At first, residents of the upscale cul-de-sac in West Lake Hills, Texas, didn’t know who had moved into the 6,900-square-foot, six-bedroom mansion subsequent door.
Then development staff arrived to erect a 16-foot chain-link fence across the $6 million property, which is certainly one of 4 houses on the leafy avenue. Additionally they put in an outward-facing digicam. Subsequent, a fleet of automobiles — lots of them Teslas — started parking on the road. 3 times a day, a shift change signaled safety personnel coming and going on the home. As soon as, the motive force of a passing automotive shouted late at night time that he was searching for a celebration at “E’s home.”
Nobody preferred the commotion, or the site visitors, or the keypad-activated gate opening and shutting for staff and automobiles in any respect hours. So even after they discovered by means of phrase of mouth that their new neighbor was Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, that didn’t cease a few of them from grousing to the Metropolis of West Lake Hills about his mansion.
The complaints have since escalated into an uproar over metropolis ordinances, permits and exceptions often called variances — a lot in order that the matter of Mr. Musk’s home landed in a contentious Zoning and Planning Fee assembly final month. The talk is headed subsequent to a West Lake Hills Metropolis Council session, scheduled for Could 14.
“Transporting service staff to different homes, leaving their automobiles on our quiet streets, hauling laundry backward and forward to different homes has to cease,” Paul Hemmer, a neighbor and the primary complainant, wrote to the Zoning and Planning Fee. The letter was additionally signed by the occupants of the 2 different homes on the road.
For the previous few months, Mr. Musk, 53, has bulldozed his way across Washington, flouting long-established traditions and hacking away at what he deemed to be pointless federal paperwork. However in his personal yard exterior Austin, the tech billionaire has grow to be mired in a maze of native laws and crimson tape. Nobody, it appears, is wealthy sufficient to flee the neighbors.
Moguls together with Mark Zuckerberg have generally hit the bounds of their wealth and connections in disagreements over their luxurious houses. So has Mr. Musk, who’s to date shedding in opposition to the municipal paperwork in West Lake Hills. He and his staff didn’t acquire permits for a steel gate and the fence constructed across the property, making the chain-link construction 10 toes taller than was allowed, native data confirmed. In whole, the development violated six metropolis ordinances. After some neighbors protested, Mr. Musk’s staff tried to realize retroactive permission for the initiatives.
However Jim Pledger, one of many six commissioners on the West Lake Hills Zoning and Planning Fee, stated he and his colleagues voted unanimously final month in opposition to recommending that the house owner — he was cautious to not title Mr. Musk — be granted variances for the initiatives. If an exception was made, Mr. Pledger stated, “we’d incentivize folks to interrupt the principles.”
Except the Metropolis Council disagrees with that call, Mr. Musk faces the prospect of tearing down the fence and gate or altering them to adjust to the city’s guidelines.
Mr. Musk didn’t return requests for remark. A home supervisor linked to the property declined to remark.
Mr. Musk’s historical past in Texas is comparatively latest. The tech mogul, who oversees six corporations, moved most of his enterprise operations to the state from California beginning round 2021. He has constructed factories for his electrical automobile firm, Tesla, his rocket firm, SpaceX, and his tunneling enterprise, the Boring Firm, round Austin and neighboring Bastrop.
Mr. Musk additionally moved himself to Austin. He initially wished to construct homes for himself and his kids (he has at the least 13) on lots of of acres that he purchased there. After the plan fell by means of, he checked out different properties.
In 2022, Mr. Musk bought the West Lake Hills residence by means of a restricted legal responsibility firm, which was named after the road the place the property sits. The home is in the course of a residential neighborhood on the backside of about two acres of sloping land off a slender public street, making safety difficult.
“Castles are purported to be constructed on hills, proper?” stated Anne Yeakel, a longtime West Lake Hills resident who lives across the nook. “These had been refined consumers, and if safety was the prime directive, this was not the home for it.”
Mr. Musk and his employees didn’t introduce themselves to the neighbors. Few residents have seen him there. However phrase traveled quick in the neighborhood of three,400, and shortly everybody knew he had moved in.
“It’s widespread information right here,” Ms. Yeakel stated.
