This is kind-of an “in” thing to do right now. (Watch home improvement shows on HDTV and DIY.) Not really a big deal, no matter who it is.
Well it’s not very secret now, is it?
Hey, I’ve got at least one in plan myself.
Nice to know that Mitt, or someone in his family, has a sense of architectural humor.
I’ve told my wife since we were married over 20 years ago that I was putting one of these in. Heck, these days you can even find dozens of how-to’s to build one yourself.
I will have one, someday.
How did this get found out? If I contracted someone to build me a secret room I would expect them to keep it a secret.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you create a shell company solely to purchase your homes if you would like to keep your name off the plans.
I thought this guy knew all about hiding his tracks. Must be someone else in charge of his money then.
Because plans filed with the buildings department are subject to FIOA requests.
So he’s got a secret office to play President. Who doesn’t!
That is simply where he will store all his binders.
Would totally spoil the next Batman movie if the Joker can just FOIA Bruce Wayne and find the Bat Cave.
Well, to be pedantic, Wayne and Alfred can do all the work they want on their house by themselves and not alert local zoning authorities. If they get caught they’re in trouble, but the only reason they would be caught is after an incident caused the Batcave to be discovered by the authorities. Inspectors don’t go knocking on doors to make sure you didn’t build a multimillion-dollar secret computer cave in your basement, they’d never actually be able to inspect actual buildings being built as a result.
However, given Wayne’s near-infinite amount of financial resources, it seems easier to just have a contractor do the deed for an immense amount of money and never speak of it ever again in exchange for doing all of WayneCo’s contracting jobs at no-bid prices. This does result in a number of manual laborers knowing that you have an immense cavern under your house, but the Joker isn’t going to be stopping all the constructions workers to chat about such things.
(At the risk of diverting this worthy discussion of Mitt Romney’s new mansion into a discussion about the hypothetical legalities of Wayne Enterprises)
Q: What sort of license does Batman need for his Bat Signal? Can he get in trouble if he dazzles aircraft?
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you create a shell company solely to purchase your homes if you would like to keep your name off the plans.
I thought this guy knew all about hiding his tracks. Must be someone else in charge of his money then.
How does that work - Don’t you just FOIA the shell company?
He has a really clear claim to his own copyrighted logo, but enforcing it in court is going to be a whole different bucket of monkeys.
That said, there’s a reason the Batsignal was just always on top of the Commissioner’s roof, no need for an address. you just go there and talk. Now, why the Joker just never set up a trap there I’ll never figure out.
Thankyou so much 
This studious irrelevance has made up for a long day.
If I create a LLC, filing financial information is protected in a way different than the Department of Buildings. I can’t walk into Sallie Mae (government agency) and get a FIOA on your student loan the same way I can’t ask Medicare about your grandmother’s possible hip operation.
Will the contractors keep a secret? If you look in the north-east corner there is a door to a vestibule labeled “charnal pit.”
I always figured batman had his contractors sealed into the batcave for eternity, Pharaoh style.
Batman doesn’t kill. That’s kind of his thing.
