Alan Fahey started building his home 20,000 square foot home thirty years ago in Acton, California, a ramshackle community that sits on the sandy fringe of Los Angeles County. He calls it “Phonehenge” because it’s built atop pilings made of telephone poles.
Unfortunately, the county is now demanding that Fahey tear down the home or face up to seven years in jail.
Yahoo News has the story:
A jury began hearing the county’s case against Fahey last week: He is charged with 14 criminal misdemeanor counts, including unlawful use of land. L.A. County deputy District Attorney David Campbell told the paper that Fahey repeatedly ignored city officials’ warnings that he was violating multiple municipal building safety and fire codes and thinks he is above the law.
“He has set up his own arrogant interpretation of the law,” Campbell told the paper.
Fahey’s lawyer Jerry Lennon says county officials were negligent in enforcing their own rules, leaving his client alone for two decades before deciding to crack down.
“This is an exceptional place,” an L.A.-area advocate for code reform, David Lewis, told the L.A. Times. “Most of the properties that are involved in code enforcement actions are not visually striking. It’s something the public can look at. It’s something special that shouldn’t be demolished.”
On the other hand, the city of Los Angeles honors an equally unpermitted and inelegant series of structures known as the Watts Towers. Here’s how Wikipedia describes them:
The Watts Towers … is a collection of 17 interconnected structures, two of which reach heights of over 99 feet (30 m). The Towers were built by Italian immigrant construction worker Sabato (“Sam” or “Simon”) Rodia in his spare time over a period of 33 years, from 1921 to 1954. The work is an example of non-traditional vernacular architecture and American Naïve art…
The sculptures’ armatures are constructed from steel pipes and rods, wrapped with wire mesh and coated with mortar. The main supports are embedded with pieces of porcelain, tile, and glass. They are decorated with found objects, including bed frames, bottles, ceramic tiles, scrap metal and sea shells. Rodia called the towers Nuestro Pueblo (which means “our town” in Spanish). He built them with no special equipment or predetermined design, working alone with hand tools and window-washer’s equipment. Neighborhood children brought pieces of broken glass and pottery to Rodia, some of which were added, but the majority of his material consisted of damaged pieces from the Malibu Pottery or CALCO (California Clay Products Company), located nearby. Green glass includes recognizable soft drink bottles from the 1930s through 1950s, some still bearing the former logos of 7 Up, Squirt, Bubble Up, and Canada Dry; blue glass appears to be from milk of magnesia bottles.
In other words, the Watts Towers are giant piles of junk, yet they were declared a National Historical Landmark in 1990. Perhaps Los Angeles County should follow the example of Los Angeles City and, instead of prosecuting Fahey, support a similar designation for Phonehenge.
As our reader Kimmy Queen said, “You decide: Should the government enforce safety measures or is the government out of control because it chooses to enforce NOW after 20 or 30 years of doing nothing? Hands up if you believe that they will throw the tax code book at him if he turns it in a museum and asks for donations.”
H/T: Kimmy Queen
Source: Yahoo News, Wikipedia
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
View Comments (14)
Well, as far as the Watts Towers go, maybe they are Historical Landmarks, but they are STILL piles of junk. On the one hand, nobody is trying to live in them, and they do not seem to be fire or other safety hazard. The same cannot be said of this other work of a California crackpot. I doubt too that there were any zoning restrictions in place at the time Rodia started his junkpiles, or any permits required for his work; further, as they have been complete for some 60 years, it is far past time anyone started complaining. The modern loon is certainly in violation of existing building codes. I know this much -- utility poles aren't just shaved down tree trunks, they are treated with a number of substances to weatherproof and preserve them, mostly oils and tars, and are probably quite hazardous to the health if incorporated into a residential structure. So much as I hate to stand with any government of any portion of the California SSR, I think they have a valid issue here. Take it down, crazy man.
PS - the whole comparison with watts Towers is bogus anyway.
PPS - I think this is the second time I've ever heard Watts Towers mentioned, after Sanford & Son.
It all boils down to the Federal, State, and Local government's widely held view that there is no such thing as personal property. You paid off the note on your car. So how you think you own it. But just try not paying the State their required yearly rent bill on the car, and see how long you keep it.
Same with your home. You pay off the note, you think you own it. But just try making any improvements without the written permission of the real owner of the property. The REAL reason behind the permit process? To keep track of any improvements YOU make, at YOUR own expense, to THEIR property, so they can raise the rent.
Absolutely disgusting. Government wants us to have enough to remain producers for the government, the rest is for the government. This is exactly what the forefathers of this country didn't want.
This is a perfect example of swallowing the camel and straining out the gnats. The magnitude of hypocrisy here is off the Richter Scale!
If he had a windmill on top of his house or a solar panel, none of this would be happening.
Another terrorist almost walks free because jury's are selected from pools of americans available for jury duty and accepted by the defense and prosecutor(i.e. retards)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/09/tahawwur-rana-verdict-gui_n_874517.html
Isn't this the kind of sh*t that would always happen on scooby-doo? real estate developer wants someone out....town council can't force 'em out....dress up as ghosts....scooby and shaggy get high....case is solved somehow.
Yeah... and LA County would have gotten away with this if it weren't for the meddling kids at IHTM.com!
I think I recall that line for just about every episode of Scooby-Doo when the bad guy got busted.
Who was that guy that was harrased by his local planning commission/environmental board/town council/something to sell his land to the point where the town cops attempted to arrest him in the neighboring town and he killed a bunch of council members, cops and other local gov't officials before being taken down?
Happened in new england I think. I can't for the life of me remember the name and nothing shows up in google. One of those things that got burried by the media.
Sounds like you are speaking of Carl Drega...
Kookafornia has got a lot more shit to worry about than this guys home. Besides it is one of the less nutty things in Kookafornia.
Ahh, my old home state and stomping grounds, the land of fruits and nuts!
Somebody out in California is forgetting to change the bong water every two weeks or so.
Oh, I think they are changing the water. Then mixing it with kool-aid and drinking it. whew!!!!
Agree with KQ, just leave the old man alone. Yes, my hand is raised.