Children love the front-yard treehouse that Rick Polizzi built for his daughters at their Sherman Oaks home in 2000. The zoning police hate it.
Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety inspectors have targeted the structure for years. They initially flagged Polizzi for crowd violations when he turned the three-story treehouse into a Halloween attraction called “Boney Island.” Families came from miles away each year to see the special effects.
Polizzi won three Primetime Emmy Awards as an animation producer for “The Simpsons,” so he knows how to put on a show. But code enforcers kept piling on demands. At one point they required Polizzi to hire 11 police officers for security—about $10,000 per night. This was too much, so Polizzi moved the show in 2017 to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Now all that remains in his yard is the treehouse, nestled within a triangle of sweet gum trees planted in the 1940s. The carnival-style skeletons, Jack-o-lanterns, and crowds are gone. But code enforcers are still not happy. They want the treehouse gone.
Polizzi has tried to hold off demolition. He has spent more than $40,000 to bring the treehouse into compliance. But zoning officials always wants one more thing: Architectural drawings, soil samples, and inspections. “They gave me a list,” Polizzi says.
He could not do everything, and now he faces a criminal charge of noncompliance. His court appearance is scheduled in June 2024.
If Polizzi loses, a Sherman Oaks landmark could disappear. But no one will end up homeless. The stakes are often higher in zoning disputes involving real homes. Many jurisdictions make private housing solutions illegal in the United States, even as people skip meals and work overtime to keep up with inflation.
One recent survey shows half of mortgage holders and renters are struggling to make housing payments. Yet the zoning police refuse to let up.
Landowner Michael Ballard received hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and fees when he let a long-time employee stay in a trailer on his 60-acre vineyard in Santa Clara County, California. Once the zoning police learned about the arrangement, they started fining Ballard $250 a day. He could have ended the ordeal by evicting the employee and his family of four. But Ballard refused.
Chasidy Decker could not risk devastating fines like that. So she opted for homelessness in August 2022 when code enforcers ordered her to vacate her tiny home on wheels in Meridian, Idaho. Her vehicle could stay on her landlord’s property, the zoning police told her. But Decker could not sleep in her own bed.
Cindy Tucker and her charity, Tiny House Hand Up, could not even break ground when they tried to build affordable Southern-style cottages in Calhoun, Georgia. Zoning officials stopped the project due to square-footage minimums. Residents must pay for bigger homes in Calhoun, even if they want something smaller.
Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents Ballard, Decker, and Tiny House Hand Up. Over the years, we have handled dozens of similar cases, ranging from abusive moneymaking schemes in Indio, Coachella, and Norco, California, to over-the-top restrictions on home-based businesses in Tennessee and Texas.
Tactics and motives vary, but the result is the same: Property owners cannot use their land for safe, normal activities. People on the fringes of the economy can end up homeless. Others can lose vegetable gardens, microschools, and animal sanctuaries.
Polizzi could lose his treehouse.
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Besides being nonsensical and cruel, zoning crackdowns like these can be unconstitutional. The Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause protects property owners from unreasonable government intrusions. If code enforcers want to tell people what they can and cannot do on their own land, code enforcers need good reasons.
Respecting boundaries should start in Polizzi’s front yard. His treehouse is quirky and perhaps not to everyone’s liking. At least one neighbor has filed recent complaints. But the community landmark has brought joy to thousands of children, and many residents want to see the structure stay.
A Change.org petition to save the treehouse has 2,630 signatures. People facing homelessness rarely get such publicity, but the underlying issues are the same.
Treehouses are fun. Zoning disputes are serious.
Erica Smith Ewing is a senior attorney and Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va.
