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Kanye West’s ‘Star Wars’ domes for homeless hit a snag in Calabasas

Kanye West
Kanye West at Coachella earlier this year.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
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Kanye West’s vaunted creativity has come up against Los Angeles County’s well-known red tape: He’s reportedly been cited for skipping the permit process in building his “Star Wars”-inspired huts for the homeless.

The simple, domed structures — evocative of the desert aesthetic of Tatooine in the film franchise — came to public attention in early July when they were mentioned in a Forbes story about West. The rapper-entrepreneur and his team had been working on the prefabricated prototypes for a year, the magazine said, with an eye on solutions for L.A.’s affordable-housing crisis.

But the team apparently didn’t include a neighbor (or neighbors) who, according to TMZ, complained to the county about nighttime construction on West’s 300-acre Calabasas property in mid-July. Turns out there were two site visits by inspectors in July, Curbed LA reported.

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The first inspector deemed the structures to be temporary, but the second noticed concrete pads under the buildings and declared them permanent.

West now has to deal with a citation issued at the end of July ordering him to present plans for approval, or tear the huts down, the sites said. He has 45 days to comply, which puts D-day (that’s “D” for deliver or destroy) at the middle of September.

A source said to be close to West told TMZ that they’re working with the county to comply with the citation, as the buildings are prototypes and were always intended to be temporary.

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