Martha's neighbors are down on the farm

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NYDaily News

Martha's Neighbors Are Down on the Farm

Fear it'll become TV studio

By TIMOTHY J. BURGER

Daily News Washington Bureau

Martha Stewart was a controversial figure in the wealthy Westchester hamlet of Katonah long before her ImClone stock sale.

Her extensive, ever-changing plans for a dozen buildings on her 153-acre "working farm" have roiled this exclusive enclave, where such people as George Soros and Ralph Lauren are the arbiters of taste.

Stewart has won one zoning variance after another, putting neighbors on guard. Many of them are worried she will disrupt the area by shooting her TV show on her fancy new farm.

For Martha Stewart's neighbors, the domestic diva's new digs are not a good thing. "She's fixing it up for the TV cameras ... they suspect," neighbor Gordon Aydelott said.

For some of Stewart's neighbors, you might as well put up McDonald's golden arches.

Their fears may be buttressed by Bedford Town documents and reports from a knowledgeable source that indicate MS Real Estate Management Co., which handles Stewart's personal properties, is paying for at least some construction work at the site.

The company is paid $2 million a year by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for "use of these properties for television filming, photography, research and development of content and products and various other commercial purposes," according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

MS Real Estate "permits us to use the properties currently owned by Ms. Stewart for any purpose relating to our businesses," the Omnimedia filing states.

The Daily News obtained Bedford Town receipts made out to MS Real Estate for application fees, along with MS Real Estate checks made out to the town.

Persistent Worries

Stewart has tried to allay her neighbors' fears about what she will do with the estate she has dubbed Cantitoe Farm.

The farm "would be Ms. Stewart's primary residence, and ... there were no plans for commercial use of the property," caretaker Jesse McDonald insisted in a March 2001 meeting, according to minutes paraphrasing him. Stewart's lawyer, John Arons, has made similar assurances.

But suspicions persist with every variance request.

"We need facts, not fudge, as to Ms. Stewart's intentions and purposes," John Ledes, editor of Beauty Fashion publishing, wrote to the board.

Ledes was alarmed about Stewart's request at a January zoning meeting to build several new bathrooms on the property, prompting his "concern that there would be commercial activities on the property."

McDonald replied that the proliferation of potties is needed because some buildings on the massive estate "are up to half a mile apart, and ... it would be unreasonable to expect that someone should walk that distance to use the bathroom," records indicate.

The minutes also note that the help will have separate bathrooms. McDonald spoke of one set for use by "workers on the property," and another "for private use by Ms. Stewart and her daughter."

Barbed Words

At one zoning hearing, Stewart appeared to dis a neighbor who was concerned that her construction could ruin her view. "I have to look at that," Stewart replied — pointing at the woman's home, Aydelott said.

At another hearing, Stewart tried to woo riled locals with a batch of "wonderful cookies," neighbor Linda Rodgers — daughter of the late composer Richard Rodgers — said sarcastically.

Tacky move? "Yes," she said.

Good fences normally make good neighbors, but Stewart raised eyebrows by replacing a wavering old stone wall with one that was razor straight and, some said, out of character with the area's antique feel.

"There was already a wall there that we neighbors thought was fine. Ohhh, no. ... She redid the whole thing," Aydelott said. It took months.

In February, a zoning board member complained the new wall was "in excess of the permitted 4-feet height." Stewart's aides said it would be fixed.

Her popularity wasn't helped when she demolished an 18th-century house on the property that she originally said she wanted to preserve. Stewart's representatives told the zoning board the building was infested with termites and couldn't be saved.

McDonald, Stewart lawyer Arons, and Stewart spokeswoman Susan Magrino did not return calls.



-- Anonymous, June 30, 2002

Answers

Sounds to me like some of these neighbors just like to complain.

The potties complaint was funny. I was thinking Git could donate her yard art if she was so inclined. LOL

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2002


I believe Martha has been warring with neighbors for a long time. Her Martha's Vineyard neighbors were also upset by her cavalier attitude. There was a minor press sensation about her pinning someone to a wall with her jeep because of some sort of disagreement. Also, whenever she visited a K-Mart store for a promo, she dictated that she would not speak to the peasants working there and they were not to try to speak to her. Sheesh! Even the Queen talks more to commoners than she does to aristos. She has built up a solid reputation over the years as someone who is arrogant and very difficult to get along with and who treats her employees (and most other people, I guess) with contempt--very Helmsleyesque.

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

Apparently she isn't gettin' any, then, is she? LOL

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

See Apoc's post about the bronze dildos.

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

Now Meemur, you know that Martha's dildos aren't bronze, they're gold of course!

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002


They may be gold, but if she had it her way they'd be real and not attached to anything as meaningless as a man.

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

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