Readers React: Bel-Air mega-mansion builders aren’t doing neighbors a favor

To the editor: Thank you for your article on the spec development that is devastating Bel-Air. Our hillsides are being systematically razed to make room for gigantic buildings that local electric grids, water pipes, sewage systems and roads are not equipped to absorb. (“Building huge hillside homes — and steep resentment — in Bel-Air,” Aug. 29)

Developer Mohammed Hadid claims that neighbors of the massive home he is building in Bel-Air will be happy eventually because their property values will go up. Maybe, maybe not. But what is sure to go up are rates for utility and street repair.

When the city of Los Angeles requires developers to post a bond of $50,000 for a one-mile haul route that costs $1 million to repave, who will make up the difference? L.A. taxpayers. Profiteering developers will be long gone.

Paula Rudnick, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The speculators that build these inappropriate structures are quick to say that their projects will raise your property value. But the reality is that your beautifully proportioned home will be devalued because it sits within view of these eyesores.

Manny Rodriguez, West Hollywood