A fight over a kids treehouse in Billings, Montana is gaining national attention. Glenn Beck’s website, TheBlaze.com, is picking up on this story from The Billings Gazette:
“Logan and his parents, Scott and Kacey Olson, his grandparents and his brother Dillon, 12, built the elaborate treehouse in the front yard of the Olsons’ house,” the Gazette notes. “By late June, Logan and Dillon had a solidly built, 17-foot-high, 80-square-foot treehouse with a deck on three sides.”
“[S]omebody lodged a complaint with the city’s Building Division because the Olsons hadn’t obtained a building permit,” the Gazette reports. “As it turned out, they didn’t need one. Nicole Cromwell, the city’s zoning coordinator, said permits are unnecessary for buildings of less than 120 square feet.”
The Blaze then asks, “Okay, so then what’s the problem?”
“Although a ‘structure’ technically is a building on the ground, the treehouse does have four wooden support beams, which qualifies it as an ‘accessory structure,’” the report explains, “and zoning rules say accessory structures have to be set back at least 20 feet from the property line. The closest post is 5 feet, 6 inches from the front property line.”
To check out the structure yourself, click below to check out the Treehouse Tour video from The Billings Gazette: