Wealthy L.A.'s underground housing movement

With local government cracking down on the size of a home in relation to lot size, rich homeowners are choosing to build massive basements - in some cases, thousands of square feet. From the WSJ:

Rare until relatively recently, as land in the area is relatively plentiful, underground building activity grew in earnest after a 2008 Los Angeles ordinance limited the percentage of a lot a home could consume. "The relief valve to that was that if somebody put [square footage] underground and no one could see it," it was allowable, says Los Angeles city planner Erick Lopez. In most city neighborhoods, the aboveground square footage of newly built homes or expansions typically can't exceed 25% to 50% of the lot size, depending on neighborhood and topography. (Beverly Hills and other cities have a similar law on the books.)

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In Beverly Hills, construction workers are putting the finishing touches on a mansion owned by builder and architect Mohamed Hadid, who formerly designed, built and owned Ritz-Carlton hotels. Beneath roughly 30,000 square feet of house above ground is a basement of 14,000 square feet. Designed to be the entertainment centerpiece of the home, it has a ballroom that can seat 250, a Turkish-style bath with mosaic tiles and hand-carved Egyptian limestone columns, and a 50-seat movie theater. "I like to call it the underground area," says Mr. Hadid. "Basement has an ugly connotation." He says the mansion will hit the market this spring for an estimated price of more than $60 million.