For 23 years, a four-level treehouse built by former The Simpsons producer Rick Polizzi and his coworker Michael Mahan was an unofficial delightful neighborhood attraction in Sherman Oaks. Children loved climbing into the 250 square foot treehouse, which included a “talk tube” between the first and third floors, a secret hidden doorway to the reach the fourth floor, a fireplace, and even a working sink.
However, when the City of Los Angeles notified Polizzi in 2017 that he would have to either tear down or adapt the unpermitted structure to meet building codes, Polizzi filed for a temporary waiver and received it. The costs of completing geological surveys, structural drawings, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)-compliance reports and other labor-intensive reports to qualify for the official permit would have cost, by Polizzi’s estimates, at least $20,000 to $30,000. On March 9, the last vestiges of the treehouse, which mimicked a similar animated structure on The Simpsons, were removed from Polizzi’s gum trees.
“I had to stop the bleeding,” Polizzi explained when reached by phone by LA Digs on Monday March 10, noting that as of that moment, his lawyer was still working to get the criminal case that had been filed by the city against him dismissed. He’s spent approximately $50,000 already in court costs, and was hurt to learn that city is seeking to make him responsible for paying the additional legal fees that have been generated during this process.
However, Polizzi was particularly upset that despite his work using his Halloween-themed “Boney Island” attraction to fundraise for the Museum of Natural History, the city had not helped him with the costs of assembling the reports and studies needed for the permit. “Since I have helped them, why couldn’t I get any help?” he lamented.
Additionally frustrating to Polizzi is the fact that Nithya Raman, the LA City councilmember of District 4 who represents his district, has been unhelpful in private while claiming to be working on the matter in public. Over the last several years, Polizzi said that he spoke to at least three different staffers within Raman’s office, all of whom told him that nothing could be done about the treehouse.
While he never spoke directly with Raman, he finds her public stance to be disingenuous. Although Nithya Raman has not responded to a request for comment from LA Digs, she did issue a statement to Newsweek, which read, “Our goal has always been to find a pathway to preserve the treehouse, which has brought so much joy to neighbors, and our office is willing to continue that work in cooperation with Mr. Polizzi.”
Polizzi did note that “it’s been great to see the outpouring of support” for the treehouse from neighborhood denizens: more than 6,000 people signed a petition to preserve the structure. But not all the neighbors were enamored of the treehouse—the initial legal challenges that led to Polizzi’s decision to tear down the structure apparently originated with “nearby residents.”
Los Angeles has long been a leader in instituting intelligent, progressive building codes that protect people from harm. Consider seismic ordinances that have helped buildings weather earthquakes, or the ADA requirements that make it possible for everyone to access public spaces. Each of these laws are well-intentioned, and have greatly improved the quality and durability of buildings statewide: no one wants to be buried alive in an earthquake, and accessibility for all is a welcome development.
In some cases, however, the rigid implementation of existing building requirements can be onerous, to the point where Governor Gavin Newsom actually suspended certain permits and review requirements to enable homeowners affected by the January 2025 wildfires in order to quickly rebuild. The thicket of laws has also become a way for homeowners to passive-aggressively restrict new housing developments by filing requests for costly and time-consuming reports, a practice known as “Environmental NIMBY-ism.” These types of practices have helped contribute to a national housing crisis.
The treehouse, which Polizzi’s lawyer Paige Gosney has described as a “non-commercial” structure, has become an unfortunate case study of what happens when a few individuals begin to use well-intentioned laws to shut down what was arguably a valued and unique resource for the community. As of this writing, the criminal case against Polizzi has yet to be dismissed.