The mansion was certainly one of three that Mr. Musk purchased within the space over the past three years to create a compound for his kids and their moms. At one level, Claire Boucher, often called the musician Grimes, lived with Mr. Musk and their three kids in the home. Shivon Zilis, a mind know-how govt who has 4 kids with Mr. Musk, lives a few 10-minute stroll away. Mr. Musk additionally bought one other Tuscan-style mansion a few 12 months in the past.
Neighbors quickly grew annoyed with the fixed hubbub on the home. They noticed folks coming and going carrying gun holsters, because the security team ballooned together with Mr. Musk’s security considerations. Although Texas has permissive gun laws, the exercise stood out.
“I name that place Fort Knox,” stated Mr. Hemmer, a retired actual property agent who lives throughout the road and is president of the neighborhood householders affiliation.
The home was quieter on days when Mr. Musk was not on the town, neighbors stated, particularly in latest months, when he lived principally in Washington to advise President Trump. Now residents are bracing for Mr. Musk’s return, after he stated he would spend less time in the capital.
Some neighbors turned significantly aggravated on the hulking fence in entrance of the mansion, in addition to the large steel gate on the different finish of the property, which seems to function an worker entrance.
Mr. Hemmer, who has lengthy owned a Tesla, grew so annoyed along with his neighbor that he started flying a drone over the home to test for metropolis violations, and he retains a video digicam educated on the property across the clock. Final 12 months, he complained to West Lake Hills officers about Mr. Musk’s fence, the site visitors and the way he thought the proprietor was working a safety enterprise from the property.
Mr. Musk’s safety staff additionally contacted the West Lake Hills Police Division about Mr. Hemmer, in accordance with metropolis data. One safety official accused Mr. Hemmer final 12 months of standing bare on the street, in accordance with the data.
Mr. Hemmer denied that he was bare and stated he was on his property sporting black underwear. On one other night time, he stated, he was strolling his canine totally clothed and stopped when he all of a sudden wanted to urinate — which Mr. Musk’s digicam captured.
“The cameras bought me,” Mr. Hemmer stated. “It’s scary they’ve guys sitting and watching me pee.”
After repeated remonstrances from Mr. Hemmer, West Lake Hills officers discovered that Mr. Musk had violated metropolis ordinances with the fence and the gate. Final month, the Zoning and Planning Fee debated whether or not to grant him variances for the initiatives.
Earlier than the assembly, Tisha Ritta, a allow knowledgeable working for Mr. Musk’s restricted legal responsibility firm, wrote a letter to the planning fee asking for reduction from the town guidelines.
“As a high-profile public official, the property’s resident faces ongoing safety threats, making proactive security measures crucial,” she wrote, in accordance with a replica of the letter. Ms. Ritta didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Mr. Hemmer and different residents wrote their very own letter to the planning fee, admonishing their neighbor for facilitating “unhealthy habits on our quiet little cul-de-sac.”
For a time, Mr. Musk appeared poised to win the neighborhood battle. Planning and zoning officers really helpful that his property be granted “hardship variances,” which might permit him to maintain the fence and different initiatives with solely small adjustments to the property, in accordance with metropolis paperwork.
However on the planning assembly, the commissioners refused Mr. Musk the variances. After they questioned Ms. Ritta, she blamed a former home supervisor for failing to get permits for the development.
“I simply met the property proprietor final 12 months, and sadly they had been underneath the steerage of the property supervisor,” she stated, in accordance with a recording of the assembly.
Mr. Hemmer additionally spoke up on the assembly to say he doubted the house owner had been misguided.
“If you happen to comply with him in any respect within the information, he’s at all times responsible of constructing stuff after which asking for permission later,” he stated.
One commissioner, who was not recognized within the recording, stated she couldn’t consider West Lake Hills employees had really helpful that the house owner obtain any exceptions.
“I’m astounded the employees is placing forth any sort of options we bend primarily based on who’s asking,” she stated.
The planning fee’s determination doesn’t finish the method. On the upcoming West Lake Hills Metropolis Council assembly, members should determine whether or not to stay with the commissioners’ suggestion on Mr. Musk’s mansion.
If the Metropolis Council votes in opposition to him, Mr. Musk may sue the city. And if that doesn’t work — and given his monitor report in backing candidates — there may be at all times the following native election.
Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.
