Aquilini mansion plans facing criticism
Petition and bid for court injunction arise in Beverly Hills property spat
Beverly Hills residents angered over a pair of proposed mansions linked to Francesco Aquilini are now asking whether the Vancouver Canucks owner has any connection to a petition to loosen local zoning laws.
The petition seeks to strike a basement ordinance set to take effect in April that would constrain the ability to build large homes in the tony hillside community. Loma Linda Holdings recently sought a court injunction to prohibit the city from applying the incoming ordinance to 1184 Loma Linda Dr., a property Postmedia News has previously reported to be owned by Aquilini.
Aquilini did not respond to requests for comment. Richard Jackson, counsel to the Aquilini Investment Group and the listed director of Loma Linda Holdings, provided Postmedia Wednesday with a letter sent that day from Aquilini and Loma Linda’s lawyers in Los Angeles to the Beverly Hills Courier, a newspaper that first reported the story. In it, the lawyers found fault with portions of the article and sought a retraction.
“The article’s false assertions … offensively depict our clients as having knowingly engaged in unlawful criminal conduct in the manner of the Russians when they illegally interfered in the 2016 presidential election,” stated the letter, signed by Jerry Kay of De Castro, West, Chodorow, Mendler & Glickfield, Inc.
“Instead of objectively reporting that our clients are working through ordinary legal channels … the article falsely describes our clients as unprincipled and ruthless builders,” Kay continued.
Postmedia could not find any documents that connected Aquilini or Loma Linda Holdings to the petition. The letter from Kay stated his clients were “not paying for signatures on petitions” — though that was not a claim made by the Courier.
Ronald Richards, a Beverly Hills lawyer who lives near the proposed building site and whose strong opposition to the project can be found in several city documents, said there is a lot of anger among neighbours over the Loma Linda project and he did not have kind words for Aquilini.
“He’s the worst ambassador of Canada I’ve ever dealt with and I represent presently many, many Canadians,” he said in an interview. “And he’s bulldozing people that are lawyers, doctors (and) businesspeople that aren’t exactly pushovers. It doesn’t matter that he has a billion dollars. You don’t need a billion dollars to fight him.”
A few years ago, Aquilini’s plans for the site included a 26,000-square-foot home (10,000 square feet larger than Chip Wilson’s Point Grey bunker) with an indoor basketball court, bowling alley, a pair of bars, two swimming pools and underground parking for 10 vehicles.
Neighbours on that drive — who live in homes that average 6,200 square feet — balked at the project, then Aquilini retracted the proposal “so that I can sit down with them to redesign my home in a way that best addresses their concerns,” as he put it in a 2015 statement issued to Postmedia News via a public relations firm.
The Loma Linda Holdings project now calls for buildings on two lots at 1184 and 1193 Loma Linda Dr.
As of March 6, the proposed development on the former property had gone through 10 rounds of review through the city’s plan review process, according to city documents.
The latter had gone through 11 rounds. Neither had yet been approved.
Loma Linda Holdings claimed in recent court documents that “the city’s refusal to issue a building permit is intentional, and is designed to delay the 1184 project such that it will be subject to the basement ordinance, in which case a building permit cannot be issued.” Its injunction bid was denied this week, the Courier reported.
However, the ordinance in question could be suspended and ultimately recalled by way of referendum if 2,049 people sign the ongoing petition, according to the Courier.
Richards said he has not seen anyone solicit petitions in his neighbourhood.
Instead, he believes the signature gatherers are working the flats south of Sunset Boulevard, where people are dispassionate about the issue, he said.
Richards said his interest in the project and that of his neighbours is simple.
“It’s totally uncourteous to build a house that big.”
He’s the worst ambassador of Canada I’ve ever dealt with ... he’s bulldozing people that are lawyers, doctors (and) businesspeople.