Thread: Another Yard Haunt Forced to Close

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Saw this story on our local news the other day. It's a home haunt in the Fremont, CA area (SFBay). Hope it wasn't the haunt of someone here although I still feel badly for them just the same.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sec...bay&id=8384029

Yep, another home yard haunt forced to close down. I'm thinking it's due to a complaint from someone in the neighborhood who got tired of all the traffic from the ToTers. Doubt anyone was complaining about the charity food drive. Anyone in the East Bay hear about this haunt? Hope someone can come through to help them relocate.

Watching the video on the ABC site, it's fun to see how many of the props they had that you can spot that we all have been picking up ourselves.

thats so sad but me being in the fire service can understand that maybe that structure wouldnt be build to spec that could cause a danger to the ppl visiting the haunted house. last thing i would hate to see is a collapse.

Growing up in a small town of 12k-15k, we had one neighborhood on a dead-end street every Christmas decorate all their houses and put out these big plastic candy canes and convert their mailboxes to candy canes. They played Christmas music over a radio broadcast and lit up a sign at the entrance to the street as "Welcome to Candy Cane Lane!". Was one of my big memories as a kid, driving to look at lights and always going to that neighborhood.

I can't say I've EVER seen similar for Halloween, but sure would be cool. Not sure why I'm posting this here other than it would be nice if entire neighborhoods banded together like that since it seems that this was probably a neighbor complaint that shut it down.

But who knows, a lot of people even here don't like to say where they live for people driving by that live in their city to look at decorations because of fear of theft / vandalism. So maybe that's not likely either.

Fremont - the original home of Pirates of Emerson (which started out as a home haunt on Emerson Street).

I hope these folks find some way to as they say "beat the system" but sadly these day with city and county ordinances, not to mention fire codes which can't be ignored as LadderMonkey pointed out, it can be difficult to put on a major haunt in some areas. Gone are the days when you could find some old abandoned house, find the owners and rent it for the season, and put on a haunt for pay or donation. My advice for anyone who lives in densely populated areas, as these people who haunt was shut down, is before you put all your blood, sweat, and tears (not to mention money) into building a haunt for free, pay, or donation is first find out if its allowed in your neighborhood covenants (if you have such) then go on from there to see what if any town, city, or county ordinances and fire codes may apply. I know it's a royal PIA but these are the times we live in.

I can just hear John Lennon:
"back in US...
Back in the US...

Back in the USSR".

Is this REALLY all the government of Fremont, CA has to do with its time??

Here's an additional article I saw today on their haunt, this time from a Bay Area newspaper.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19090010

Even if the haunt isn't in your area I think the story in general is something worth being aware of if you do or plan to do a haunt in your yard. And as I thought, a neighbor complained about it.

It doesn't sound like they were given any opportunity to come up to code and get a temporary permit. Sounds like temporary structures for weddings are okay but not a holiday display like this and they are differentiating between invited wedding guests and Trick or Treaters you are welcoming to your house (considering them "general public"). I would love to see the City of Fremont outline what a family can do around their house.

I know all cities have building codes that regulate what you construct in your yard and what qualifies for a structure. And I think everyone would agree you don't want something falling down on kids or catching on fire. Not sure if had they set up a maze of sorts, without an overhead "roof", if that would have been okay either. As someone who would like to expand beyond my driveway, sidewalk and front porch (if and when our seemingly never-ending landscaping project finishes, spoke to landscaper today and not in a good mood), all of this makes me wonder what can be done.

Doesn't it also make you wonder if they had until 10/26 to dismantle, why not 5 more days like 11/1?

Not to toot our own horns, but we are lucky enough in Romeo Michigan to have the entire street willingly participate. The city acknowledges this and even provides blockades to shut down the street on Halloween. That's really too bad about the haunted house getting closed down, but I can see the safety issue as well as the risk those homeowners take in regards to insurance. My display keeps everyone off my property and on the city owned sidewalk.

http://www.terrorontillson.com

This is sad... and ridiculous. It burns my a$$ that the gov't wastes so much time on things that are none of their business. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about things being safe. But when did we become so safe that we've become paranoid about everything?

And, I'd tell that complaining neighbor to kiss my sweat- soaked, prop- building buttocks. Everybody wants to enforce their 'rights'. Well, I have 'rights', too. They may have the 'right' to b!tch, but that 'right' ends at my ear.

This Haunt was doing a charity drive = A good thing for the community. The neighbor couldn't put up with a little inconvenience to help someone else. Shame on them. When little Johnny goes to bed hungry tonight, tell him to go bang on that neighbor's door for something to eat.

And the timing of this is quite suspicious. They've been building for 2-3 months and suddenly they have to shut it down and it has to be down nlt 5 days before H'ween. I smell a rat.

thank you. rant over...

5 days before Halloween is to limit them having anyone come to it before it has to be down. Again, I get a bit of the construction thing using hallways constructed of planks and pallets being a possible source of danger where you're scaring people who may hit it and not sure how steady it is. To me, the homeowner ought to be a bit concerned as well given the liability.

Although even if they constructed it of just ropes and plastic bags sounds like they'd run a fowl of this "general public" ordinance as well. Makes you wonder on that one how serving trick or treaters doesn't fall under it just having "general public" come to your door.