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After the city of LA declared its whimsical creation a crime, the magnificent treehouse that has now stood in Sherman Oaks for 24 years is pitiful on the brink of destruction.
Rick Polizzi, producer of “The Simpsons,” built a tree house called Bonnie Island, in his front yard as a playhouse for his daughter. He says it has become a quirky local landmark visited by celebrities such as Halle Berry, Christina Aguilera and Will Ferrell.
However, the city says it is violating the building permit requirements and is pursuing criminal charges against him.
For the past eight years, Polizzi has been fighting to maintain its three-storey structure, spending more than $50,000 on legal fees and zoning permits. Now with the trial looming in March, Polizzi is preparing to demolish it rather than defending it in court.
Polizzi says he built a wooden house for his daughter over 20 years ago, but has been fighting the city over the years.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
News of the imminent demolition of the Treehouse is filled with public protests. Over 6,000 people have signed petitions trying to save it.
“If nothing happens in the next few days, that’s it [demolition] Polizzi told the Times. “I haven’t spent another $30,000 on the court for a stupid wooden house. I know that means a lot to everyone, but I have to stop the bleeding.”
Polizzi, a three-time Emmy Award-winning producer, built the structure with the help of fellow “Simpsons” producer Michael Mahan. Polizzi has become a favorite gathering spot at Sherman Oaks, and for Halloween it attracted thousands of visitors as part of its annual Boney Island Display.
Many of that fans are now trying to save it.
“Among all the deep sadness we felt in the city, in the plague of the city by fire and fear, this beautiful magical wooden house cannot bring such a crazy amount of joy to so many people,” wrote actor Missi Pyle in an Instagram post to Nitya Raman, a city council member representing Sherman Oaks.
Raman said her office had worked hard in the past with Polizzi and the city department to save “this beloved staple food of the Sherman Oaks community.”
“Our goal has been to find a way to maintain a treehouse that has always brought great joy to our neighbors. Our office is willing to continue working with Mr Polizzi,” the councillor said in a statement shared with the times.
The quirky structure is sandwiched between three gum trees and features secret doors, an indoor bar, tiki torches, hammocks and rope and palley systems.
The Treehouse was part of a Halloween celebration that attracted a large crowd, and complaints continued. After that, the celebration began to move.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
The LA Department filed a code enforcement violation against Polizzi in 2017 due to a treehouse without permission from the building. The city then filed misdemeanor charges against him in 2020.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Construction and Safety did not respond to a list of questions about how structure can be brought to compliance. A spokesman for City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto did not respond to requests for comment.
Treehouse has been featured in TV shows “America’s Got Talent” and “Treehouse Masters” as well as ads for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Its fantastic design inspired an episode of The Simpsons, in which an animated family reconstructs a backyard playhouse after a fire.
Former LA mayor Eric Garcetti and his daughter visited the Treetop Hang, Polizzi said.
However, despite history, Polizzi says he is ready to give up the fight.
The scrapbook commemorates the wooden house.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
After a pretrial meeting went wrong this month, Polizzi said he lacked financial and emotional stamina to fight the city without guaranteeing he will win his upcoming March trial.
“that [pretrial] It was a bit irritating. We couldn’t say anything about anything,” he said. “The city’s lawyers said they wouldn’t drop a criminal case. They’ll get all these permission or completely dismantle it.”
His lawyer, Page Gosney, was disappointed by how things unfolded.
“This is the iconic structure of the Sherman Oaks area and it will no longer be a bureaucracy other than running into the wild,” he said.
Gosney said he worked closely with Polizzi to try to comply with the structures with urban building codes.
They managed to secure a zoning permit in 2023, but since then, it has proven impossible to secure a building permit from the building and safety department, given the harsh differences between wooden houses built for outdoor play and single-family homes built for indoor housing.
“Staff wanted American compliance with soil reporting, structural design, and disability compliance, and everything that’s a bit of absurd,” Gosney said. “After all, this is a wooden house, an existing wooden house that has been there for nearly 30 years.”
Polizzi said he was willing to pursue a building permit process, but he balked the fact that it would cost thousands of dollars to create a design for an architect of a structure he already built. He ultimately did not submit a building permit application.
The wooden house is located among three gum trees, with three stories.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
He submitted an application to the Ministry of Construction and Safety in April 2024 for an exemption from the building permit requirements, and he says he has not responded since.
Polizzi said the city paid little attention to his wooden house for the first 16 years of its existence until his neighbor complained about the massive crowds that the Halloween event was fascinated by in 2017.
He added that after the city recognized the structure, it issued a code enforcement violation.
To avoid crowd complaints, Polizzi moved the Bonnie Island Spectacle to Griffith Park and later to the Natural History Museum, which now serves as an annual fundraising event.
He argues that the wooden house is structurally sound and is reserved from potential intruders and squatters with multiple lock gates.
“We had no problems for 24 years,” he said. “We didn’t lose one piece of iron in the last storm we had in every fire.”
Lawyer Gosney said there are two routes to save the Treehouse. The city’s attorney’s office could remove the case, or the Building and Safety Bureau could approve a building permit waiver.
“It’s all ridiculous,” he said. “It’s literally just a wooden house. Let’s use common sense.”
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