August 7, 2003

Clinton to continue treehouse battle
By Susan O'Bryan
sobryan@jackson.gannett.com

A legal fight over a family's treehouse is going the next round in the state Supreme Court.

Clinton aldermen have voted 5-2 to continue the city's fight to force the family to tear down the treehouse, appealing Hinds Circuit Judge Tomie Green's July 23 ruling that an elaborate Victorian-style two-story treehouse can legally remain in Scot and Mary Welch's front yard at 218 Kitchings Drive.

A crowd of about two dozen waited Tuesday night for the aldermen to return from a closed-door session in which the vote occurred.

"What we are asking for is a clarification — for direction on how to enforce zoning ordinances," Mayor Rosemary Aultman said after the meeting.

Scot Welch, allowed to speak before the vote, listed a number of points covered in Green's ruling. "I've obeyed all the laws," he said. "I've acted in a legal and professional manner. I'm asking that you do the same."

"This is not a personal vendetta," said Alderman At-Large Jehu Brabham. Among his concerns: The city may have no legal standing to oppose buildings, whether they be treehouses, batting cages or deer-skinning racks. "One very key issue we have to think about is how to be consistent," Brabham said. "We need the Supreme Court to tell us how to do that. We need direction as a board on how to enforce our ordinances."

Welch urged aldermen to spend taxpayers' money on rewriting the ordinance, not in fighting against a treehouse. "Have faith in us, the residents, that we'll keep our community nice," he said.

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