Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce face neighbor opposition over Ohio mansion fence and trees

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce purchased a 21,000-square-foot, 1895 mansion on Lake Erie for $5.35 million and applied to Bratenahl’s Architectural Review Board for a six-foot black aluminum fence and extensive tree planting to create a private enclave. Neighbors such as Katherine Bolton, a 35-year resident, and Chuck Bauernschmidt, who has lived two doors down for 39 years, objected, citing risks of deer becoming impaled on the fence’s spiked railings, potential raw-sewage backups from planting 50 evergreens near a 100-year-old clay sewer pipe, and the removal of existing shrubbery.

The board unanimously approved a fence that is two feet inside the property line and stops short of the lake, but declined to permit a shoreline row of saplings. Swift and Kelce’s construction manager Jacob Kutz said the owners have already moved the fence, added gates for neighbor access, repaired the shared sewer at their own cost, and trimmed trees on adjacent properties. The dispute continues, with the couple expected to submit revised landscaping plans at a future hearing, while local officials also voiced concerns about drone surveillance and paparazzi.