Outrage Over Couple's Plans to Build 'Versailles' Near DC

25,424-square-foot mansion not going over well with residents of Great Falls
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 24, 2012 12:21 PM CDT
Outrage Over Couple's Plans to Build 'Versailles' Near DC
The facade of the Versailles castle is seen at night, September 29, 2004 in Versailles, France.   (Getty Images)

A man's home is his castle, nowhere more so than in the ritzy Washington, DC, suburb of Great Falls, Va. That's where one couple has elected to build their 25,424-square-foot mansion, dubbed "Le Chateau de Lumiere" and fashioned after the Palace of Versailles. The only thing bigger than the planned house? The brouhaha over it. The Post reports that the owner of the neighboring home—former Gannett honcho Craig Dubow—has filed a lawsuit against 38-year-old Young Yi, head of a sleep disorders treatment chain, and her husband, saying the home would destroy the "sylvan character" of the exclusive Hidden Springs neighborhood.

The Post explains that the unmarked neighborhood is a rustic if opulent one, filled with wooded lots and winding streams; some residents haul their own trash to a nearby school's dumpster, rather than have a loud garbage truck cruise down the road. So the Yis' decision to post billboards on the five-acre lot announcing what was coming and tear down trees hasn't gone over well. But county officials tell the Post the Yis have the needed permits, and the foundation has been poured. What would the Yis like to sit on top of it? A home expected to cost as much as $20 million, complete with a massive underground lighting system, three two-car garages, an elevator, and a seven-room master suite equipped with its own gallery. (More Versailles stories.)

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