At first, the residents of the exclusive alley without a scale in West Lake Hills, Texas, did not know who had moved to the 6,900 square feet mansion and six rooms next door.
Then, construction workers arrived to erect a 16 -foot chain link fence around the property of $ 6 million, which is one of the four houses on Frondosa street. They also installed a camera oriented out. Then, a car fleet, many of them Teslas, began to park on the street. Three times a day, a change of turn pointed to the security personnel who went to the house. Once, the driver of a car that passed shouted late at night who was looking for a party in “E’s House”.
Nobody liked the shock, traffic, or the opening and closing of the door activated by the keyboard for workers and cars at all hours. So, even when they love mouth mouth that their new neighbor was Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who did not prevent some of them from complaining about the city of West Lake Hills about his mansion.
Since then, complaints have intensified in a Urro about the city’s ordinances, permits and exceptions know the variations, so much that the issue of Mr. Musk’s house landed in a dispute of the Moldia Zoning and Planning Commission last month. The debate is directed next to a session of the City Council of West Lake Hills, scheduled for May 14.
“The transport of service employees to other houses, leaving their cars in our quiet streets, transporting laundry from one place to another to other houses has to stop,” wrote Paul Hemmer, a main neighbor and demanding plaintiff, to the Zoning and Planning Commission. The letter was also signed by the occupants of the other two houses on the street.
In recent months, Mr. Musk, 53, has dragged his way through Washington, mocking the traditions of the long system and pirateing what he considered unnecessary of the Federal Agency. But in its own backyard outside Austin, the technological billionaire has become a maze of local regulations and bureaucracy. It seems that no one is rich enough to escape from the neighbors.
The magnates, including Mark Zuckerberg, have sometimes reached the limits of their wealth and connections in disagreements over their luxury homes. So has Mr. Musk done, which until now is losing against the municipal bureaucracy in West Lake Hills. He and his employees did not obtain permits for a metal door and the fence was built around the property, which makes the structure of chain links 10 feet that allowed, according to local records. In total, construction violated six city ordinances. After some neighbors protested, Mr. Musk’s team tried to obtain retroactive permission for the projects.
But Jim Pledger, one of the six commissioners in the West Lake Hills Zoning and Planning Commission, said he and his colleagues unanimously voted last month against the construction that the owner was careful not to appoint Mr. Musk, will be awarded variants for the projects. If an exception was made, Mr. Pledger said: “We would encourage people to break the rules.”
Unless the City Council does not agree with that decision, Mr. Musk faces the possibility of trying the fence and the door or changing them to comply with the rules of the cities.
Mr. Musk did not return comments requests. A house manager linked to property declined to comment.
The story of Mr. Musk in Texas is relatively recent. The technology tycoon, which supervises six activities, transferred the majority of its commercial operations to the State from California from 2021. He has stolen factories for his electric vehicle company, Tesla, his rocket company, Spacex and his Bastrop tunnel.
Mr. Musk also moved to Austin. Initially I wanted to build houses for them and their children (he has at least 13) in acres hunters that he bought there. After the plan failed, he looked at other properties.
In 2022, Mr. Musk bought the house of West Lake Hills through a limited liability company, which bears the name of the street where the property is located. The house is in the middle of a residential neighborhood at the bottom of approximately two acres of land inclined on a narrow public road, which makes security challenging.
“The castles are supposed to be built in hills, right?” Anne Yeakel said, a long resident of West Lake Hills who lives around the corner. “These were sophisticated buyers, and if security was the main directive, this was not the house for it.”
Mr. Musk and his staff did not appear to the neighbors. Few residents have seen it there. But the voice traveled quickly in the 3,400 community, and soon everyone knew he had moved.
“It is common knowledge here,” said Mrs. Yeakel.
The mansion was one of the three that Mr. Musk bought in the area in the last three years to create a complex for their children and mothers. At one point, Claire Boucher, known as the musician Grimes, lived with Mr. Musk and his three children at home. Shivon Zilis, a brain technology executive who has four children with Mr. Musk, lives 10 minutes on foot. Mr. Musk also bought another Tuscan -style mansion about a year ago.
The neighbors soon frustrated with the constant Baneo ship at home. They saw people who went and went with weapons, while the security team shot along with the security concerns of Mr. Musk. Although Texas has permissive weapons laws, the activity stood out.
“I call that place Fort Knox,” said Mr. Hemmer, a retired real estate agent who lives on the other side of the street and is president of the neighborhood neighborhood association.
The house was quieter on the days when Musk was not in the city, said the neighbors, especially in recent months, when he lived mainly in Washington to advise President Trump. Now residents are preparing for the return of Mr. Musk, after he said he would spend less time in the capital.
Some neighbors were particularly upset with the scarce fence in front of the mansion, as well as the giant metal door at the other end of the property, which seems to serve as an entry of employees.
Mr. Hemmer, who for a long time has had a Tesla, was frustrated so frustrated with his neighbor that he is a drone about the house to verify the rapes of the city, and maintains a video camera trained on the property throughout the day. Last year, we complained to West Lake Hills officials about Mr. Musk, traffic and how he thought the owner was operating a security business from the property.
Mr. Musk’s security team also contacted the West Lake Hills Police Department about Mr. Hemmer, according to the city records. A security official accused Mr. Hemmer last year of being naked in the street, according to the records.
Mr. Hemmer denied that he was naked and said he was on his property with black underwear. On another night, he said, he was walking through his car and stopped when he suddenly needed to urinate, that Mr. Musk’s camera captured.
“The cameras caught me,” said Hemmer. “I’m afraid that they have sitting boys and seeing me urinate.”
After repeated protest of Mr. Hemmer, West Lake Hills officials discovered that Mr. Musk had violated the city’s ordinances with the fence and the door. Last month, the Zoning and Planning Commission discussed whether it gives it variants for projects.
Before the meeting, Tisha Ritta, an expert of permits who works for the limited liability company of Mr. Musk, wrote a letter to the planning commission requesting relief from the city’s rules.
“As a high -profile public official, the property resident faces Ons security threats, which makes proactive security measures imperative,” he wrote to a copy of the letter. Mrs. Ritta did not respond to requests for comments.
Mr. Hemmer and other residents wrote their own letter to the Planning Commission, admonishing their neighbor for facilitating “bad behavior in our small and quiet alley.”
For a while, Mr. Musk seemed ready to win the battle of the neighborhood. Planning and zoning officials exceeded that their property is “variations of difficulties”, which would allow them to keep the fence and other projects with only small changes in the property, cordination to the city’s documents.
But at the planning meeting, the commissioners rejected Mr. Musk Las Variantes. When they are questioned more. Ritta, blamed a former house manager for not obtaining construction permits.
“Only with the owner of the property last year, and unfortunately they under the guidance of the Property Administrator,” he said, according to a recording of the meeting.
Mr. Hemmer also spoke at the meeting to say that he doubted that the owner had a wrong leg.
“If you follow it in the news, you are always guilty of building things and then asking permission later,” he said.
A commissioner, who was not identified in the recording, said he could not believe that West Lake Hills personnel had recommended that the owner receive some exception.
“I am amazed that the staff is presenting any son of suggestions that we bend based on who is asking,” he said.
The decision of the Planning Commission does not end the process. At the next meeting of the City Council of West Lake Hills, members must decide to stay with the recommendation of Commissioners about Mr. Musk’s mansion.
If the City Council votes against him, Mr. Musk could sue the city. And if that does not work, and gives its history in the support of the candidates, there is always the next local election.
Kirsten Noyes Contributed research.
