‘Party at E’s house’: Why Elon Musk’s neighbours have had enough

“Transporting service employees to other houses, leaving their cars on our quiet streets, hauling laundry to and fro to other houses has to stop,” Paul Hemmer, a neighbour and the main complainant, wrote to the Zoning and Planning Commission. The letter was also signed by the occupants of the two other houses on the street.

For the past few months, Musk, 53, has bulldozed his way across Washington, flouting long-established traditions and hacking away at what he deemed to be unnecessary federal bureaucracy. But in his own backyard outside Austin, the tech billionaire has become mired in a maze of local regulations and red tape. No one, it seems, is rich enough to escape the neighbours.

Moguls including Mark Zuckerberg have sometimes hit the limits of their wealth and connections in disagreements over their luxury homes. So has Musk, who is so far losing against the municipal bureaucracy in West Lake Hills. He and his employees did not obtain permits for a metal gate and the fence built around the property, making the chain-link structure 10 feet taller than was allowed, local records showed. In total, the construction violated six city ordinances. After some neighbours protested, Musk’s team tried to gain retroactive permission for the projects.

But Jim Pledger, one of the six commissioners on the West Lake Hills Zoning and Planning Commission, said he and his colleagues voted unanimously last month against recommending that the homeowner – he was careful not to name Musk – be granted variances for the projects. If an exception was made, Pledger said, “we’d incentivise people to break the rules”.

Unless the city council disagrees with that decision, Musk faces the prospect of tearing down the fence and gate or changing them to comply with the town’s rules.

Musk did not return requests for comment. A house manager linked to the property declined to comment.

Musk’s history in Texas is relatively recent. The tech mogul, who oversees six companies, moved most of his business operations to the state from California starting around 2021. He has built factories for his electric vehicle company, Tesla, his rocket company, SpaceX, and his tunnelling venture, the Boring Co, around Austin and neighbouring Bastrop.

Musk also moved himself to Austin. He initially wanted to build houses for himself and his children (he has at least 13) on hundreds of acres that he bought there. After the plan fell through, he looked at other properties.

In 2022, Musk purchased the West Lake Hills home through a limited liability company, which was named after the street where the property sits. The house is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood at the bottom of about 2 acres of sloping land off a narrow public road, making security challenging.

“Castles are supposed to be built on hills, right?” said Anne Yeakel, a longtime West Lake Hills resident who lives around the corner. “These were sophisticated buyers, and if security was the prime directive, this was not the house for it.”

Musk and his staff did not introduce themselves to the neighbours. Few residents have seen him there. But word travelled fast in the community of 3400, and soon everyone knew he had moved in.

“It’s common knowledge here,” Yeakel said.

The mansion was one of three that Musk bought in the area over 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 Musk and their three children in the house. Shivon Zilis, a brain technology executive who has four children with Musk, lives about a 10-minute walk away. Musk also purchased another Tuscan-style mansion about a year ago.

Neighbours soon grew frustrated with the constant hubbub at the house. They saw people coming and going carrying gun holsters, as the security team ballooned along with Musk’s safety concerns. Though Texas has permissive gun laws, the activity stood out.

“I call that place Fort Knox,” said Hemmer, a retired real estate agent who lives across the street and is president of the neighbourhood homeowners association.

The house was quieter on days when Musk was not in town, neighbours said, especially in recent months, when he lived mostly in Washington to advise President Donald Trump. Now residents are bracing for Musk’s return, after he said he would spend less time in the capital.

I call that place Fort Knox.

Some neighbours became particularly annoyed at the hulking fence in front of the mansion, as well as the giant metal gate at the other end of the property, which appears to serve as an employee entrance.

Hemmer, who has long owned a Tesla, grew so frustrated with his neighbour that he began flying a drone over the house to check for city violations, and he keeps a video camera trained on the property around the clock. Last year, he complained to West Lake Hills officials about Musk’s fence, the traffic and how he thought the owner was operating a security business from the property.

Musk’s security team also contacted the West Lake Hills Police Department about Hemmer, according to city records. One security official accused Hemmer last year of standing naked in the street, according to the records.

Hemmer denied that he was naked and said he was on his property wearing black underwear. On another night, he said, he was walking his dog fully clothed and stopped when he suddenly needed to urinate – which Musk’s camera captured.

“The cameras got me,” Hemmer said. “It’s scary they have guys sitting and watching me pee.”

After repeated remonstrances from Hemmer, West Lake Hills officials found that Musk had violated city ordinances with the fence and the gate. Last month, the Zoning and Planning Commission debated whether to grant him variances for the projects.

Before the meeting, Tisha Ritta, a permit expert working for Musk’s limited liability company, wrote a letter to the planning commission asking for relief from the city rules.

“As a high-profile public official, the property’s resident faces ongoing security threats, making proactive safety measures imperative,” she wrote, according to a copy of the letter. Ritta did not respond to requests for comment.

I’m astounded the staff is putting forth any kind of suggestions we bend based on who is asking.

Hemmer and other residents wrote their own letter to the planning commission, admonishing their neighbour for facilitating “bad behaviour on our quiet little cul-de-sac”.

For a time, Musk appeared poised to win the neighbourhood battle. Planning and zoning officials recommended that his property be granted “hardship variances”, which would allow him to keep the fence and other projects with only small changes to the property, according to city documents.

But at the planning meeting, the commissioners refused Musk the variances. When they questioned Ritta, she blamed a former house manager for failing to get permits for the construction.

“I just met the property owner last year, and unfortunately they were under the guidance of the property manager,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting.

Hemmer also spoke up at the meeting to say he doubted the homeowner had been misguided.

“If you follow him at all in the news, he’s always guilty of building stuff and then asking for permission later,” he said.

One commissioner, who was not identified in the recording, said she could not believe West Lake Hills staff had recommended that the homeowner receive any exceptions.

“I’m astounded the staff is putting forth any kind of suggestions we bend based on who is asking,” she said.

The planning commission’s decision does not end the process. At the upcoming West Lake Hills City Council meeting, members must decide whether to stick with the commissioners’ recommendation on Musk’s mansion.

If the City Council votes against him, Musk could sue the town. And if that does not work – and given his track record in backing candidates – there is always the next local election.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Kirsten Grind

Photographs by: Pete Marovich and Jordan Vonderhaar

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