BRATENAHL, Ohio — The village Architectural Review Board on Tuesday, Nov. 10, approved privacy trees, shrubbery and fencing plans for the Lake Erie estate owned by Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, ending weeks of vocal back-and-forth among neighbors over the couple’s $5.35 million property at 12725 Lake Shore Blvd., according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
About 35 people turned out for the Nov. 10 meeting, Page Six reported, with neighbors speaking both for and against the plans, according to the Beacon Journal. The board had already approved a six-foot privacy fence for the property, Fox 8 News in Cleveland reported, and on Tuesday gave its OK to the privacy trees and shrubbery over the objections of some neighbors.
The property sits in Bratenahl, a small lakefront village a few miles east of downtown Cleveland and a short drive from Cleveland Heights, where Kelce grew up. The village’s housing stock is dominated by large estates along Lake Shore Boulevard, and changes to those properties — fences, landscaping, security features — go through the architectural review process like any other exterior work.
Security around the home has already been stepped up. The couple has installed an alarm that audibly warns people who get too close to the property, according to the Beacon Journal’s reporting on the meeting.
Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, and Swift married on July 3, 2026, in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York City, according to the Beacon Journal. Both Kelce brothers — Travis and Jason — grew up in Cleveland Heights and played for the Cincinnati Bearcats before their NFL careers, a Northeast Ohio root system that has made the Bratenahl purchase a regional story since it surfaced.
Neighbors who objected raised the familiar concerns that follow a high-profile buyer into a quiet village: visibility, precedent for tall fencing and dense screening on the lakefront, and the attention the address now draws. Supporters countered that the plantings and fence are the kind of privacy measures any homeowner on the boulevard could seek through the same board.
The approval means the landscaping and screening work can proceed under the village’s process. It does not end the attention: Northeast Ohio has spent the fall sorting fact from fiction around its famous residents and landmarks alike — most recently when the Akron Zoo had to debunk a fake AI photo claiming its lions had escaped.
Bratenahl’s review process is not unusual for the village, where estate properties along the lake are subject to design oversight meant to protect the character of the boulevard. What made Tuesday different was the audience: a routine landscaping application drew a crowd, outside media attention, and a neighborhood argument about where one owner’s privacy ends and a community’s openness begins.
The fence approval came first, in an earlier round of review, and the plantings followed the same path. Village records treat each element — fence height, tree placement, shrubbery — as its own decision, which is why the estate’s plans have arrived before the board in pieces over several weeks, according to the Beacon Journal.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the board approved the privacy trees and shrubbery on Nov. 10, a six-foot fence was approved earlier, and roughly 35 residents attended, according to the Beacon Journal and Page Six. What we’re still waiting on: the planting schedule for the approved screening and whether any further exterior plans for the estate come before the board.
What happens next is in the village’s hands and the landscapers’. The approved trees and shrubs go in under the board’s conditions, and any additional work at 12725 Lake Shore Blvd. returns to the same review process that played out on Tuesday night.