Government Goons Destroy Tree House
The owner of a beloved neighborhood structure spent years—and thousands of dollars—trying to comply with L.A. bureaucrats’ demands.
A Los Angeles homeowner has conceded defeat in his fight against the city to keep a tree house on his property. After seven years and more than $50,000 spent on legal fees and permits, the battle ended this weekend with a demolition crew.
The tree house, which was built and owned by The Simpsons producer Rick Polizzi, was a staple of the Sherman Oaks neighborhood for 24 years. The structure was three stories tall and inspired by the show's "Treehouse of Horror" episodes. Originally built for his daughters, it eventually evolved into a centerpiece for a family-friendly, light-up Halloween display called Boney Island open to the community.
In 2017, a neighbor complained about the large crowds of children accumulating during the 10-day Halloween event. The city shut down the Boney Island attraction—which Polizzi later revived and turned into a fundraiser at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum—and cited Polizzi for the tree house's permit violations. Since the tree house was built around the three sweet gum trees in his front yard and couldn't be moved, Polizzi began applying for the necessary permits to keep it for all to enjoy.
Bringing the tree house into compliance was no simple task. Polizzi tells Reason that while he had secured the necessary zoning permit for the tree house—a feat in and of itself—he'd been unable to obtain a building permit from the L.A. Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). While one would think it'd make sense to permit the structure as a tree house or play structure, Polizzi says that the LADBS took a strict stance, ruling that the roughly 120-square-foot tree house instead had to meet the arduous requirements for an accessory dwelling unit (ADU).
Los Angeles defines an ADU as "an attached or detached residential dwelling unit that provides complete independent living facilities" and must include "permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking and sanitation." Securing these building permits requires "soil reports, structural designs, Americans With Disabilities Act compliance, and all this stuff that is just kind of absurd" for an existing treehouse that has stood for 25 years with no safety incidences, Paige Gosney, Polizzi's attorney, told The Los Angeles Times. According to Polizzi, meeting the ADU demands would've cost another $50,000 to $80,000 on top of what he had already spent. "It's felt like a strong-arm tactic meant to get me to buckle."
Despite ongoing good faith efforts to comply with the city's regulations, Polizzi was criminally charged with four misdemeanors by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office in 2020 for the tree house's noncompliance. Unable to move forward with renovations, he applied for a permit waiver in April 2024 but never heard back from the city.
Stuck in limbo without an accepted or denied waiver, Polizzi's last hope was for the misdemeanor charges to be dropped. However, with a fast-approaching trial date and an unrelenting city attorney threatening to force Polizzi to pay court costs and legal fees, he could no longer justify the increasing costs of fighting to keep the tree house—even with the 6,000 neighbors rallying in support. Polizzi ultimately decided to pay to have the tree house taken down on March 9 and "stop the bleeding."
"It's been up 24 years, never had an incident once. So, it's just sad," Polizzi said during an interview with NBCLA hours before the demolition crew arrived. "It's a shame that a city built on creativity can't make some concessions."
Polizzi tells Reason that since the tree house was taken down, he's gotten a lot of media attention. "I didn't want all this attention," he says, "I just wanted to keep the tree house I built for my daughters. But I guess this has really struck a nerve with people about government overreach." Once this chapter is finally closed, Polizzi says he plans to leave California and may even take Boney Island with him. "I want nothing to do with this city anymore."
