By NATE KING
Salina Post
The City of Salina has spent $538,791 in legal fees related to the ongoing case involving the Cozy Inn, according to Interim City Manager Jacob Wood. The case, which revolves around a dispute regarding artwork on the iconic 103-year-old establishment, has yet to go to trial but has involved multiple legal proceedings.
Wood stated that the city’s legal team, Fairfield and Woods, a Colorado-based law firm specializing in sign and mural-related cases, has been handling the matter.
"There's certainly been lots of court actions," Wood said. "So most recently, we have filed a motion for summary judgment, and then they've [Cozy Inn Inc.] also filed a motion as well, and we're waiting for the court to hear that, and once the court makes a decision, they really have the option to grant all or part of that summary judgment, and depending on the result of that, then it could go to trial."
In 2024, Howard commissioned artwork on the restaurant’s exterior without city approval, sparking a legal dispute over whether it qualified as art or a sign under Salina’s zoning codes. City officials flagged the mural as a sign code violation, stating it far exceeded the allowable size for commercial signage.
Under Salina’s commercial sign regulations, businesses are allotted a specific amount of signage space based on their building frontage. In the C-4 commercial district, where the Cozy Inn is located, businesses are allowed three square feet of signage per linear foot of street frontage.
The Cozy Inn, with a 20.8-foot frontage, is allowed approximately 63 square feet of signage. The restaurant already uses 52.88 square feet for existing signs, leaving only about 10 square feet available. The new mural, estimated at 528 square feet, exceeds the allotted amount by nearly nine times the legal limit.
Depending on the outcome, the case could either be resolved or proceed to trial in the fall of 2025, tentatively between October and November. Steve Howard, the owner of the iconic burger joint, The Cozy Inn, filed a federal lawsuit with the support of the Kansas Justice Institute back in Feb. of 2024 against the City of Salina, Kansas.
While Wood did not have an exact number of hours billed by the legal firm, he noted that retrieving such details would require a formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Salina Post is in the process of submitting a FOIA request and will update this story as new information becomes available.