BERLIN – A survey will determine the future of a treehouse on Thomas Court.
Following a complaint from a neighbor, Berlin Planning Director Dave Engelhart has spent the past several weeks determining how a treehouse on Thomas Court fits into town code. He told officials Monday the structure’s fate would depend on whether it encroached on the property line.
“My only question at this point in investigating it is whether it is too close to the property line…,” Engelhart said during Monday’s meeting of the town council. “Everything else complies. We’re looking for a survey now.”
The treehouse, according to property owner Sean Bryan, is a project he’s been working on since late 2014. The father of two was watching his now 6-year-old son climb a tree at Stephen Decatur Park when the idea struck him.
“I said ‘you know what we should build a tree house,’” he said. “It started there.”
While he initially had little more than a platform in the tree at the back of his yard, within the past year the treehouse has really taken shape. It’s now enclosed and features windows and a shingled roof.
“I’ve been trying to take my time to make sure it’s nice and sturdy,” Bryan said.
He stopped work abruptly when he was contacted by Engelhart, who said one of Bryan’s neighbors had complained about the structure. Bryan was surprised, as the project had been underway for more than two years and he’d spoken to the concerned neighbor before and the topic hadn’t come up.
“There was never any mention of it,” he said.
Once he’d been made aware of the project, Engelhart visited the treehouse and checked town code for relevant regulations.
“There is no mention of the word ‘treehouse’ in our code,” Engelhart said.
Because of that, he opted to treat the treehouse as an accessory structure. He advised Bryan to get a building permit from the town and submit a basic sketch of the treehouse. Engelhart said the treehouse’s supporting poles exceeded the town’s standards and that it met height requirements, which don’t permit anything above 25 feet.
“It’s a good looking structure for a treehouse,” Engelhart said. “A lot of work went into it.”
He said he was looking for the most recent survey to determine whether the treehouse encroached on the property behind Bryan’s. The treehouse needs to be at least six feet off the line.
Councilman Thom Gulyas, who lives in the same neighborhood as Bryan, asked if landscape screening could alleviate the neighbor’s concern. Engelhart explained that a line of mature Leyland cypress trees already sat between the treehouse and the adjacent property.
According to Bryan, even if the treehouse is too close to the property line he does not plan to dismantle it. Instead, he says he’ll modify its rear wall and make the structure smaller. He says he never intended to cause any concern among his neighbors.
“It’s just a crazy treehouse my son and I were working on,” he said. “We weren’t trying to bother anybody with it.”
