‘Save Neighborhood,’ Says Prince : High-Rise Gets Royal Veto

LONDON — Swayed by a complaint from “a very eminent neighbor,” city authorities said today they have withheld permission to build a nine-story apartment house overlooking the Kensington Palace residence of Prince Charles.

The planning committee for the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea said it deferred its decision after receiving a letter from the heir to the British throne just before a Tuesday night meeting.

Regalian Property Ltd. wants to put up a building with 45 apartments worth between $4.6 million and $11.2 million each on two-thirds of an acre near the palace.

The letter to the council, written on Buckingham Palace stationery, was signed by David Wright, the prince’s deputy private secretary.

“The building seems to us to be an overdevelopment of the site,” a borough spokesman quoted the letter as saying.

He said the committee will reconsider the application only after the architect revises the plans.

Charles’ intervention came as no surprise. The prince has outspokenly criticized modern architects, whom he has accused of ruining London’s skyline and ignoring the opinions of ordinary people.