Oracle CEO and billionaire boating enthusiast Larry Ellison, seen here eating a hot dog, has overcome some NIMBY issues in the richest way possible. As Curbed reports this morning, Ellison has been battling his backyard neighbors over the height of some view-obstructing Redwoods since 2007 and even offered to buy their $6.9 million home on Vallejo Street for as much as $27 million. Now with the America's Cup fast approaching and lots of high-altitude entertaining to be done, Ellison has agreed to buy the home immediately next door to for a grandiose $40 million.
Meanwhile, Ellison's tree lawyer (Larry Ellison has a tree lawyer, by the way) is still hounding the neighbors to trim their foliage by tossing a lawsuit over their fence. From Curbed's report:
And the billionaire's multi-year battle with his downhill neighbors/millionaires Jane and Bernard von Bothmer may be finally coming to a close. Apparently settled yesterday morning, with lawyers beavering away over the holiday weekend, the case is a log-book of Dickensian wrangling over an eighty-year-old acacia and some overly-enthusiastic redwoods and just how many feet of wood would get trimmed from their tops.
With a June 6th court date looming, the neighbors down the hill have finally reached an agreement to keep the redwoods trimmed below the third-floor veranda off of Ellison's living room. So not only does Ellison get his view back, but now he's also got a handsome $40 million guesthouse to handle the America's Cup party overflow.
[Curbed]