San Fran neighbors in heated 15-year feud over row of windows, view-blocking ‘spite wall’

A pair of San Francisco neighbors have been engaged in a bitter 15-year legal feud – over a row of windows offering a gorgeous view of the bay that one resident claims encroaches on her property.

Legal actions, troves of planning documents, a restraining order and even a so-called view-blocking “spite wall” have consumed the ongoing battle between Teresa Votruba and Bushra Khan that erupted in 2010 when Khan moved into the neighborhood, the San Francisco Chronicle reported over the weekend.

Khan, a 69-year-old retiree, lives in a condo at 280 Union Street with 11 east-facing small rectangular windows that look out onto a neighbor’s deck, but also provide sights of Treasure Island and the surrounding water.

Votruba, whose family owns several units in a building next door at 218 Union Street in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood, has fought to either block those windows or remove them, leading to more than three dozen complaints with the city’s building department, the newspaper reported.

At one point, Khan reportedly said her windows were covered with plywood, black tarps and other items without her permission, according to court records. Her windows were plastered with various signs, including “Neighborhood Watch” and “Abate Nuisance.”

“This is an emotionally charged case that seemingly means a lot to both parties,” Planning Department Chief of Staff Dan Snider told the Chronicle.

“You can feel the passion, the emotion and the concern from everyone involved.”

The conflict has been so tense that Khan was granted a restraining order against Votruba, 76, in 2015 after her lawyer argued Votruba pointed “surveillance cameras” at the windows and put up posters that were “threatening” and “intimidating,” the Chronicle reported.

The restraining order was recently renewed for another three years.

“It’s relentless,” Khan told the outlet. “It’s been going on and on and on.”

Votruba has claimed Khan’s windows and exterior encroach on her property because the wall and windows stretch over to her property line by 3.12 inches, according to court filings.

She also reportedly accused Khan of “driving me off this planet,” insisting she was facing harassment, per court docs reported on by the Chronicle. She tried getting a restraining order against Khan in 2021, but a judge called the legal action “not credible.”

In an email to the Chronicle, she said the windows were covered when Khan purchased the home.

She claimed the windows were not permitted a few months after the condo was bought, though a retroactive permit was reportedly obtained by Khan in 2011.

The two have gone back and forth over the last several years, but Votruba clinched a win recently when the planning department green lit her plan to build a 42-inch fire barrier on her deck that Khan and other supporters in the neighborhood call a “spite wall.”

City officials determined the wall meets building code, though Khan is appealing the decision.

Two other times Votruba put up shorter makeshift walls that were reportedly taken down after the city got involved.

While Khan has considered selling the home, she’d be forced to divulge the ongoing battle, which would lead to a lower sale price. She bought the unit in 2010 for $900,000.

“This is my retirement home. I think about it every day. I get depressed. I feel like I have no options,” Khan told the outlet. “But I can’t live like this. I have wasted my retirement.”