Joshua Swain and Katherine Mangu-Ward on How to Save a Tree House from the Zoning Board

When Spc. Mark Grapin returned from a tour of duty in Iraq with the Army National Guard in 2011, he promised his sons—Sean, 9, and Eric, 11—that he would build them a tree house before he shipped out again. Grapin, who lives in Fairfax County, outside Washington, D.C., called the county and asked about any building codes that might apply. "The guy kind of laughed me off the phone," he says. So Grapin got to work, spending dozens of hours and $1,400 on materials. But little did he know that a second set of bureaucrats, the Fairfax County zoning board, should have been consulted before construction began. An anonymous complaint from a neighbor triggered a county investigation into the unapproved structure, and in September the Board of Zoning Appeals voted 4-3 to deny Grapin the necessary permit. The tree house was then slated for the wrecking ball. With time running out before the veteran would be sent back into the field, he went to the local media for help, triggering outrage nationwide.