Bratenahl board approves fence, part of Swift and Kelce plans

Bratenahl’s Architectural Review Board approved a six-foot fence and conditional front landscaping for a property owned by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, while withholding approval for proposed shoreline trees. The team behind the project is expected to return with revised landscaping plans, leaving that part of the proposal unresolved. The fence, set inside the property boundary and stopping short of Lake Erie, was approved in September, according to accounts of the board’s decision. At a meeting on October 6, the board approved landscaping at the front of the property subject to conditions on tree spacing, but did not approve the proposed shoreline planting. The plans have drawn objections from neighbors in Bratenahl, a village outside Cleveland. Katherine Bolton, who lives next door and said she has been there for 35 years, told the board that about 50 evergreen trees planned roughly 10 feet from a shared, century-old sewer line could damage it and cause sewage backups. Bolton said she had been quoted $75,000 to protect the line. Those concerns are predictions; the reports provide no independent engineering assessment of the potential risk.