Business owner says code enforcement unequal
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer

Tom Brown is fairly confident that he can sell all of his remaining inventory in about four weeks.

When that happens, he said, US 1 Dollar will close its doors for good.
Brown opened the business, 12834 W. 87th St. Parkway, in November 2004, and his experience in Lenexa has been, in his words, “an interesting ride.”

In December 2006, US 1 Dollar saw significant damage from a fire that originated inside another business in the same shopping center — the now defunct KT Fryers. Every scrap of inventory had to be replaced, Brown said, and crews worked for months to repair the building’s interior for re-opening.

For the two spring and summer seasons before the fire, Brown had utilized outdoor stands to attract business to the store, selling seasonal items like sunglasses and mixed yard art. The outdoor displays not only boosted revenue, but they helped drive traffic and increase the number of repeat customers.

So when he went to put the usual items outdoors upon re-opening in March 2007, Brown didn’t think anything of it — until city code enforcement came calling.

“I had one table with sunglasses on it, and four or five pieces of yard art,” Brown said. “They closed down our outside display and told me that I could get on the docket for an appeal probably in July, but meanwhile I was stuck with that inventory I had bought for summer sale.”

Being unable to move the seasonal inventory created a difficult financial situation for US 1 Dollar because the store depended on that revenue to purchase products for the all-important Christmas season. It’s a situation that played no small part in the store’s closing.

Since that time, Brown has been in a continuous debate with Lenexa City Hall over what he felt was “sudden and unequal” enforcement of city code. Several larger businesses, he said, often employed outdoor displays larger than his without apparent retribution.

Roger Kroh, city planning director, has worked with Brown on the issue for more than a year, and he said the city made every effort to ensure that the code was enforced equally. Sometimes, where larger businesses were concerned, the process simply took longer.

“We’ve had violations in the past, and it’s an ongoing issue with some of the grocery stores and hardware stores,” Kroh said.

Brown requested that the council reconsider the code language in 2007, and as a result some changes were made — including the lowering of fees to help make special-event permits more affordable.

Much of what Brown wanted to do in terms of outdoor sales could be done with a permit, Kroh said, though they do come with inherent time limitations. Now, any Lenexa business that wants to utilize outdoor displays may apply for four, one-week special-event permits. A shopping center like the one in which US 1 Dollar resides is eligible for three additional weeks if the entire center participates.

Brown acknowledged that the changes in the code had helped level the playing field to a degree.

“If we wanted to display for four weeks this year, we could,” he said. “Unfortunately, in order to buy product for an outside display, I need more than four weeks worth of the display time.”

Recently, Brown again brought his viewpoint before the council, for the final time before the store’s closing. Inequity in enforcement is still an issue, he said, and it can make life extremely difficult for a small-business owner in Lenexa.

Several of the larger businesses, for example, still maintain outdoor displays consisting of everything from flowers and yard art to lawn mowers and swimming pools.

In the end, Kroh felt that the confusion stemmed from a misunderstanding over what constituted an actual violation.

If a business wants to take up parking lot space for a larger outdoor display, for example, a permit is needed. Though violations do sometimes happen, it is often the case that the larger businesses have applied for and received their permit.

However, certain organic items are permissible in outdoor displays without a permit year-round as long as they are confined to the store’s sidewalks. These items are generally seasonal, Kroh said, and included flowers, landscaping, pumpkins and Christmas trees.

Kroh said the practice is derived from policies in other municipalities.

“What we follow is the generally accepted practice among cities around us,” he said. “And I think when those rules were adopted years ago, it was because those kind of organic materials, the flowers and the trees and the pumpkins, they’re not going to be out there 24/7. It’s just going to be a seasonal sort of sale.”