Initially, residents of the luxury CUL-de-SAC in West Lake Hills, Texas, did not know who had moved to the 6,900 square foot, six bedrooms mansion next door.
Subsequently, construction workers arrived to set up a 16-foot chain link around the real estate of $ 6 million, one of the four houses in the Leafy Street. They also installed an outward -oriented camera. Then a fleet of cars – many of them Teslas – began to park on the street. Three times a day a change in shift indicated that security personnel came and went to the house. Once the driver of a passing car shouted late at night that he was looking for a party in 'E's house'.
Nobody loved the commotion, or the traffic, or the keyboard-activated gate to open and close for employees and cars at all hours. So even when they learned through mouth -mouth advertising that their new neighbor Elon was Musk, the world's richest man, who did not stop some of them from growing to the city of West Lake Hills over his country house.
The complaints have since escalated in a commotion about city regulations, permits and exceptions that are known as variants – so much so much that Mr. Musk's house has landed in a controversial destination and planning committee last month. In addition to a municipal session in West Lake Hills, the debate is planned for 14 May.
“Transport employees from services to other houses, leave their cars in our quiet streets, drag the laundry to other houses, must stop,” wrote Paul Hemmer, a neighbor and the most important complainant, to the zoning plans and planning committee. The letter was also signed by the occupants of the other two houses on the street.
In recent months, Mr. Musk, 53, his way Bulldozed by Washington, long -term established traditions and hacking spoke about what he considered unnecessary federal bureaucracy. But in his own backyard outside Austin, the tech billionaire has become entangled in a maze of local regulations and bureaucracy. Nobody, it seems, is rich enough to escape from the neighbors.
Moguls, including Mark Zuckerberg, have sometimes reached the limits of their wealth and connections in disagreements about their luxury houses. This also applies to Mr. Musk, who has been losing the municipal bureaucracy in West Lake Hills so far. He and his employees have not obtained permits for a metal gate and the fence that was built around the building, making the chain link structure 10 feet longer than was allowed, showed local records. In total, the construction has violated six city ordinances. After some neighbors protested, Mr. Musk's team with retroactive effect tried to get permission for the projects.
But Jim Pedger, one of the six commissioners of the West Lake Hills Zoning and Planning Commission, said that he and his colleagues unanimously voted against recommending the homeowner last month – he made sure he would not call Mr. Musk – variants for the projects. If an exception was made, Mr. Pedger said, “We would encourage people to break the rules.”
Unless the city council does not agree with that decision, Mr. Musk confronted with the prospect of breaking down or changing the fence and gate to comply with the rules of the city.
Mr. Musk has not sent any requests for comments. A house manager linked to the property refused to give commentary.
The history of Mr. Musk in Texas is relatively recent. The Tech -Mogul, which supervises six companies, moved the majority of its business activities from California to the state around 2021. He has built factories for his electric vehicle company, Tesla, his rocket company, SpaceX, and his tunneling company, the boring company, around Austin and Banden.
Mr. Musk also brought himself to Austin. He initially wanted to build houses for himself and his children (he has at least 13) on hundreds of hectares he bought there. After the plan had fallen, he looked at other characteristics.
In 2022, Mr. Musk Het West Lake Hills -Huis through a company with limited liability, which is named after the street where the building is located. The house is located in the middle of a residential area at the bottom of about two hectares of a sloping land of a narrow public road, making safety challenging.
“Castles are supposed to be built on hills, right?” said Anne Yeakel, an old resident of West Lake Hills who lives around the corner. “These were advanced buyers, and if security was the most important guideline, this was not the house before.”
Mr. Musk and his staff have not introduced themselves to the neighbors. Few residents have seen him there. But the word quickly traveled in the 3,400 community, and soon everyone knew he had been withdrawn.
“It's generally known here,” said Mrs. Yeakel.
The country house was one of the three that Mr. Musk has bought in the area for the past three years to create a compound for his children and their mothers. At one point Claire Boucher, known as the musician Grimes, lived with Mr. Musk and their three children in the house. Shivon Zilis, a director of Brain Technology who has four children with Mr. Musk, lives a 10 -minute walk. Mr. Musk also bought another Mansion in Tuscan style about a year ago.
Buren soon became frustrated by the constant bustle in the house. They saw people coming and went with gunholsters, while the security team together with the safety problems of Mr. Musk Ballon. Although Texas has permissible weapons laws, the activity noticed.
“I call that place Fort Knox,” said Mr. Hemmer, a retired broker who lives on the other side and is president of the Neighborhood homeowners Association.
The house was quieter on days that Mr. Musk was not in the city, neighbors said, especially in recent months, when he lived mainly in Washington to advise President Trump. Now residents are braced for the return of Mr. Musk, after he said he would spend less time in the capital.
Some neighbors became particularly irritated by the colossal fence in front of the country house, as well as the gigantic metal gate on the other side of the building, which seems to serve as an entrance to employees.
Mr Hemmer, who has long had a Tesla, was so frustrated with his neighbor that he was starting to fly a drone over the house to check for city violations, and he holds a video camera around the clock on the site. Last year he complained to officials of West Lake Hills about the fence of Mr. Musk, the traffic and how he thought the owner was operating a security company from the building.
Mr. Musk's security team also contacted the police of West Lake Hills about Mr Hemmer, according to city registers. A security officer accused Mr Hemmer of nude on the street last year, according to the records.
Mr Hemmer denied that he was naked and said he was on his property in black underwear. On another night, he said, he was completely dressed and stopped his dog when he suddenly had to urinate – who was the camera of Mr. Musk recorded.
“The cameras got me,” said Mr. Hemmer. “It's scary that they let boys sit and see how they pee.”
After repeated Remonstrances of Mr. Hemmer discovered civil servants from West Lake Hills that Mr. Musk had violated city ordinances with the fence and gate. Last month debated about the zoning and planning commission if he had to grant him deviations for the projects.
Before the meeting, Tisha Ritta, a permit expert who worked for the Limited Liability Company of Mr. Musk, wrote a letter to the planning committee in which exemption from the city rules was requested.
“As a controversial official, the resident of the property is confronted with continuous security threats, which means that proactive safety measures are absolutely necessary,” she wrote, according 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 committee and tampered their neighbor for facilitating “bad behavior on our quiet small dead -end road.”
For a while Mr. Musk ready to win the neighborhood struggle. Planning and destination officials recommend that his property would be granted 'hardship variants', with which, according to city documents, he could retain the fence and other projects with only small changes to the real estate.
But during the planning meeting, the Commissioners refused Mr Musk the variants. When they interrogated Mrs. Ritta, she blamed a former housing manager for not getting permits for construction.
“I just met the owner last year and unfortunately they were under the guidance of the real estate manager,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting.
Mr Hemmer also spoke during the meeting to say that he doubted whether the homeowner was misled.
“If you follow him in the news at all, he is always guilty of building things and he will later ask for permission,” he said.
A commissioner, who was not identified in the recording, said she could not believe that the staff of West Lake Hills had recommended that the homeowner received exceptions.
“I am surprised that the staff will do any form of suggestions that we bend on the basis of who asks,” she said.
The decision of the planning committee does not end the process. During the upcoming meeting of the West Lake Hills city council, members must decide whether they will be the recommendation of the Commissioners at Mr. Musk's mansion.
If the city council votes against him, Mr. Musk could sue the city. And if that doesn't work – and his track record given in supporting candidates – there is always the following local elections.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
