October 12, 2020 4:42PM 

# Treehouse Terror 

By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) 

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They’ve caught all the thieves and rapists in Fairfax County, Virginia, and now it’s full steam ahead against the other big menace to suburban tranquility: 9‑year-old girls and their treehouses.

The Annandale blog [reports](https://annandaleva.blogspot.com/2020/10/annandale-family-fights-to-keep.html) that Erwan Dapoigny built a treehouse in May for his daughter Ana’s ninth birthday. But Ana and her friends were having so much fun they were terrorizing the entire neighborhood. The government had to put a stop to it. Fairfax County sent the family “a letter saying they need to pay a $913 fee and get special approval to keep the treehouse – or they will have to tear it down in 30 days.”

The Wakefield Weekly [says](https://wakefieldweekly.substack.com/p/family-on-holborn-fights-to-keep) that Fairfax demanded the family either “remove the treehouse within 30 days, relocate it to the back yard, or apply for and obtain a special permit. Failure to comply, it says, could result in court-ordered sanctions or civil penalties—$200 for the first citation and $500 for subsequent citations.”

But Ana is in a commanding position atop her fortress and fighting back. She has launched a [Change​.org](https://www.change.org/p/holborn-neighbors-save-ana-s-tree-house?recruiter=1152397554&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive&recruited_by_id=046b59a0-0360-11eb-b88a-0f2ff57b36b6) counterattack, so this battle may have just begun.

![s](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2020-10/treehouse%20ana.png?itok=zLMxtu1t) 

##### Related Tags 

[Energy and Environment](https://www.cato.org/research/energy-environment), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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