Unique, and most likely beautiful, when built in the early 1980s, the highly visible black and white Alpine Haus located at 632 Old Route 66, is now marred with broken windows, gaping holes in the woodwork and scattered shingles, all signs of an aging building considered a nuisance in the City of St. Robert.
An ordinance was approved by the St. Robert City Council in its May 21 regular meeting for a $25,000 bond for Michael Dunbar, an attorney from Waynesville, to act as a receiver on the Alpine Haus real estate.
City Attorney Tyce Smith told the Pulaski County Weekly the ordinance is the most recent action to take place after failed attempts by the city requesting the property owners to tear down the building.
According to the Pulaski County Assessor’s office, the property is owned by Real Estate Investments, LLC, in Columbia.
The property has been deemed a “nuisance,” Smith said, and the city is now taking legal action to have all structures removed.
Smith said the city moved forward with the ordinance based on state law allowing it to do so, Missouri Revisor of Statutes 441.500-441.643 titled “Inadequate and deficient housing.”
The statute defines nuisance as “a violation of provisions of the housing code applying to the maintenance of the buildings or dwellings which the code official in the exercise of reasonable discretion believes constitutes a threat to the public health, safety or welfare.”
Smith said with the council’s approval of the ordinance, Dunbar will now act on behalf of the city in giving notice to the property owners to demolish.
Smith added there had been additional structures that made up the motel part of the business on the property. The owners removed a portion, but then stopped without completing the job.
