Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spent more than $110 million to purchase properties around his 5,600-square-foot home on Edgewood Drive in Crescent Park neighborhood, according to The New York Times. Local residents have complained about “eight years of constant construction, blocked driveways and debris.”
Zuckerberg has converted five of his homes into a compound as his main residence for him, his wife Priscilla Chan and their three daughters. The property includes guest homes, gardens, a pickleball court, a pool with a hydrofloor covering and even a 7-foot silver statue of Chan, 40, commissioned by Zuckerberg. The tech billionaire has also added 7,000 square feet of a unit referred to as “basement space” in permits, which neighbors have referred to as “bunkers,” or “the billionaire’s bat cave.”
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One of the properties has also been used as a private school for 14 children despite the city code prohibiting it, according to the NYT report. Six adults, including four teachers have been mentioned to work there last year.
“No neighborhood wants to be occupied,” Michael Kieschnick, a Palo Alto resident whose home shares three sides with property owned by Zuckerberg, told the outlet. “But that’s exactly what they’ve done. They’ve occupied our neighborhood.” Seven of the nine neighbors who spoke to NYT have asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution, and the neighbors described eight years of constant construction, blocked driveways, debris and even car mirrors broken off by equipment. They also spoke about increased levels of surveillance throughout the neighborhood, including newly installed security cameras and security guards sitting in cars.
Kieschnick said that while his neighbors are frustrated with Zuckerberg, they are also angry with the city of Palo Alto. While a city board rejected Zuckerberg’s application to build a compound in 2016, 56 such applications have been approved since then. Neighbors also claim that the police department recently posted signs creating a tow-away zone on a public road for five hours with Kieschnick later finding out that they were for a barbecue hosted by the CEO.
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“Billionaires everywhere are used to just making their own rules — Zuckerberg and Chan are not unique, except that they’re our neighbors,” Kieschnick added. “But it’s a mystery why the city has been so feckless. Local council member Greer Stone also criticized Zuckerberg saying, “He’s been finding loopholes around local laws and zoning ordinances. We should never be a gated, gilded city on the hill where people don’t know their neighbors.”
A representative for Zuckerberg and Chan told PEOPLE in a statement that the couple and their children have made Palo Alto their home for more than a decade, and that they “value being members of the community and have taken a number of steps above and beyond any local requirements to avoid disruption in the neighborhood.”
The couple have made some changes, according to reports. Security guards now sit in quiet electric vehicles, and Zuckerberg’s staff has also sent gifts to neighbors when things have gotten out of hand, according to NYT.