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THE heir to Porsche has announced plans to build a private tunnel and underground garage beneath his mansion.
Wolfgang Porsche‘s £8.5million project, reminiscent of a James Bond villain’s lair, has sparked outrage in Salzburg.
GettyWolfgang Porsche, with his former wife, Claudia Huebner in 2017[/caption]
GettyThe 81-year-old plans to drill an underground private tunnel below his villa on the Kapuzinerberg[/caption]
The 81-year-old struck a deal with the Austrian city’s former conservative mayor, Harald Preuner, in 2024.
It included plans to drill an underground private tunnel below his 17th-century villa on the Kapuzinerberg.
It would allow him to park up to a dozen of his cars underneath the Paschinger Schlössl.
Under the deal, the billionaire paid €40,000 to gain the rights to dig a tunnel on city-owned land.
A steep and narrow road that can turn icy when temperatures drop currently leads up to Porsche’s mansion.
Some politicians have complained that the city council had not been briefed about the heir’s plans.
Local Green leader Ingeborg Haller has led the protest criticising what she called a “back-door deal” that was handled in a “very intransparent” way.
“Salzburg is UNESCO-listed. We are also in a nature reserve here and this is simply a highly sensitive area,” Haller said.
She said any kind of “special treatment for the super-rich” was unacceptable.
In response to criticism, a court-certified expert was appointed by the incumbent Social Democratic mayor, Bernhard Auinger.
According to the expert’s report made public, the compensation paid by Porsche was deemed “appropriate”.
Porsche bought the historic villa located near a Capuchin monastery on the forested hill in 2020.
The mansion, which is currently under renovation, once belonged to Austria’s famed Jewish writer Stefan Zweig.
Zweig lived there for 15 years and penned several well-known works there before fleeing to Britain during the rise of Nazism.
The city council is expected to decide in mid-May whether or not to let the project go ahead as planned.
It would have to approve a zoning plan change for the garage.
Wolfgang is the grandson of Austrian-born Ferdinand Porsche, who founded the car company.
He acts as the chairman of Porsche’s supervisory board.
A spokesman for Wolfgang Porsche declined to comment on what he called a “private matter” with no connection to the Porsche company, a subsidiary of the German car giant Volkswagen.
Google MapsA steep and narrow road that can turn icy currently leads up to Porsche’s mansion[/caption]
Getty - ContributorThe mansion once belonged to Austria’s famed Jewish writer Stefan Zweig[/caption]
AlamyWolfgang acts as the chairman of Porsche’s supervisory board[/caption] 
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