"Will LA's Coolest Tree House Fall Victim To City Hall Stupidity, Nithya Raman Silence?" by Daniel Guss
Another case of Karen Bass's broke and broken City Hall.
On Saturday evening, upwards of a hundred neighbors with their children and dogs in-tow milled about the neatly maintained corner property in Studio City to visit the most ass-kicking tree house most will ever see.
Boom:
It only gets better as the day’s balmy sun drifts away.
Ready?
Boom:
The photos don’t do it justice. Two levels above the ground. An ingress and egress. Designed with the playfulness and talent that Rick Polizzi, a creative director and three-time Emmy-winning television producer, gave another of his famous creations, the Halloween display known as “Boney Island,” which has been moved to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum because one disgruntled neighbor, whose property does not adjoin the one he and his wife Carla own, still has an axe to grind.
“We are devastated at the (possible) loss of the tree house. It is one of the reasons we fell in love with the neighborhood. It has brought so much joy to the community, both through Boney Island and its sheer presence. Its removal is heartbreaking. Our kids love playing in the tree house every chance they get — it inspires them to use their imagination, be outdoors and live out wild fantasies. We’re so grateful that Rick and Carla have fought so long and hard to save it, and are saddened that the city is forcing its removal.”
— One Polizzi neighbor, echoing every opinion on Saturday night
Enter Los Angeles City Hall stupidity and squander, featuring LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman, the Department of Building and Safety (DBS) and the LA City Attorney’s office.
As spicy gumbo, drinks and music provided by the Polizzis was enjoyed by the guests streaming through their pristine open house and backyard, the bizarre story goes like this.
The tree house has been in this spot, brilliantly built into three massive trees, for decades without so much as a fallen shingle. It has been celebrated by everyone from rock star Dave Grohl and Academy Award winner Halle Berry to Hillary Duff and some guy named Eric Garcetti, their broods and apparently everyone else in this tranquil, walkable ‘burb.
The whimsical tree house features an observation deck, fake fireplace and “bar” with a sink that has actual running and draining water. Not a home, but an insanely awesome tree house.
For several years, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, DBS, according to Polizzi, kept telling him the tree house was an ADU, or Accessory Dwelling Unit, which AI loosely defines as “a secondary living space on the same property as a primary residence. ADUs can be attached to the main house or detached as a separate structure.”
Polizzi showed me communications he had with — seven — DBS employees who were unable to explain how it is an ADU, while refusing to put their designation in writing.
Here’s Inside Edition’s story on the Polizzi tree house:
Polizzi navigated the labrynth of city government to overcome a zoning issue provided that he got the tree house permitted. When he realized that engaging specialists was cost infeasible, he was told he could file an appeal and request an exemption, but first needed a formal DBS determination. He says he never got one. Only a single sentence email, to which his response — is this email a formal DBS refusal? — remains unanswered.
Nithya Raman, the local City Councilmember who showed zero outrage about a homeless guy flinging baggies of diarrhea at constituents until Fox 11 did a story on it, refuses to speak directly with Polizzi, and refused to respond to my questions, still irked about my denying her request for positive stories while simultaneously dodging my questions about dead bodies on the streets of her district.
While DBS staffers said that they could not talk about the Polizzi case because it is now in the hands of the LA City Attorney’s office, the generic questions DBS refuses to address for me are:
Is it within DBS policy and procedures for its personnel to make spoken determinations that they refuse to put in writing?
Is it acceptable to cease communications with fair-minded, non-hostile constituents when they ask if a single-sentence email constitutes a formal outcome?
What specifically constitutes an ADU?
What is the definition of a tree house and what, if any, rules exist for tree houses?
A DBS spokesperson, responding to my inquiry to department general manager Osama Younan, asked for evidence of those communications — including the ones shown above — but refused to respond once I pointed out that they were already provided.
In a city with thousands of dubious ADUs, including un-permitted garage conversions prone to carbon monoxide poisoning and fires, and scores of dubious homeless camp structures (and tree houses), how is it that the Polizzi gem became a criminal matter?
That’s right.
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office, whose use of taxpayer funds should be examined much closer in upcoming annual budget hearings, filed misdemeanor charges against Polizzi — a total fucktard move — with a trial scheduled in a few weeks.
Rather than figuring out where this caper went off the rails…
Rather than figuring out whether there is an avenue for an exemption, given that DBS refuses to prove a formal decision was given to the Polizzis…
Rather than engaging and tapping into the strong community bond for a solution, instead of a fucktard criminal trial, where the actual crooks are buck-passing, do-nothing bureaucrats who ignore countless civic ills; who recently borrowed $80 million just to settle broken sidewalk lawsuits; somehow chose this tree house, and this community, to bully.
Your tax dollars at work.
Let’s hope the judge is made aware of the city’s non-responsiveness and culpability after decades of community joy, before it loses something special and does pointless irreparable harm to a good man’s name.
Your witness, fucktards.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards in June ‘23. In June ‘24, he won its “Best Commentary, Non-Political” award. He has contributed to the Daily Mail, CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)