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Actor Patrick Bauchau says that the architecture police can't see the forest for the trees.
Not so, retort those patrolling the street in front of his Hollywood home. They can't see Bauchau's house because of the trees.
That describes the brouhaha over the thicket of trellises and trees in Bauchau's yard that has neighbors choosing sides in the Whitley Heights section of the Hollywood Hills.
The star of the television series "The Pretender" has been ordered to remove landscaping and latticework that block the view of his 78-year-old Mediterranean-style house from passersby.
The edict has come from the keen-eyed protectors of the Whitley Heights Historical Preservation Zone, the regulatory group that for seven years has jealously guarded the architectural purity of the area's 196 homes.
Too jealously, according to some who live in the hilltop community southeast of the Hollywood Bowl.
Want to repaint your house, add a room or install security bars on your windows? Don't make a move without the board's OK. Residents who don't follow the rules run the risk of being hauled into court by the Los Angeles city attorney's office.
That's where Bauchau seemed to be headed after warm spring weather caused the 3,000 plants in his front-yard garden to sprout dramatically this year.
Vegetable plants blossomed next to redwood lattice panels scattered over Bauchau's steeply sloping yard. Wisteria vines began snaking up wood-framed gazebos he had built. The leafy branches of fruit trees and dense shrubs shot skyward.
The growth was soon starting to hide the ornate front of the villa-like house, built in 1921 and considered one of Whitley Heights' most prominent structures.
The review board ordered Bauchau to do some pruning. Bauchau was outraged. He had planted the garden and built the trellises for privacy, he said. And for the enjoyment...