The Long Weekend’s elevated playground dispute heads to court over children’s safety fears.
Wes Wilson
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.”
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Fontenot is seeking an emergency temporary restraining order that would stop the playground from being used until the safety concerns are addressed.
Long Weekend’s elevated playground in Shady Acres is at the center of a lawsuit alleging the tree-supported structure poses a “catastrophic” safety risk to children.
Special to Chron
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.
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Fontenot, who says he has nearly 20 years of experience in environmental planning and land development, relies heavily on arborist opinions in his filing. According to the petition, a total of three master arborists were consulted, one who found the water oak had Ganoderma root rot and said that the tree “will break at the ground and fall over in the near future [and] can’t stress enough how dangerous this situation is,” adding that the surrounding area should be fenced off as a “deadly drop zone.”
Restaurant pushes back on claims
Long Weekend, through its legal counsel, opposed the emergency relief on Tuesday, calling Fontenot’s claims overblown, “his premonition [of children getting hurt] is no more likely to happen than any other playground tragedy.”
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Long Weekend’s elevated playground in Shady Acres is at the center of a lawsuit alleging the tree-supported structure poses a “catastrophic” safety risk to children.
Special to Chron
“Children only gain entry with their parents in tow and, as a rule, parents are pretty good supervisors,” their response said.
In addition to asking the judge to throw out the case altogether, attorneys also mention Fontenot “has been harassing Long Weekend to such an extent that the police had to be notified.”
Days after Chron published its story about Fontenot and his neighbors voicing their concerns, attorneys for Long Weekend issued a stinging “Notice of Trespass” to the residents we spoke to.
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In the letter obtained by Chron, attorneys accused Fontenot of a “practiced disruption” of business and claimed the neighbors have been making “false reviews on social media sites” to try and sabotage the new family-friendly hangout. They have not responded to Chron’s several requests for comment.
Fontenot fired back at Long Weekend’s legal comments on Wednesday, doubling down on his initial petition that the restaurant is not taking the safety concerns seriously, and even in their response, were unable to produce their own arborist report, engineering opinion, or expert inspection showing the trees were safe for current use.
A hearing is expected to determine whether Long Weekend’s play structure can continue operating while the case moves forward, but an exact date has not been shared yet.
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