Landscaping scrape in Calistoga

Resident at war with city over removal of materials

By JOHN WATERS, Jr.
For the Register

More than a year after the Calistoga City Council declared that John Busk’s hillside landscaping projects constituted a public nuisance and hauled the offending construction materials away, he’s hauling the city into court.

Busk, 82, filed his complaint against Calistoga in Napa County Superior Court on Nov. 6. The complaint seeks payback from the city after it “wrongfully and unlawfully abated the alleged nuisance,” according to court documents Busk filed.

The documents indicate that the city paid Blakely Construction nearly $5,000 to do the work of hauling Busk’s “stones, concrete pipes, railroad ties, etc. from his property to the city’s own public storage yard.”

With the city’s permission, however, Busk was able to get his property back and return it to his land — at an additional cost of about $2,500, the record indicates.

Busk, who has been in a tug of war with Calistoga for nearly 20 years over his hillside landscaping plans, wants his money back, along with court costs and “further relief as the court deems proper.”

The Calistoga City Council held a public hearing to review its complaint of Busk’s actions in late August 2007. The result of that hearing was unanimous approval of the nuisance declaration, the first step in cleaning up several projects that the city has warned Busk over the years were illegal.

Busk failed to file an appeal of that action by the Sept. 6, 2007, deadline.

Mayor Jack Gingles called Busk’s charges “ridiculous” and speculated the filing will be “tossed out” by the court as a frivolous action.

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