A businessman is currently constructing a massive house on 26,000 square feet of land in West Vancouver, and the residents are reportedly not happy about it.
The monster home, set to arise at 1739 Mathers Avenue along the Ambleside neighborhood, alarmed the residents who called on to the officials to take action against its construction.
According to Vancity Buzz, around 2012, the area proprietor of two side-by-side properties on Mathers Ave. over the road from West Vancouver Secondary School decided to subdivide the two lots into three, a preposition which was approved by the city council in April.
Unfortunately, the land owner did not go with the planned arrangements. Instead, he put both lots for sale worth $2,398,000 together. It was sold in October 2013, having a total of 48,960 square feet.
The property's new owner, Vancouver-based businessman Ge Chen, did not exploit the chance to assemble and offer three homes on the area. Instead, he opted to merge the two lots and build one monstrous house for his family and himself.
"We're sort we didn't catch this earlier," Councilor Craig Cameron said. The West Vancouver Council admitted that they never expected a house this large to be created in the neighborhood since the project is completely within its zoning bylaws. Global News reported that the house to be constructed is the kind of size and luxury comparable to Lululemon founder Chip Wilson's mansion in Point Grey.
"There are some areas of West Vancouver - the British properties, Caufield - that have large estates and large houses. This is an area of Ambleside where the houses are comparatively more modest," added the councilor.
Neighbor Joan Howey shared that she transferred to the neighborhood many years ago to get away from mega-homes. Now, she said that it seems like history is repeating itself.
"My gosh. Who's going to need all that room? It's ridiculous. It ruins it, I'm getting to the age where I don't want to move, but sometimes I feel it's not the same." Howey stated.
Some of the features of Chen's property include indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a virtual golf room, a movie theatre, and a badminton court.
