U-Pick Red Barn says Idaho Falls is shutting them down over a pizza kitchen. The city says that’s not true.

IDAHO FALLS — A local family-owned pumpkin patch took to Facebook recently to criticize the city of Idaho Falls for preventing it from operating.

But the city says U-Pick Red Barn didn’t follow the rules and was operating illegally. It also says they haven’t shut down the entire business — they simply revoked U-Pick’s access to operate many of their most popular attractions.

The pumpkin patch, run by Rollie Walker, is located at 2822 McNeil Drive and has been an Idaho Falls community staple since its opening in 2005.

Initially, the business only grew and sold pumpkins. Within the last few years, it has expanded to include a train ride, tractor and wagon hay rides, straw maze, corn pit, slide, and at the center of the recent controversy – a pizza kitchen inside a silo.

The pizza kitchen started operating during the 2021 season.

On Dec. 17, the city of Idaho Falls Board of Adjustment voted to revoke the business’s
conditional use permit due to the lack of a necessary building permit and site plan for the pizza kitchen.

Without a conditional use permit, U-Pick was restricted from using certain buildings without permits, accessing city parking across the street, performing fireworks displays, and growing pumpkins on the property, although U-Pick is still allowed to sell them.

The city also says Walker failed to dedicate a right-of-way to help with traffic concerns along Rollandet Avenue, resulting in city inspectors not being able to approve the building permit and site plan required to operate.

Walker tells EastIdahoNews.com this essentially shuts down his business.

The city says the barn is not shut down, but their ability to legally operate many of their attractions has been removed until he obtains the approved building permit and site plan for the pizza kitchen.

“It is pure bullying by the employees of this city,” Walker says. “They’re so full of themselves, and they’ll tell you a big story like I’m the big bad wolf.”

What led to this?

Walker says the city “dragged their feet” and purposefully kept him from being allowed to obtain a building permit and site plan for his new pizza kitchen at the barn.

“I’ll tell you what, no one can bring up a single thing they would ask us to do that I did not do. Not one,” said Walker during the board of adjustment meeting. “We’d submit the site plan; we did everything they asked. They’d reject it and say, we want you to also do this. We did it, they rejected it. They added, ‘We also want you to do this.’ We did it, they rejected it.”

According to Walker, after learning his pizza kitchen had code violations, he routinely fixed them at the city’s request.

But when he asked the city to send an inspector to the barn, he says they never showed up.

“A year ago, they let us open because we had requested the permit. And then they wouldn’t do the inspections,” Walker tells EastIdahoNews.com. “They refused to do the inspections, and it’s perplexing for us because we are only open for six weeks.”

According to city of Idaho Falls officials, a building permit must be provided before an inspection can be done. The city says Walker did not have an issued building permit.

“Inspections are an essential part of ensuring safe building environments,” states the city of Idaho Falls website. “However, no inspections can be made until the required permits for performing the work are issued. As licensed construction professionals it is your responsibility to see that all required permits for your projects are secured before starting any work.”

Walker says city employees told him he could open if he fixed the issues with his property, but he was routinely denied after spending thousands of dollars to right the wrongs.

According to Walker, the pizza kitchen is nearly identical to a food truck, sitting on slats and inside a trailer, making him question why the rules differ.

Walker also says he spent thousands of dollars installing a handicap ramp after the city told him he needed one for his pizza kitchen trailer. When city officials came to look at it, they reportedly told him he never actually needed it.

“Go downtown to the farmer’s market and walk around all of those food trucks and show me one that has (a handicap ramp),” said Walker. “They inspected and said, ‘You know what? I don’t think you have to have it.'”

Walker says he also extended the walkway to the kitchen and added a window ledge before calling to ask the city to inspect again so he could get the permit.

“I called up and said, ‘we’re done.’ (The city said) ‘Well, it’s almost the weekend, and we can’t send inspectors.’ I’m a pumpkin patch. I’m only open six weeks, and I’ve already lost one,” says Walker. “You’re not gonna come inspect what you insisted I did? And promised me I could open up if I did?”

During an interview with EastIdahoNews.com, Walker discussed his lengthy history with building structures in Idaho Falls. He now wonders what changed and why this has been so difficult.

“I cannot believe something so sweet that makes families so happy is a constant battle from the city trying to shut me down,” says Walker. “Why? Why would the city work so hard to shut something so innocent and safe and wholesome?”

To Walker, the city is not just trying to close a local business, but also a memorial to his late son McNeil Walker, who started the U-Pick Red Barn and died in 2016.

“The U-Pick Red Barn is a hobby. My son, at ten-years-old, started it to learn how to work,” says Walker. “I lost him a few years later, but when McNeil got killed, I kept it going in honor of his name.”

The city’s version of events

According to Community Development Services Director Wade Sanner, the city was notified of multiple code violations at the barn in August 2023, including that the business was making and selling pizza out of a new silo on the property.

The silo did not have an approved building permit or site plan.

To remedy this, the city suggested Walker submit a request to change the zoning at the barn because the land use had expanded from what the zoning initially was.

This rezoning would allow the barn to apply for a conditional use permit for the Agricultural Tourism use now occurring on the property.

“The thinking that staff proposed to (Walker) was that to get an agricultural tourism would be able to allow him to get some variances to mitigate some of the impact of his development and also some conditions so that he could do things that were a little bit out of the ordinary on the property,” said Sanner.

