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 building employees arrived to erect a 16-foot chain-link fence across the $6 million property, which is one among 4 houses on the leafy avenue. In addition they put in an outward-facing digicam. Subsequent, a fleet of vehicles — a lot 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 driving force of a passing automobile shouted late at evening that he was on the lookout for a celebration at “E’s home.”
Nobody appreciated the commotion, or the visitors, or the keypad-activated gate opening and shutting for employees and vehicles in any respect hours. So even after they realized by 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 referred to as 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 vehicles 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 turn into mired in a maze of native laws and purple tape. Nobody, it appears, is wealthy sufficient to flee the neighbors.
Moguls together with Mark Zuckerberg have typically hit the boundaries of their wealth and connections in disagreements over their luxurious houses. So has Mr. Musk, who’s to this point dropping in opposition to the municipal paperwork in West Lake Hills. He and his staff didn’t receive permits for a steel gate and the fence constructed across the property, making the chain-link construction 10 toes taller than was allowed, native information confirmed. In whole, the development violated six metropolis ordinances. After some neighbors protested, Mr. Musk’s crew tried to achieve 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 home-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.”
Until 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 firms, 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 needed to construct homes for himself and his youngsters (he has at the least 13) on a whole lot of acres that he purchased there. After the plan fell by, he checked out different properties.
In 2022, Mr. Musk bought the West Lake Hills dwelling by a restricted legal responsibility firm, which was named after the road the place the property sits. The home is in the midst of a residential neighborhood on the backside of about two acres of sloping land off a slim public highway, making safety difficult.
“Castles are presupposed to be constructed on hills, proper?” stated Anne Yeakel, a longtime West Lake Hills resident who lives across the nook. “These have 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 locally of three,400, and shortly everybody knew he had moved in.
“It’s frequent data right here,” Ms. Yeakel stated.
The mansion was one among three that Mr. Musk purchased within the space over the past three years to create a compound for his youngsters and their moms. At one level, Claire Boucher, referred to as the musician Grimes, lived with Mr. Musk and their three youngsters in the home. Shivon Zilis, a mind expertise government who has 4 youngsters with Mr. Musk, lives a couple of 10-minute stroll away. Mr. Musk additionally bought one other Tuscan-style mansion a couple of 12 months in the past.
Neighbors quickly grew pissed off 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 issues. 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 largely 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 grew to become notably aggravated on the hulking fence in entrance of the mansion, in addition to the enormous 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 pissed off along with his neighbor that he started flying a drone over the home to verify 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 visitors and the way he thought the proprietor was working a safety enterprise from the property.
Mr. Musk’s safety crew additionally contacted the West Lake Hills Police Division about Mr. Hemmer, based on metropolis information. One safety official accused Mr. Hemmer final 12 months of standing bare on the street, based on the information.
Mr. Hemmer denied that he was bare and stated he was on his property carrying black underwear. On one other evening, he stated, he was strolling his canine absolutely clothed and stopped when he instantly wanted to urinate — which Mr. Musk’s digicam captured.
“The cameras obtained 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 skilled working for Mr. Musk’s restricted legal responsibility firm, wrote a letter to the planning fee asking for aid from town guidelines.
“As a high-profile public official, the property’s resident faces ongoing safety threats, making proactive security measures crucial,” she wrote, based on a duplicate 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 conduct on our quiet little cul-de-sac.”
For a time, Mr. Musk appeared poised to win the neighborhood battle. Planning and zoning officers really useful that his property be granted “hardship variances,” which might permit him to maintain the fence and different initiatives with solely small modifications to the property, based on metropolis paperwork.
However on the planning assembly, the commissioners refused Mr. Musk the variances. Once 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 have been beneath the steering of the property supervisor,” she stated, based on a recording of the assembly.
Mr. Hemmer additionally spoke up on the assembly to say he doubted the home-owner had been misguided.
“If you happen to observe 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 imagine West Lake Hills employees had really useful that the home-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 choice 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 observe file in backing candidates — there’s at all times the following native election.
Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.
