Owner of California 'Flintstone House' Vows to Fight to Save It: 'I think the dinosaurs are beautiful,' says grandson
The owner of a bulbous, multicolored property dotted with dinosaurs, dubbed the Flintstone House, has vowed to keep her home intact by fighting a lawsuit from local officials.
Hillsborough, California, last week sued owner Florence Fang, demanding she tear down features including the metal dinosaurs on the lawn of her orange and purple Bedrock-esque house, as well as a huge driveway sign emblazoned with the words "Yabba Dabba Doo," The New York Times reported.
The house, originally built in the mid-1970s, was fashioned out of wire mesh, a steel frame and spray-on concrete, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Fang, a media mogul now in her mid-80s, bought the home in the hills of San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area for a reported $2.8 million in 2017, according to San Francisco Curbed.
Besides the dinosaurs and the sign featuring Fred Flintstone's catchphrase from the 1960s TV cartoon series, her renovations included adding a deck, staircase and parking area to the property's gardens, the Associated Press reported.
The response from local officials was "Yabba, dabba, don't." Last fall, the members of the town's Administrative Hearing Panel concluded that the changes, which can be seen from the nearby Interstate 280, "create highly visible eyesore and are out of keeping with community standards," according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The authorities fined Fang $200 and told her to take down the offending objects by December. But she ignored the order and was given a second warning in January 2018 and a third in August of that year.
Some of the changes "created live-safety hazards that required immediate correction to protect visitors to the property," according to the complaint filed in a state superior court. The lawsuit also claims Fang did not file for planning permission or permits to update the house, "except for a very limited permit for a low wall in the front of the property." According to officials, Fang uses the property solely for parties, ABC 7 reported.
Fang could not be reached for comment and has not spoken to media outlets since the lawsuit was filed. Her grandson Sean Fang said in a statement acquired by the Associated Press: "I think the dinosaurs are beautiful. They make everyone smile and should stay."
But some locals don't agree. Mark Hudak, a lawyer for Hillsborough who wrote the complaint, told the New York Times: "It is one thing to spot this house when driving by on the freeway; you might find it amusing. It is a different thing to be a neighbor and see it all day, every day."
