Images of a Richland home awash in a sea of derelict vehicles, RVs and construction debris stunned the community in December.
Aerial images showed fence-to-fence junk engulfing what was once a modest but tidy central city home at 2100 Pullen St., near Wright Avenue.
Not everyone was surprised.
Richland city officials have been pressing the owners, Jacqueline and Taylor Knipp, to clear the property since 2024 as debris overwhelmed the site and spilled onto the city-owned public sidewalk and street.
In December, the city brought in a contractor to remove material from the right-of-way, but not the private property.
The city moved to act after citing the owners for violating nuisance codes three times, starting in mid-2024. At least two deadlines to clear the property passed with no action last year.
Last September, Richland sued in Benton County Superior Court, a key step toward taking control of the situation while respecting the owners’ constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
It asked a judge to declare a nuisance and issue a warrant of abatement that would let it step in to clear out the mess and recover the cost by filing a lien against the property.
At a brief court hearing Jan. 2, the city said it was temporarily not pursuing the warrant that would allow it to clean it up after learning that Taylor Knipp was seeking accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act as he worked to bring the property into compliance.
The city indicated it reserved the chance to proceed with the case in the future. The case is tentatively scheduled for a non-jury trial on Aug. 31.
Splitting up
Heather Kintzley, Richland’s city attorney, said she couldn’t comment on the current status of the case, citing the pending litigation.
She said the city only recently learned that Taylor Knipp was claiming a disability in documents filed shortly before Christmas.
Taylor Knipp could not be reached by phone or email. However, in a brief encounter outside his home in December, he declined to speak with the Herald but said he is suffering from a mental health issue.
Public records indicate the Knipps own several residential properties in Richland. Taylor Knipp previously owned a home inspection business and a car lot.
Jacqueline Knipp previously told the Herald she is not responsible for conditions on Pullen Street and lives at a different address. She told the city by email that she filed for divorce from Taylor Knipp in October and expects to complete the process in February.
The email was attached to a court document in the case and notes she intends to have her name removed from both the title and the legal proceedings.
They also own a residence property on Benham Street that has a clutter issue that code enforcement department has been working on but has not risen to the level of an extreme problem triggering a lawsuit.
County records show the Knipps own five properties in Richland and are current on all of them. The properties are on Pullen Street, Benham Street, Redwood Lane, Potter Avenue and Butternut Avenue. A sixth, on Judson Avenue, sold on Dec. 30, records show.
Extreme violators
Conditions at the Pullen Street home highlight an emerging challenge for Richland, what the city attorney calls an “extreme violator.”
Kintzley told the city council that code enforcement and other city staff are working through four extreme violator cases, including the house on Pullen.
Each case is unique and has its own sets of legal challenges and complications. Richland has sued in three of the cases and expects to file a fourth, though has not done so.
Lawsuits are a rare but sometimes necessary step. Kintzley said Richland’s nuisance ordinances are effective most of the time.
In 2024, 98% of the 1,800+ property owners who received notices about overgrown weeds, low-hanging branches and inoperable vehicles took care of the problem.
The four outliers include three homes and the Beneficial Reuse Solutions tire recycling business on Twin Bridges Road, near the city-owned landfill.
“In my nearly 13 years with the city, this is the first time I’ve seen things like this,” she told the council. “It’s unparalleled.”
Two hot air balloons
The debris at Pullen Street is estimated at nearly 155,000 cubic feet, according to Nicholas Mutrux, a Richland code enforcement officer who described the city’s history with the property in a lengthy court filing.
That’s comparable to the volume of two hot air balloons, according to The Measure of Things, a website that puts large numbers into context using cheeky comparisons.
An average size dumpster, like one found at many businesses or an apartment complex, would hold around 200 cubic feet of waste. Cleanup would fill more than 700 of those 8-yard dumpsters.
Mutrux identified trash, building materials, wood, scrap metal, signs, garbage, household items, furniture, discarded vehicles, trailers, a boat and debris on the property.
His declaration to the court included Tri-City Herald drone images taken Dec. 16, 2025. He said the photos accurately depicted conditions he viewed that day.
“The volume of materials on the property was so voluminous that it was almost impossible to see the ground and/or a path from the right-of-way to the house,” Mutrux wrote.
It isn’t just unsightly. It’s a potential hazard to the community.
The accumulated debris poses an immediate threat, according to Colton Casillas, Richland’s assistant fire marshal.
In his own declaration to the court, Casillas said the situation constitutes a “clear and present danger” to the residents and to the public.
The marshal noted the debris includes large volumes of flammable material, including paper products, cardboard, wood, plastic sheeting and textiles.
Limited clean up
The Pullen property flashed into public view during the partial cleanup in mid-December.
That’s when the city hired a contractor to remove material from the public sidewalk and street but not to enter the private property.
The contractor worked on Dec. 15, 16 and 18 and removed enough material to fill more than three trailers, according to court documents.
For now, the city is not legally authorized to remove material from the property itself.
New photos and video show the sidewalk was impassable again this week. It’s unclear how much of that is related to efforts to clean up the property.
The Knipps can still take charge. If not, the city could resume its court case.
Kintzley acknowledged that such cases can take years to resolve in court. That’s important, she said.
The 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. A key 1990 ruling by the Ninth Circuit affirmed the rights of private property owners against government overreach.
The case addressed by the Ninth Circuit, which covers Washington state, arose from Santa Ana, Calif., after public officials entered private property and later seized vehicles without permission from the owners or a legal warrant. The owners sued and won.
“If we want to comply with constitutional protections, the Fourth Amendment, due process, we have to have a warrant of abatement if we want to go on someone’s property and take their stuff away,” Kintzley said.
See associated story for more about the Beneficial Reuse tire case on Twin Bridges Road. The remaining “extreme violator” cases include one that has been largely resolved and another where the city has not yet filed suit.
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