Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s plans for idyllic new home REJECTED: Showdown between newlyweds and neighbors who want to maintain quaint lakeside village

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s plans to fence off their new $5.35 million lakeside Ohio mansion have hit a wall – with village planners twice picking up the application and twice failing to sign it off, the Daily Mail can reveal. 

The couple have been trying to create a private oasis at the luxury Lake Erie estate by erecting a higher fence – and recently installed a new warning alarm to protect their new digs from prying eyes. 

The fence was first slipped onto the Bratenahl Architectural Review Board’s agenda back on August 11, a day after that agenda had already been published.

But it then resurfaced on September 8 under old business, meaning the board had looked over the plans and walked away without making a decision.

Now, as the fence ordeal continues to stretch out, the Daily Mail can reveal how the village’s own rulebook is ultimately stacked against the newlyweds – proving that even one of the most famous couples on the planet isn’t above a neighborhood spat.  

Fences along the idyllic lakefront are required to be capped at just two and a half feet, unless they are at least 75 percent see-through, the rules state. 

The code spells out exactly why: the restriction exists to protect ‘the shoreline, views of Lake Erie and property values’. 

Kelce bought the property through an LLC in March and was initially lobbying for an 8ft fence around the property, which would go against the code.

After some discussions with the village and neighbors, they were convinced to lower the height and conceded that they did not need a fence around the entire property.

A village official confirmed to the Daily Mail that a new permit for the fence has been submitted.

Separately, the singer and Kansas City Chiefs tight end recently set up a voice warning system around their new home to keep anyone passing by from getting too close, Page Six reported.

‘A neighbor approached the house and got a voice warning about not passing onto the property after getting too close to the house,’ a neighbor living nearby said. 

Despite the attempts to turn it into a secret sanctum, Kelce will still have to come back to get approval for any landscaping around the property in October but an exact meeting date is yet to be set, records show. 

Officials added that ‘he the applicant’, though didn’t refer to Kelce by name, had been ‘gracious’ while trying to work with the village.

Before the village building commissioner can issue any permit for works, the board is required to approve the design – and just one letter from a single neighbor is enough to stop the whole thing in its tracks.  

For Taylor and Travis, only two properties actually touch their new 3.5-acre estate, and both share more than 600 feet of boundary with it.

Three more households sit directly across the road and are also entitled to object under the village code.

But more awkwardly for the couple, both of their direct neighbors have been here before.

In 2023, the neighbors each filed written objections to a pool fence at the same address that is now owned by the Swift and her Kansas City Chiefs tight end husband. 

They then turned up in person and argued it out in front of the same board for the best part of an hour.

Both neighbors still own their homes, according to records, making it highly unlikely that their opinions on the matter will have changed.

Minutes obtained by the Daily Mail reveal exactly what was said when the issue was argued in 2023.

Eric Stephenson, who bought the house on the northeast side for $782,000 in 2018, brought photographs taken from his own dining room to prove the view he stood to lose.

‘Part of the beauty of living in there is that it’s open space where you can look and we’re all one yard,’ he told the board at the time.

‘When I walk out my backyard, I like to see sight lines. I like to see the lake. So if I’m looking through a fence, it seems restrictive. It also constricts my property.’

‘If you take a walk back there, it looks like one giant property. And that’s one thing we enjoy and one thing we really want to hold dear to our hearts and keep.’

He went further, insisting: ‘I didn’t buy a house with a fence there and I didn’t buy a house with that view. And to have my land cut off, that’s not what I originally bought.’

‘It does affect the aesthetics and it will affect my value and it will affect my property, so I’m going to fight for that as much as I can.’

On the other side is the Bolton family, who have owned their home since 1990. Katherine Bolton told the board she and her husband Bill had been in the village for 32 years.

‘One of the wonderful things about Bratenahl are the open vistas and the view lines,’ she said. ‘And I think there’s a big open space that should be preserved. And I think that we should try to do everything we can to maintain that integrity of the historic character of the Village.’

‘We’re all stewards of our homes,’ she added. ‘We’re curators, really.’

Her husband, meanwhile, is no ordinary neighbor. 

Bill Bolton is a former president of Bratenahl village council, a fact his wife put on the record at that same meeting with the village solicitor sitting feet away.

The 2023 dispute was not, however, the same fight. 

That fence was a safety barrier the village was forcing on the property around a newly built pool, and the owner did not want it either.

The board approved it anyway, by two votes to one, over the neighbors’ objections.

Still, it leaves Taylor and Travis in the harder position of the two. 

Back in 2023, the owner and the neighbors were on the same side. This time the owner wants the fence, while the neighbors, code and the board all stand in the way.

The previous owner of the property was a Middleburg Heights construction firm, which bought the mansion for $1.95 million in March 2023. 

After restoring the gatehouse, adding a heated pool and a bluestone patio, the property was sold in March for $5.35 million.

The house, which was solely bought by Kelce, was put into an LLC created for the specific property. It was incorporated in Ohio on February 26 this year and used to buy the property seven days later. 

The 21,000-square-foot house has eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and a two-bedroom guest cottage. Built in 1895, it features a ballroom that has been converted into a game room and home theater.

The village has not published minutes for either the August or September meeting, so the exact details surrounding the new request for a fence are currently unclear.

The Daily Mail reached out to Swift, Kelce and Bratenahl’s building commissioner for comment.