Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Bratenahl neighbor Katherine Bolton has publicly warned of “catastrophic sewer backups” if the couple plants evergreens near a shared sewage line, according to village planning meeting transcripts.
Bolton, who has lived next door for more than three decades, told fellow attendees at a Tuesday meeting that she was quoted $75,000 to line the aging pipe against root intrusion. She confirmed the mansion had been “recently purchased by Travis Kelce,” the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 37, after an LLC linked to him acquired the lakefront property in March.
The singer, 36, and Kelce wed in July, and their security-motivated landscaping plans have drawn sustained pushback from residents who call the couple “absentee” owners dealing a “tremendous blow” to community peace.
Bolton directed pointed questions at the couple’s long-term intentions during the session. “This applicant may decide to sell her house next year, maybe move on and buy another house,” she fumed.
She continued: “What am I going to do when I have 50 evergreen trees on my sewer line, and they’re gone? And I’m still living here in Bratenahl.”
Chuck Bauernschmidt, who lives two doors down, raised separate objections about the property’s altered landscape. He attacked what he called “ridiculous … clear cutting of the shrubbery and everything else,” claiming “all the trees are gone” and voicing bizarre fears that deer would impale themselves on the planned fence.
Jacob Kutz of Tiny Construction, the couple’s planner, defended Swift and Kelce at the meeting. He explained they were simply “looking for privacy and security … after one of the largest sales in Cuyahoga County.”
Kutz noted the original proposal had already been compromised down from an eight-foot perimeter fence to a six-foot version that stops short of Lake Erie. The Bratenahl Architectural Review Board had signed off on that six-foot fence in September.
Kutz listed specific conciliatory steps the stars had taken “just to show that [they’re] good neighbors.” These included having the shared sewage line jetted and cleaned “without asking for help,” and adding a gate for Bauernschmidt after he felt “closed off.”
The board did approve landscaping in front of the estate at Tuesday’s meeting, though a third revised plan will be presented at a future session.
Security measures at the property have escalated since the purchase. Reports said in September that the couple installed a warning alarm to alert anyone “getting too close to the house.”
The Bratenahl estate, valued at approximately $5 million, represents one piece of an extensive real estate portfolio spanning Kansas, New York, Tennessee, Rhode Island and California.
The couple’s Ohio neighbors first attempted to block the fencing and tree-planting plans at a village planning meeting last month, with transcripts showing residents framed the celebrity presence as disruptive to the lakeside community’s character.
The dispute centers on a tension between the high-profile couple’s need for privacy protections and longtime residents’ concerns about environmental and aesthetic impacts on a shared shoreline property.
A future Bratenahl Architectural Review Board meeting will consider the couple’s third revised plan for the estate.