Overview

• Palo Alto’s planning department concluded that the BBS program at the Hamilton Avenue property breached residential zoning rules by generating excess traffic and using nonresident staff, and confirmed the operation has been abated.
• A spokesperson for Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan said the initiative was a private homeschool pod formed during the pandemic and moved this summer for privacy and security, rejecting its classification as an unpermitted school.
• Since 2014 the couple has spent over $110 million to acquire at least 11 homes in Crescent Park, consolidating them into a single compound backed by roughly 56 individual permits for demolition, remodeling and underground construction.
• Neighbors report years of disruptive construction noise, extensive surveillance cameras reportedly covering adjoining properties and large underground spaces described as bunkers, prompting frustration over perceived preferential treatment by city authorities.
• The enforcement action comes as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative shifts away from Bay Area housing and tuition-free school funding, intensifying debate over the couple’s local philanthropy and broader patterns of billionaire land consolidation.