Robin Sutton and Allen Lade, of my old hometown Cincinnati, Ohio, wanted to put up a 6-foot-high cedar fence in their yard but the government of Anderson Township where they live denied the request for a zoning variance. Apparently, the fence wouldn't "fit in with the look and feel of Anderson Township" and needed to be a minimum of 45 feet away from the street. So instead, Sutton and Lade installed a surrealist display of yard art where the fence would be. They've decorated their property line with 15 toilet planters, dozens of multi-colored toilet brushes, an array of pinwheels, toy skeletons, and assorted other oddities. (Photo from the couple's Anderson Township Zoning Protest site.) From the Cincinnati Enquirer:
As Lade puts it: "It's colorful. It's bright. It's humorous. It's pointed…"
They added the skeletons for Halloween. For Christmas, they strung 2,800 lights in their backyard. They invited neighborhood children to spray-paint the toilet brushes.
"It's fun," Sutton said. "But it's also a reminder of basic property rights. It shows the absurdity of being told you can't put up a fence…"
Paul Drury, Anderson Township's assistant director of development services, said he gets occasional calls about the yard display.
"Most of them are inquiries about why they're allowed to do that," he said. "We haven't found any zoning violations."
Link to Cincinnati Enquirer article, Link to more info and photos at the Anderson Township Zoning Protest site (Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)
