George Lucas Exacts Revenge on Snooty Rich People by Making Them Live with Poor People
Star Wars creator George Lucas has announced plans to inflict rickety, consumption-ridden poor people on one of America's wealthiest counties, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
For over a decade, Lucas has been working on plans to construct a giant movie-making complex on land he owned in the San Francisco Bay Area's affluent Marin County.
The structure would have been 263,701-square-feet in total, and included parking for 200 cars and a daycare center.
While his proposal, which would have brought over $300 million in economic activity to the area, was approved by the Marin County Planning Commission, the forces of the Lucas Valley Estates (no relation) Homeowners Association were against him.
Residents felt the proposed project was too large in scale, would cause too much disruption to the area's natural resources, and would bring too much foot traffic to the neighborhood.
Also, it would be very déclassé.
Now, after realizing that, even if he could get the complex built, his neighbors would probably do dickish things like call police every time the music was a hair too loud, Lucas has abandoned his plans to build in Marin County.
As a Lucasfilm spokesperson put it to The Huffington Post:
"The level of bitterness and anger expressed by the homeowners in Lucas Valley has convinced us that, even if we were to spend more time and acquire the necessary approvals, we would not be able to maintain a constructive relationship with our neighbors."
Instead, Lucas has proposed a new project: Projects.
In a letter formally withdrawing his mega-studio plans, the filmmaker expressed his intention to sell the land to "a developer who will be interested in low-income housing since it is scarce in Marin."
While neighbors are insistent that low-income housing is not a viable option in such a remote, rural [riiiich] area, Thomas Peters, President & CEO of the Marin Community Foundation, a local philanthropic organization, is more hopeful that the land could one day play host to low income housing.
"We don't know yet what might be able to be developed there, but the notion of being able to explore his property and see if some beautifully designed family or senior housing can be developed there is too wonderful to pass up."
While one could make the argument that it is equally dickish of Lucas to toss around poor people as if they were mere pawns in a Game of Thrones (he would obviously be Tyrion, because he's writing sassy letters to everyone), there's no denying that Marin County is a much lovelier place than most of us will ever live.
It would also make a beautiful spot for an elegant open-air shambles.
[San Francisco Chronicle // The Huffington Post // Image via Getty]