The neighborhood fight over Long Weekend’s elevated playground has moved from backyard complaints to a Harris County courtroom, where a nearby homeowner is asking a judge to temporarily shut down what he describes as a dangerous, tree-supported jungle gym posing an “imminent risk of catastrophic bodily injury or death.”
In a lawsuit filed last Wednesday, Richard Fontenot, a longtime Shady Acres resident, alleges Long Weekend attached and loaded an elevated rope-and-play structure onto two boundary trees shared with his property—creating what his filings described as an “imminent risk of catastrophic bodily injury or death to children using the structure if either the trees or the attached apparatus fails.”
Fontenot is seeking an emergency temporary restraining order that would stop the playground from being used until the safety concerns are addressed.
The request marks a sharp escalation in a dispute Chron first reported in March, when nearby residents, including Fontenot, complained that the playground allowed children to look into neighboring yards and homes while also contributing to noise and privacy concerns.
Property line and tree ownership at issue
Notably, the filing states the requested order is not intended to force ”removal, disassembly, rebuilding, fencing installation, or tree removal,” but is focused purely on safety concerns tied to the two boundary trees—a water oak and an Arizona ash—that Fontenot says sit partly on both properties. His petition says an April 15 survey placed portions of each trunk on both sides of the property line, which he argues gives him a real-property interest in the trees…