Ex-software magnate in trouble with neighbours
Millionaire David Duffield, the former computer software magnate, plans to revise blueprints to build a huge mansion after neighbours complained the hotel-sized home was out of character with the area.
Duffield, founder of PeopleSoft Inc, released blueprints last month for the proposed 72,000-square-foot house in Alamo, California, a suburb east of San Francisco.
It would have been bigger than Microsoft chairman Bill Gates’ mansion, bigger than the White House and bigger than Hearst Castle – the famed, unfinished dream home of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst that now belongs to the state.
Initial plans for the 22-acre plot called for stables, two swimming pools and a 20-car garage.
Neighbours in the Bryan Ranch Homeowners Association complained that Duffield’s mansion would detract from the natural beauty and privacy of the area.
More than 230 residents signed a petition opposing it.
“We have been listening to the concerns of several neighbours and members of the community and are proposing to modify/amend some of the conceptual architectural plans submitted,” Jim Dugdale, Duffield’s project manager, wrote in an email to the association.
The millionaire’s spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment, and the email did not say what the changes would be.
Duffield made most of his €1bn fortune by reluctantly selling PeopleSoft to Oracle Corp last year.
