Since 2011, spec mansion builder Mohamed Hadid has been prepping a Bel Air hillside site to receive a 30,000-square-foot megamansion. Neighbors were and are freaking livid, contending that Hadid obtained permits on false pretenses, took extreme liberties with those permits, did additional work he never had the permits for, and then ignored multiple attempts by the city to reign him in. Last week, the city put its foot down, stopping work and revoking the permits for the infamous Strada Vecchia megamansion, reports the Beverly Hills Courier. That follows interventions by the local councilmember and lawsuits from at least three neighbors.
According to angry neighbors, the project at 901 Strada Vecchia started off illegally in 2011, when Hadid—"well-known" for being divorced from a woman on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and building ginormous monster-mansions—bought the property and set to demolishing the existing residence and grading the site sans permit. (The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety found this to be true.) That would mean that the permits issued for the site were issued based on land that had been altered, which is kind of like passing a drug test at work with someone else's pee.
It was downhill from there for Strada Vecchia. When a building permit was finally handed out to the builders, they were only able to go about four months before LADBS found they were noncompliant and playing fast and loose with their permits. Oh yes, and the neighbors! Bel Air is not a good place to upset your neighbors because they are probably high-paid entertainment lawyers, like the one who has filed a lawsuit against Hadid. Is he just bitter because he never wanted anyone to build on the site, as Hadid suggests, or is he righteously pissed that illegal grading caused two mudslides in two months on his property? That's for the court to decide!
But for now, nothing should be happening on-site. In a July 14 letter to Hadid in which they ordered all work to stop, LADBS said that some of the permits (which they intend to revoke) were erroneously issued because "the height of the single family dwelling exceeds the height limit as permitted" and "built construction does not reflect the approved construction shown on the approved set of plans." Hadid has until July 30 to appeal the charges.
· Neighbors Claim Permit, Grading Violations Against Mohamed Hadid's 901 Strada Vecchia In Bel Air [BHC]
· Building Permits Revoked For 901 Strada Vecchia In Bel-Air, Construction Work Ordered To Stop [BHC]
· Spec Megamansion King Goes Modern in Bel Air, Asking $45MM [Curbed LA]
