Novak Manor seeks special‑event permit for haunted house; neighbors raise safety and parking concerns

Steve Sher, director of City Planning and Zoning, presented a public‑hearing staff report on a special‑event permit and zoning exception request for Novak Manor, a seasonal haunted attraction at 9730 West Montana Avenue. Sher said the property is primarily residentially zoned but the municipal code includes a special exception for theater‑type event operations; staff said an operational plan and site plan were submitted.

Sher described the event as using a tent, the garage and yard, with patrons staging on the sidewalk and being routed into the property. The event will feature live actors and animatronics; Sher said the applicant planned a temporary occupancy permit and four refuse containers on site. Staff described the event as Fridays and Saturdays for multiple weekends beginning late September and concluding on Halloween; hours were listed as 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and no makeup dates are planned. Sher said there is no food vending, transient merchants or alcohol proposed.

The neighborhood testimony included concerns about safety, traffic and nuisance behavior outside posted event hours. Mary Bridal, a neighbor at 9800 West Montana Avenue, said props currently are being staged inside the fence well before the scheduled event dates and said visitors were entering the maze during off hours. She cited noise late at night and said a large sign placed on the northeast corner of the Novak property obstructed drivers’ sightlines when stopping at the intersection of 90 Eighth Street and Montana Avenue. “I had to inch forward past the stop sign until the view up the street was clear,” Bridal said, and she asked that any future signage be moved to avoid obstructing the legal stop line.

Bridal proposed temporary snow‑fence screening or “no trespassing” signs during non‑active hours, and asked for no‑parking signs on Montana Avenue near her driveway during the haunted‑house season so she could place garden brush at the curb for city collection without it being compacted by parked cars. She also recommended increased police patrols during event nights to address exhibition driving and pedestrian safety.

Peggy Hertel, another neighbor three houses away, said the Novaks have been responsive historically and recommended one‑sided parking or a temporary stop sign for event nights, citing heavy pedestrian traffic and difficulty entering driveways.

Adam Novak, owner and operator of Novak Manor, thanked the council for last year’s approval and said the 2024 permit enabled more than 8,000 visitors who donated about $13,000 to local causes, including roughly $8,000 to bikers advocating child safety, $2,200 to the Junior Bulldogs and $2,000 to a local family, as he described it. Novak asked the council to approve a permit again and said last year produced no city or police complaints.

Sher said the planning department had received no formal objections to the published public hearing notice to date and that the planning commission’s prior record showed neighborhood support in the previous year. The public hearing closed after several neighbors spoke; no formal council vote on the permit was recorded on the floor that evening.

Ending: The city left the public hearing record open only for that session; staff noted the application included a temporary occupancy permit and operational plan and said if the permit is approved the applicant must comply with the temporary occupancy conditions and any restrictions imposed by the council or permitting staff.