Santa Cruz mother will fight treehouse compliance complaint
Sparks opened her mailbox and found a letter from the Santa Cruz Department of Planning and Community Development. A neighbor had complained about the treehouse and it was not up to code, staff wrote.
SANTA CRUZ — A Santa Cruz boy with sky-high dreams may have to bring his play back down to the ground.
Kindred Sparks’ 12-year-old son was sheltered at home because of COVID-19 as his science camp class trip was canceled. Then, his fifth-grade graduation was canceled. Finally, the sports team he trained to try out for was canceled.
Instead of becoming frustrated, the elder Sparks boy came up with an idea — a treehouse for he and his younger brother to play in and create new, happy experiences. Sparks said that because of her son’s learning style he was homeschooled during the Zoom era; through his research, he found a cool school project.
“The boys have always wanted a treehouse and then with the pandemic, we started with just a little fort around the tree. In late winter … he drew up blueprints and watched Youtube videos online,” Sparks said. “We had the opportunity to turn that into a learning experience.”
The treehouse was finished by the end of May and the Sparks kids were ecstatic. Dozens of neighbors cheered him on and complimented the 12-year-old boy’s work, Sparks added in her post about the situation on the community forum Nextdoor. Before school was back in session, he had his best friend over for a sleepover.
“These kids have had everything taken away from them, these houses are small. We are blessed to have a yard because there are lots of kids who didn’t during the pandemic,” Sparks said. “But to have a little private fort in the front that’s his own … that sleepover was like a movie.”
Signed, anonymous
However, this week, Sparks opened her mailbox and found a letter from the Santa Cruz Department of Planning and Community Development. A neighbor had complained about the treehouse and it was not up to code, staff wrote. After going back and forth with two different employees, the family is still unsure of how the treehouse was even monitored by city code or what fines they might be charged for being out of compliance.
“They dated it for Aug. 4 but we didn’t receive notice until three days ago … It’s hard because it’s always, ‘Leave a message and we’ll get back to you.’ It’s a slow process, and we were told that all costs incurred by the city relative to our case can be billed to us,” the mom said.
Sparks intends on fighting the complaint and has been told by city staff that she can get an extension of the deadline to comply if she proves she is working on a solution to the issue. But it’s hard to find a solution when she isn’t sure what made the neighbor complain, Sparks said.
“The (staff member) said as long as no one complains, they aren’t proactive about shutting them down … I have no ill intention because I know they’re trying their best over there,” Sparks said. “I don’t like any kind of conflict and confrontation … if it wasn’t for the fact that this is my son’s project I probably would just (defer) but as a mother, just with everything these kids have been through this past year and a half, I owe it to him to fight for him.”
Additionally, she isn’t sure that the city code even applies to treehouses.
“The main issue is not about the code but the setback and about the treehouse being too close to the front,” Sparks said. “The (staffer) said they want consistency in the front yard … but it doesn’t seem as though my street is as consistent. People park trailers, boats and things in their front yard so that, to me, doesn’t really seem like a valid argument. The tree is already there, it’s just a structure within the tree.”
As she dug in deep to how her boys may be affected by local laws, the city notified Sparks she would need to take the policy to the Santa Cruz City Council for discussion. Privately, another city staff member messaged her and encouraged her to pursue the effort.
“With my youngest, I’m not really sure he knows it could be taken down,” she said of her kids. “But the older one who built it is super bummed. He really doesn’t understand why.”
Considering city codes
The treehouse has been a learning lesson — a lesson in democracy.
“It’s all about having real, individual conversations. That’s the reason why we have a smaller government. Large-scale laws don’t always work for everyone in town,” she said. “This should be considered a special case because it is our youth. This area is supposed to be a forward-thinking and progressive area. We should be rallying around these kids.”
Sparks will show up to meetings and tell her kids about making the system better despite a failed attempt at policy change in a similar situation last year in Capitola.
“I’m not giving up,” she said.
Katie Bramlett, a mother to two girls who also helped build a treehouse in the front yard during the pandemic, spoke with KSBW last year about how a neighbor went to the city, too, before first approaching them.
“You know, I get it! Two or three people don’t like it, let’s talk but (for) one person to cause all of this (is) such a waste of city resources,” Bramlett said to the TV station at the time.
Then-mayor Kristen Petersen said this week that, from her recollection, the family chose to take it down altogether rather than rebuild the treehouse to code.
Bramlett could not be reached prior to print publication.