Friends actress Jennifer Aniston has added her voice to a group of wealthy Beverly Hills residents who are arguing against developers' plans to build extensive mansions in the city's upmarket residential locations, Arabian Business reports.
Some of the mansions are being built for Arab owners and are so massive in size, they are being dubbed 'giga-mansions'. Some residents have joined a homeowners' alliance and have complained to city officials that the construction of the sprawling estates is creating noise, invading privacy and destabilising the hillside.
Among the controversial giga-mansions currently under construction in Bel Air and Beverly Hills are a 80,000 sq ft estate for a Qatari client and a 85,000 sq ft mansion for a Saudi prince.
The Bel Air Homeowners Alliance was set up by Ticketmaster magnate Fred Rosen. The alliance has filed a petition claiming "the excavation and hauling of dirt has been the single largest risk to the health and safety of residents in Bel Air and is endured on a day to day basis on our city streets. The result of the digging and hauling is that we have literally thousands of unsafe truck trips up and down our narrow streets and roads placing residents in danger' reported Arabian Business.
According to ABC television network, Aniston, who is said to live in a $21 million, 8,500 square foot Bel Air mansion, reportedly told officials that the "very idea that a building of 90,000 square feet can be called a home... [seems] at the least a significant distortion of building code."
