Beachwood council barking about proposed treehouse ban

By RACHEL ZINN
Correspondent

July 15, 1999

BEACHWOOD -- The city has drawn criticism for going out on a limb and trying to ban treehouses.

Building Inspector John Korinek, who proposed the measure with city Planner George Smerigan, explained that there was "no way to make a treehouse safe."

He also said building codes do not allow any accessory structures higher than 15 feet, including garages. He said treehouses usually exceed this height limit.

Korinek said Beachwood has three or four treehouses. Should the ordinance pass, those would be allowed to remain.

Councilwoman Alice Jacobs strongly objected to the ordinance.

"I think this is someplace government should not go," she said. "You're looking at a real Pandora's Box with parents who want to have play equipment for their children," she added.

Councilman Martin Arsham also objected to the outlawing of treehouses.

"Kids like to play in treehouses. Why shouldn't they be able to?" he inquired.

The measure would also regulate the placement and size of children's play equipment. Such equipment would have to be in a back yard at least 10 feet from neighboring property.

It could not be taller than 15 feet, and could not occupy more than 25 percent of the yard area.

"The ordinance is designed to protect neighbors from proximity to this play equipment," Korinek said. He said, "We have to protect the neighbors."

The Building Department has received several complaints about play equipment being too close to neighboring property, according to Korinek.

"We're finding more and more of these complaints coming in daily," he said.

Korinek said he received more than five complaints about one swingset but didn't know the number of total complaints because records aren't kept.

Council voted 6-1 to put the ordinance on first reading and pass it onto the Planning Commission. Discussion will continue Aug. 16.

In other business, council sent the Planning Commission an ordinance to increase the maximum size of political signs to 640 square inches.

It also placed on second reading an ordinance to raise council salaries.

Arsham objected because it will raise the council president's salary too much -- from $9,600 to $12,600, or about $250 a month more.

"An extra $100 a month seems like a reasonable increase," he said.

Also, the state auditor's annual report commended Beachwood's system of financial reporting. Councilman Mark Wachter called the report "the most important news to come before council in a long time.

"This is the basis for us to plan into the future," Wachter said. "We now have reporting that is relable."

Council is planning to propose amendments to the charter dealing with civil service rules and council attendance. Other possible amendments include setting term limits on city officials, and reorganizing the administration of the law department.

At Monday's meeting, council may vote to place the amendments on the November ballot.

At least two Peachtree City Council members don't want to aim a proposed ordinance at children's treehouses, though they would like to shoot down television antennas clamped to treetops in the city.

At last week's council meeting, development services director Jim Williams said the staff had drafted an ordinance with proposed regulations for "tree structures." The ordinance would primarily address antennas needed for BellSouth's "wireless cable" service, a television reception system using direct-line technology from a tower, to a reception antenna on the subscriber's property, and then by wire into the house, Williams said.

Council member Robert Brooks said he didn't think the city would want to wind up in a position of regulating or preventing children from having a "tree fort" in their yard. He said he would like to "hear both sides" of the TV-antenna question to determine whether the receivers need to be in trees rather than on roofs or poles and whether there might be "more ingenious ways" to hide the antennas than in the trees.

"I realize this is just an emotional comment," Brooks said.

Council member Carol Fritz said later that the ordinance should not include treehouses, in her opinion, "mostly the antennas."

Williams said that city building inspectors had recently found "a lot of different things" nailed into trees. Some have not been "of the best construction," he said, but the building department had succeeded in getting the "more flimsy" structures repaired or taken down..

He said that the most recent discovery "to our horror" was that the metal-poled antennas were being installed atop trees, which he described as "an unnatural use of trees." As near as can be determined, he added, the service has about 1,000 subscribers in Peachtree City.

Contact with BellSouth yielded no willingness to alter the antenna arrangement, he said, noting that the utility claimed it had Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval to locate antennas on private property. The city attorney then advised drawing an ordinance that would address safety factors of all tree structures, outlining the reasons for regulation, giving violators 90 days to correct the situation, and setting out penalties.

"I don't think anybody envisioned putting antennas in trees," said City Manager Jim Basinger, commenting on FCC rules that prevent cities from trying to exclude antennas.