. Ultimately, it admitted to going about things the wrong way and voted to contract with Andrew Mackey, a Kansas City-based developer who specializes in constructing ambulance headquarters, to search for other land on which to build that maintains the district’s specifications. This action does not abandon the plans to build on the plot of land it purchased in November.

“We didn’t really think this was going to be a big deal. Now we see that it is,” ambulance board member Bart Ballew told neighborhood residents at the district’s June 10 meeting. “So now what we want to try to do is figure out a way to make this work. We should have had this conversation six months ago before all this happened.”

While the case has been filed, no court date had been set as of this writing.