‘This Is a Forest’: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Bratenahl Backyard Plan Won Unanimous Approval Over Neighbors’ Objections

Neighbor Chuck Bauernschmidt looked at the planting plan for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s backyard in Bratenahl, Ohio, and summed it up in four words: “This is a forest.” The village’s Architectural Review Board approved it anyway. On Tuesday night, Nov. 10, the board voted unanimously for the couple’s revised landscaping plans, Consequence reported, ending a fall-long fight over how tall the privacy plantings behind the lakefront house could grow.

What the board approved

The approved plan calls for staggered deciduous shrubs that can reach up to 10 feet tall, meant in part to give the couple more privacy. The board had already signed off on a six-foot privacy fence earlier in the fall.

About 35 people came to the meeting. Swift and Kelce were not among them. They sent a property manager, an architect and a project manager to speak for the plan.

Jacob Kutz of Tiny Construction, the couple’s planner, told Page Six the couple are “looking for privacy and security,” according to UNILAD’s account of the meeting.

Why the plan stalled in October

The couple bought the eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom house in March for $5.35 million. It sits on 3.5 acres at the edge of Lake Erie, a few miles from Kelce’s hometown of Cleveland Heights.

When the outdoor work first came up, the board split the landscaping off from the fence and asked for its own submission. Cleveland 19 reported that the board wanted a licensed survey showing the new sewer line, the property boundaries, and the sizes and species of the existing trees before it would look again.

At the Oct. 6 meeting, the rear-yard tree plan ran into a height rule. Village solicitor Dave Matty said the setback line applies to anything behind the home, and a board member said privacy and screening could be achieved with plants under 10 feet tall. Tiny Construction told the board it would adjust the plan and follow the law, and the review was pushed to Nov. 10.

This site covered that delay in October, when the plan first hit the 10-foot limit.

The neighbors who objected

Bauernschmidt has lived in Bratenahl for decades and has opposed taking trees down from the start. In October he told the board he takes offense when trees start coming down. On Tuesday he questioned whether the dense new plantings met village rules.

He told the board he lives two houses away, has complaints about the plan and objects to it, according to UNILAD.

Neighbor Lucy Weller argued for planting that feeds wildlife, telling the board the landscape does nothing to provide for any of it.

Katherine Bolton, who shares a 115-year-old sewer line with the property, has worried that new trees planted close to the pipe could damage it. The Comeback, writing on Yahoo, reported that she was quoted $75,000 to protect the pipe from roots.

Neighbors who want the couple to stay

Not everyone in the room was against the plan. Resident Vasiliki Diamantis said Bratenahl should feel privileged that the couple chose the village. Another resident called the fight “stupid,” since the house would eventually be sold.

A neighbor told Page Six that most of the objections come from the two homes next door, and that the rest of the community does not want the couple to feel unwelcome.

The dispute over shrubs and screening is a familiar one for homeowners, even without famous names attached. In England, a Bolton neighbor’s 10-foot evergreens set off a council investigation over a blocked park view, and in Illinois, Crystal Lake ordered a row of arborvitae pulled over a lake view before reversing itself.

What happens next

With the fence and the planting plan both approved, the couple’s crew can move ahead on the backyard. Consequence reported no conditions on the approval beyond the revised plan itself.

For Bauernschmidt and the neighbors who wanted fewer, shorter plants, the board’s answer is now on the record: a screen of shrubs up to 10 feet tall along the back of the property, unanimously approved.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Nyttend – Public domain/Wikimedia Commons