Oprah Winfrey has been accused of building a huge wall around her multi-million-dollar California mansion to protect it from flooding.
The structure appeared after a permit was requested in February in an attempt to protect her $100m Montecito compound named the Promised Land from flooding.
Winfrey, 69, is neighbors with the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – but others have been quick to complain about the wall, according to Noozhawk, and fear it could put their homes at higher risk of inundation.
Jimenez Nursery, a Carpinteria-based company, applied for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers using Winfrey’s address in the exclusive Ennisbrook neighborhood.
It is unclear if Winfrey has any knowledge of the wall or authorized it to be linked to her but residents are concerned if the wall will reroute water – and affect other homes.
The wall appeared after a permit was requested in February in an attempt to protect Oprah’s $100m Montecito home from flooding
Winfrey, 69, is neighbors with the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – but others have been quick to complain about the wall
They claim that it could put their properties at risk, following a mudslide in 2018 which left many damaged and killed 23 people.
During that storm, Winfrey posted a video showing the destruction on one of her properties, saying, ‘So, there used to be a fence right here. That’s my neighbor’s house, devastated.’
Montecito suffered lashing of rain in January, which appears to be what led to the wall being built on Santa Rosa Lane.
Officials at Santa Barbara County Planning & Development Department have said that they are ‘investigating’ complaints about the wall.
Deputy director John Zorovich told SFGate: ‘We are doing our investigation now, so I don’t have any determination as to whether a permit or not will be needed.
‘I really can’t comment more on that because it’s an ongoing investigation.’
Authorities sent officials in the first week of April to examine the wall, with the request seeking a ‘like-for-like’ reconstruction of the creek bank which was washed away in January.
It also asked for boulders to be placed along the creek side which ‘eroded and washed away’.
Jimenez Nursery applied for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers using Winfrey’s address in the exclusive Ennisbrook neighborhood
Officials at Santa Barbara County Planning & Development Department have said that they are ‘investigating’ complaints about the wall
Montecito suffered lashing of rain in January, which appears to be what led to the wall being built on Santa Rosa Lane
Crystal Huerta, a project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, confirmed that there was ‘no permit’ issued for the wall.
Robert DeDeaux, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, added: ‘The regulatory division has neither approved nor denied any permitting requests regarding the private property referenced in Santa Barbara County.
‘The USACE regulatory division in Santa Barbara County has not reviewed any construction on private property referenced at this time as permission from the landowner is required.’
The California Department of Fish & Wildlife have been deluged with permit requests for repairing properties following heavy rain the past three months.
The CDFW confirmed to Noozhawk that they are speaking with the property manager and company that installed the wall to obtain more details because they have their own process for approval.
Senior environmental scientist Steve Gibson, in charge of the South Coast Region, said: ‘We are seeking information of how it was constructed.
‘We don’t know if it was dug and trenched in with larger rocks that we would like to see with certain banks.’
Residents claim that it could put their properties at risk, following a mudslide in 2018 which left many damaged and killed 23 people
Search and rescue efforts ramped in 2018 for hundreds of Montecito residents feared trapped in their homes after the mudslide
Crystal Huerta, a project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, confirmed that there was ‘no permit’ issued for the wall
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