Fred Flintstone and a menagerie of dinosaurs can stay on the lawn of the landmark Flintstone House, thanks to a settlement between owner Florence Fang and the ultra-wealthy Bay Area town of Hillsborough.
As reported by Palo Alto’s Daily Post, Fang will receive $125,000 as part of the terms of the settlement agreement and will be allowed to keep the changes she made to the property, including large metal dinosaurs, life-sized sculptures of Flintstones characters, and a “Yabba Dabba Do” sign.
In March 2019, Hillsborough filed a complaint calling the outdoor decorations “a highly visible eyesore and are out of keeping with community standards” after Fang didn’t adhere to three stop-work orders.
Related Video
“Most of the residents that I talk to are concerned that if we don’t enforce our permit-and-review process for a project like this, then people can build whatever they want wherever they want, and the town will lose its character,” Assistant City Attorney Mark Hudak told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time.
One month later, Fang filed a countersuit claiming she had been discriminated against based on race. At an April 2019 press conference held at the house, Fang’s attorney Angela Alioto pointed out there were likely other residents who didn’t get permits for their statues or renovations but didn’t receive the same treatment from the town because they aren’t Chinese.
The 2010 Census reported Hillsbourough’s population was 66 percent white and 28 percent Asian. It was ranked as the fifth wealthiest town in the US by Bloomberg in 2019.
Fang will drop the countersuit as part of the settlement agreement, which states the $125,000 is “solely to cover expenses incurred by Fang related to the lawsuit, and shall not be as a payment related to any claim for discrimination.”
Designed by architect William Nicholson, the Flintstone House was constructed in 1976 and has been a point of interest visible from I-280’s Doran Memorial Bridge for the past four decades. Fang purchased the house in 2017 and started making the outdoor improvements, catching the attention of a city staffer who reported the work.
The town council unanimously approved the settlement on April 12th, but no announcement was made due to a gag order on the fourth page of the lawsuit stipulating neither side could reach out to the press.
