BEL AIR—Residents, including actor Jennifer Aniston, are fighting against real estate developers building new giga-mansions in their neighborhoods.
Large amounts of land or existing mansions are being bought and demolished to build gigantic properties. Residents believe giga-mansions, some as big as 90,000 square feet, take up too much space and cause disturbances for current inhabitants. Most of the properties are being purchased by locals, but it is estimated that around 30-40 percent are bought by foreign buyers. Some of the buyers include a Qatari client with an 80,000 square-foot property and Saudi Arabian prince Abdul Aziz who claims an 85,000 Spanish colonial square-foot estate.
“The very idea that a building of 90,000 square feet can be called a home seems at the least a significant distortion of building code,” Jennifer Aniston told ABC News.
Residents are reportedly worried that the building of the gigantic homes would bring months and months of construction, along with constant noise and safety issues. The giga-mansions, some with walls towering almost 67 feet, which is beyond building codes that are currently set at a 36 feet limit. This presents privacy issues according to some residents. Entertainment lawyer Joe Horacek’s own home is being towered by a new giga-mansion construction. The property is being developed by real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, ex-husband of “Real Housewife of Beverly Hills” star, Yolanda Foster.
His 30,000-square-feet Beverly Hills development boast a vast floor plan, and 103-feet-tall walls. The city did issue a stop work order for Hadidi’s construction after inspectors discovered unapproved features were in the plans but construction was restarted once Hadidi agreed to revert back to his original construction plans.
“I feel the privacy is completely and totally gone,” Horacek told Nightline in a recent interview.
A new Homeowner’s Alliance’s petition, initiated by Ticketmaster magnate Fred Rosen, is reportedly working to pass two ordinances to help concerned residents.
“The excavation and hauling of dirt has been the single largest risk to the health and safety of residents in Bel Air and is endured on a day to day basis on our city streets. The result of the digging and hauling is that we have literally thousands of unsafe truck trips up and down our narrow streets and roads placing residents in danger,” the petition states.
