Facebook CEO to replace four neighboring homes

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to maintain the face of his neighborhood.

The social network's cofounder is planning to replace four houses that surround his Palo Alto home with four smaller units, according to plans first reported by The San Jose Mercury News.

Zuckerberg bought the homes several years ago when he learned that a developer planned to build a large house adjacent to his and market it as being next door to the Facebook exec

.Instead, Zuckerberg wants to build new smaller homes that, according to a letter distributed to neighbors "will reduce overall square footage relative to the existing homes and aim to ensure the new structures and surrounding gardens blend seamlessly with the neighborhood."

The News quoted the letter, dated May 16, in which property managers detailed Zuckerberg's application filed with city planners. A request to the city's planning department, filed May 17, asks to replace two single-story houses and two two-story houses and replace them with three single-story houses and one two-story house.

"The four homes will be built concurrently to minimize the duration of construction and enable staging that best protects the existing trees on site," the project documents filed with the city say. "The team is working closely with a local arborist to minimize impact from construction on the existing trees. Our goal is to ensure the homes and surrounding gardens blend seamlessly with the neighborhood and feel as if they have always been there."

Many initial press reports had Zuckerberg razing the homes, but the project is being handled to minimize disruption in the neighborhood, said Miles Radcliffe-Trenner of communications firm Sard Verbinnen & Co., in San Francisco, speaking on behalf of the project. The project is beginning now because the last of the original owners left more than a year ago. Zuckerberg is not yet commenting on what to do with the homes when they are rebuilt, he said.

Zuckerberg began buying the homes in 2012 after developer Mircea Voskerician told Zuckerberg that he planned to build a 9,600-square-foot house behind his with a view into Zuckerberg's master bedroom. But the developer sold the rights to the home instead to Zuckerberg. He eventually filed suit against the Facebook exec saying that part of the sale involved Zuckerberg introducing him to influential people in Silicon Valley. The case was settled in March, the News reported, without Voskerician getting any money from Zuckerberg.

Overall, nearly $44 million were paid for homes. The prices ranged from $4.8 millionpaid in December 2012 for the 3,240 square-foot three bedroom home on 1457 Hamilton Ave. to $14.5 million paid in October 2013 for the four-bedroom, 2,650 square-foot home on 1451 Hamilton Ave., according to Zillow.com. The homes were purchased through San Francisco financial firm Iconiq Capital, the News reported citing public records and reports from the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

In comparison, Zuckerberg's home was purchased for $7 million in 2011, according to Zillow.com.

Norm Beamer, president of the Crescent Park Neighborhood Association told theNews the group had not taken a stance on the building application, which requires a public hearing. Neighbors are "curious, but also concerned" about the plans, he said.

"Is he just developing it or is he creating some sort of compound which will have a constant turnover of visitors and employees?" Beamer said to the News. "It's a question of whether it's a normal residential development or some unusual use that might create traffic and security issues and so forth."