Popular haunted house in West Allis benefits a nonprofit, but city says it can't continue
Patty and Adam Novak have been running the Novak Manor in West Allis for more than a decade. The 7,000-square-foot attraction draws in thousands of brave Halloweengoers each year. But on Oct. 16, Patty Novak shared a video on Facebook stating the Novak Manor would not be continuing after this year.
“Unfortunately these last two weekends will be our last," she said in the post. "I don’t want to get into a whole lot of detail right now, we will at the end of the season, but the city is not allowing us to continue.”
Posted by Patty Lord-Novak on Monday, October 16, 2023
City attorney in West Allis explains why the haunted house cannot continue after the 2023 season
When contacted by the Journal Sentinel about the reason for the city's stance, West Allis City Attorney Kail Decker said the Novaks properly submitted documents for the attraction, but "those documents just didn't authorize them to run a haunted house," he said. "That permit authorized them to obstruct the right-of-way for a display."
Decker said the permit application for 9730 W. Montana Ave. said "the display is around the house in the yard surrounding the property" and "it's not clear from the application that this was a haunted house and not just a display."
The Novaks were shocked by the amount of support they were receiving in the community after the video had been posted on Facebook.
"I did not expect the crazy outpouring of support," said Patty Novak, "I guess I didn't know how much we were loved."The Novak Manor has been a popular attraction in West Allis over the last decade. About 7,000 to 8,000 guests attend the spooky attraction each year in October, according to the Novaks.
Attendance has multiplied for the haunted house since the announcement it would be closing following the 2023 Halloween season. The house is filled with tons of spooky things such as a haunted hospital, clowns, unexpected windows and doors closing and "Halloween's" Michael Myers hanging in front of the house in an old police squad car; all for an affordable price.
"Obviously, we know not everybody loves Halloween like we do," said Patty Novak. "So that's okay, and we understand that. We have tried to work with people in the past who don't love it as much as us, and thankfully it's worked out very well."
Volunteers and neighbors also are around to help monitor the crowds. It's fun not only for visitors but for the people who help run the attraction as well.
"Our actors are amazing," she said. "They work with the kids. Most of our actors are from Bikers Advocating Child Safety, and then some friends and family thrown in there too, but they know how to work with the kids. That's what they do. They work with abused and bullied kids. So they are amazing. They take their masks off if the kids are scared, if they have a glow stick ― glow stick means don't scare the kid. That's what we came up with."
Bikers Advocating Child Safety is a nonprofit organization located in Waukesha that started in 2020. Their mission is to deliver support to the children and families in need.
There were no fines issued to the Novak family and no enforcement action would be taken against the Novak Manor, according to Decker. There were also no reported safety concerns.
"I spoke with Patty last week Monday and decided that this issue was caused by an honest misunderstanding," said Decker. "The Novaks thought they were doing things correctly. For that reason, I exercised discretion and decided that no enforcement action would be appropriate and we'd just focus on compliance in the future."
Why the Novaks' permit was denied by the City of West Allis
In West Allis, the Novak Manor is in an RA-2 zone, a zone intended for neighborhoods with primarily detached dwellings on moderate-sized lots. The use of the property in this area constitutes an event space or theater under WAMC 19.16, according to the City of West Allis. Under WAMC 19.32, this type of use is not allowed in an RA-2 district.
The City of West Allis provided three solutions to resolve the situation:
Scale back the operation to just a display from the same location.
Keep the operation the same and move it to a location that is zoned to allow an event space or theater.
Keep the operation the same at the same location and amend the law to allow event space or theater in an RA-2 zone.
The Novaks shared their thoughts on the solutions West Allis provided. They prefer the last option:
"That's what we're hopeful for. We're cautiously optimistic that would be ideal for us, and again, we are more than willing to work with the city on whatever needs to be done for that. We're more than willing to work with our neighbors. Thankfully, we are so lucky. Even in the past two nights that we've been out here, dozens upon dozens of neighbors have come out."
They shared the first solution is too commercial as they don't want to take funding away from the volunteers from the organizations they donate to, and they believe the second solution would cause chaos in the road outside the house.
The Novaks also do not plan on filing an official business license for the Novak Manor as they said it would only allow one person on their property, which would not let them to do what they want to do.
"Our big thing is that we want to finish the season strong," Patty Novak said. "And because there's been such a huge media and huge social presence, we want to make sure that everybody coming out is respectful of our neighbors, respectful of the displays, and just is here to have a good time."
The Novaks are hopeful to resolve the situation with the City of West Allis and want things to remain as peaceful as possible.
"We want to be respectful, we want to try to work with them, and we don't want anybody who wants to support us. Reach out to them, tell them your thoughts and your opinions, but do so in a respectful manner. We don't want anybody being angry and mean about it."
The Novak Manor will have its final Halloween run for the season this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 27-28 from 6 to 10 p.m. A petition was created to support the Novak Manor, it currently has over 3,500 signatures. The Novaks are also asking the public to share their experiences from the Novak Manor by emailing Novakmanor@gmail.com.
Contact Adrienne Davis at amdavis@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @AdriReportss.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A West Allis haunted house won't be allowed to continue. Here's why.