In a “good faith effort,” the city allowed the barn to operate in 2023 despite not having the correct building permit or site plan for the pizza kitchen.

“I stated just in a good faith effort of trying to get him an approved site plan and trying to get him to pull a permit for his property, I said, ‘I understand your inquiry. I’m not going to enforce this season, but please get a site plan and a building permit into my department,'” said Sanner.

On Aug. 23, 2023, Walker submitted a site plan that included the use of a pizza kitchen in the silo. The city issued a violation letter the same day due to “deficiencies” in the site plan.

Less than a month later, on Sept. 6, the city informed Walker that the fire department had issued a letter saying he could not operate a commercial kitchen out of the silo per the fire code unless they obtained a certificate of occupancy for the staff working in the silo.

According to the city, Walker did not respond for the remainder of the barn’s season, which typically ends around Oct. 31.

On Dec. 5, Walker met with city staff, who again suggested that he apply for a conditional use permit to rezone the property. This would allow him to operate as long as he gets an approved building permit and site plan.

Walker applied for the rezone a month later, and the City Council approved it on April 11.

On May 23, the city’s Board of Adjustment met to approve the conditional use permit but stated that they “needed more information” to approve it. They met again on June 27 and felt the same way.

According to the city, the Board of Adjustment “didn’t want to hold up the applicant for the upcoming season, so to make sure he could pursue his development, they imposed nine conditions with two variances.”

Walker was required to fix these nine conditions, and if he didn’t, he risked losing the conditional use permit that allowed him to operate.

The city says he eventually fixed all conditions except two:

• Obtain a site plan approval showing an accurate depiction of the site prior to opening to the public.
• Obtain all required building permits, inspections, and final sign-offs for all structures requiring a permit prior to opening to the public.

Idaho Falls City spokesman Eric Grossarth says Walker again applied for a permit, but it was not issued due to the lack of site plan approval and architect drawings for the structures on the property. Walker submitted another site plan 356 days after his first one in 2023.

On Aug. 12, the U-Pick Red Barn posted on Facebook that they would be opening in 31 days – Walker still did not have an approved building permit or site plan at this time.

On Sept 4, the U-Pick Red Barn posted again on Facebook that they would be opening in 10 days on Sept. 13, despite not have an approved permit or site plan.

On Sept. 9, Sanner went to the City Council about his concerns that the U-Pick Red Barn was still planning to open, despite having no building permit or site plan for the pizza kitchen and two other buildings on the property.

Then, on Sept. 12, Sanner says he received an email from Walker, informing him that he would be opening for the season without the correct permit and site plan.

“Finally, you see the letter confirming the work to be done. Also, the response from the City rejecting it. I see this response as unreasonable and lacking common sense. I am opening tomorrow because I am committed to the public and those who love the red barn, come join us,” says the email from Walker. “Here I am on the day before we open with hours and hours of work to do, but I’m tied up handling this. Is it unreasonable for me to ask for your support and solution without the threat again and again? It never seems to be enough after all we have done this year to overcome what we thought was the real challenge last year, zoning. Oh well.”

The U-Pick Red Barn opened for a special event on Sept. 13, and opened officially to the public on Sept 14.

On Sept 17, city staff and an Idaho Falls Police Officer went to the barn to post a “Do Not Occupy” notice on the property, because they did not have an approved building permit or site plan.

On Facebook, the U-Pick Red Barn claims that the city “arrived with police officers to shut down our family pumpkin patch.”

Sanner says the city brought one law enforcement officer, as they do with every “Do Not Occupy” posting for their safety, as these issues can quickly become volatile.

“The city of Idaho Falls has been engaged in various good faith efforts for over three years to ensure that U-Pick would be in full compliance with these building and zoning codes (laws),” says Grossarth in a statement to EastIdahoNews.com. “So, when U-Pick knowingly chose to operate portions of their business without being in full compliance, enforcement action was taken, as it would be with any non-compliant business.”

Sanner says U-Pick continued to operate the pizza kitchen even after they posted to “Do Not Occupy” notice. Walker claims they did not.

“You cannot open the building for occupation because you have a ‘Do Not Occupy’ notice on it,” said Sanner. “To which (Walker) responded, ‘What if I open anyways?”

Sanner says multiple city employees reported seeing the pizza kitchen in full operation even after the notice went up.

According to the city, violating a “Do Not Occupy” notice can potentially punish the property owner with a misdemeanor, resulting in a $1,000 fine for everyday that the property is in violation or a maximum of 6 months in jail.

It is not clear if Walker will face that, but the city says Walker can operate U-Pick in the future, if he takes the “necessary steps”.

“Recognizing the significance of the U-Pick Red Barn to many in our community, and knowing that a venue that celebrates autumn and the harvest season is appreciated by many, city officials hope this situation is resolved soon and without further controversy,” says Grossarth.

On Dec. 23, the U-Pick Red Barn posted multiple statements to Facebook, asking the public to rally behind the business to “Save the U-Pick Red Barn.”

“What began as a personal dispute escalated into a relentless campaign against a beloved community institution, threatening the closure of a 20-year-old family tradition in Idaho Falls,” says one of the posts. “WE NEED YOUR HELP.”

Walker says his main goal is to keep the pumpkin patch open, so he can keep making people smile.

“I love seeing that happiness, I do. I love it. I love seeing the joy and the happiness. Happy kids,” says Walker. “We are wholesome, we are clean, we are safe.”