[MarchHare]

So apparently Lucas wanted to build a movie studio on Skywalker Ranch. The neighbours didn't like that idea too much, so they stonewalled him from getting the required permits. Admitting defeat, he then went to Plan B: use the land to build housing for low-income families instead. You can imagine the reaction of the NIMBY neighbours to that.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/enterta...257/story.html

George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, is in a bitter fued over plans to sell off land near his Skywalker Ranch for low-income housing.

The director infuriated some of his neighbours in the rural enclave of Marin County, north of San Francisco, who accused him of “inciting class warfare” and “spite.”

It was the latest twist in a decades-long battle over Lucas’s attempts to build a film studio on the land. He had wanted to erect a 269,000 sq foot complex, including two 85-foot towers, a 7,000 sqare-foot outdoor sound stage, and underground parking for 200 cars

His company, Lucasfilms, said the move would create hundreds of highly paid jobs, but opponents objected to noise and light pollution, arguing it would “destroy our dark starry skies.”

The land itself is in Lucas Valley, which was already called that when the filmmaker set up Skywalker Ranch in 1978.

Marin County postponed the studio application last month, causing Lucas to admit defeat. In a statement, Lucasfilms cited the “level of bitterness and anger expressed by the homeowners.”

[...]

Lucas said his decision to sell the land for affordable housing was not intended to be retribution. In an email to the New York Times he said he just wanted to “do something good for Marin.”