OAKLAND — Every Saturday like clockwork, the caterers, musicians, DJs, port-o-potties and shuttle vans full of wedding guests slowly wind up narrow Panoramic Way, negotiating tight hairpin turns before reaching a scenic hilltop estate called Skyfall.

Labeling the activity a public nuisance, the city has ordered David “Sandy” Boyd not to hold weddings and other commercial events at his residentially zoned property located high above UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium. Yet brides, grooms and their guests continue their matrimonial march up the hill, clogging the lone, steep road in and out.

Neighbors are upset over the noise and traffic but mostly fear the potential fire hazard they say endangers their vulnerable Panoramic Hill neighborhood. The community barely escaped the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm.

“If, God forbid, summer comes around after another dry winter and some drunk clown goes out the side (of Skyfall) and lights a cigarette, there could be another Oakland Hills fire,” said Jonathan Miller, a resident of the community that straddles the Oakland-Berkeley border. “Does (Oakland Mayor) Libby Schaaf know what’s going on here? If they want to commercialize these hills, what’s her plan?”

But Boyd, the former owner of the Fresh Choice restaurant chain, which went bankrupt in 2012, says he is no different from the average Oakland Airbnb or short-term rental landlord. He insists his operation, which has hosted weddings for more than a year, is not commercial, and he receives only a rent check and a deposit.

Now Boyd, facing mounting financial pressures, is seeking a conditional use permit to turn the hilltop complex into the nonprofit Skyfall Meditation and Community Center.

“I think the highest and best use of it is to share it with the community,” Boyd said in a phone interview. “The bottom line is I have neighbors in Berkeley at least a mile away complaining. They are the same ones who complained about Paul McCartney playing at Memorial Stadium.”

Weddings

On a recent Saturday, a wedding party snaked its way up Panoramic Way, past signs warning “Critical Fire Area.” Bluegrass music could be heard from neighboring trails, as the celebrants enjoyed a view of all five Bay Area bridges and the San Francisco skyline.

Skyfall is booked through at least November 2016. The stunning setting consists of low-slung, circular or curved-roof shingled and brick buildings that blend into the surroundings, a la the Shire in “The Hobbit.” Its website boasts a banquet hall built with “old world brick,” a “man cave” and —‰’50 Shades of Gray’ room (cuffs included).”

Neighbors alerted Oakland officials about the events more than a year ago. A city zoning inspector determined Boyd was hosting an unpermitted assembly and issued a cease-and-desist order on April 15, 2014. Boyd appealed, arguing that the venue is a short-term rental but lost.

This August, Greg Minor, an assistant in the city administrator’s office, declared Boyd’s property a public nuisance, fined him $3,500 and gave him 30 days to abate or face daily fines of $500. Boyd appealed that ruling too, and a hearing date is pending.

Tom Miller, Boyd’s friend, neighbor and attorney, says that the city has allowed Boyd to “honor the contracts he signed” for weddings, but Minor said that is not true, citing an October email where he told Tom Miller and Boyd the “unpermitted activity should cease until it is legalized.”

Tom Miller also said Boyd “registered with the city and pays taxes” on his short-term rentals, but city spokeswoman Cathy Kenny said the Skyfall owner has no required business license with the city. City Councilman Dan Kalb, who represents that Oakland neighborhood and has talked to neighbors about their concerns, calls the Airbnb comparison “lawyer B.S.”

“Bringing a wedding with hundreds of people there is not like a rental of a small little cottage,” Kalb said. “It’s insulting that they think we’d buy that crap.”

Neighbors

According to neighbors, the devastating 1991 conflagration jumped Claremont Avenue into Claremont Canyon and came within a half mile of Skyfall, which sits where Panoramic Way dead ends. Residents constantly coordinate disaster responses with fire officials and, in the event of a fire, they know to flee on foot, avoiding traffic bottlenecks and leaving the narrow road open to emergency responders.

Michael Kelly, president of the Panoramic Hill Association, wrote the city in September saying the number of events at the property was increasing. The letter explains Skyfall’s “remote and vulnerable” location on Panoramic Hill, surrounded by wild grasslands or woods. It also cites Berkeley Fire Department estimates that it would take a fire truck more than 20 minutes to reach the estate in a best-case scenario.

” … It is into this uniquely hazardous location that we now have large parties with hundreds of guests a month who are generally unaware of the severity of fire dangers surrounding them,” Kelly wrote.

Boyd said he hasn’t been told by fire agencies that there is a hazard. And Berkeley fire Interim Chief Avery Webb said that weddings by themselves do not necessarily create a problem.

“The size and type of activities at any property can create fire hazards,” Webb said.

The road

Boyd has had issues with his neighbors before.

After a winter storm in 1997, the last stretch of Panoramic Way leading up to Skyfall was partially washed out. Boyd said he unsuccessfully urged Oakland officials to repair it, then bulldozed a 600- to 700-foot dirt road from his home, down the hill and through his neighbors’ property and public open space, without surveys, permits, engineer reports or permission from neighbors. Instead, he used a map and measuring tape, according to a 2002 appellate court ruling. The neighbor who owned a parcel of land he bulldozed through sued and won $250,000.

Boyd kept bulldozing after the neighbor sued, leading Oakland officials to issue a cease and desist order. The judge called Boyd “a determined individual who would continue to engage in conduct undermining the property rights of others, in relation to this roadway, if not otherwise restrained.”

Lance Montauk owned land impacted by the illegal road.

“I believe Boyd frequently tests the limits of the law and his neighbors’ tolerance — kind of a ‘cowboy’ approach to life,” Montauk wrote by email. “What he did with the road was gross, impolite, unacceptable, for him costly and in the end totally useless.”

Boyd said his wife was pregnant at the time and that he barely encroached on others’ property.

“It was never malicious,” he said, adding that the dirt road remains and is a hiking “asset” to the neighborhood.

Finances

One of Boyd’s arguments during his appeal process was the large amount of property taxes he pays. However, tax records show he owes $91,000 in delinquent property taxes on Skyfall, and $23,000 on a lower, separate portion of the estate where he lives. He is in similar straits on other properties he owns He also owes millions in past due mortgage payments for apartment buildings near the campus.

After the bankruptcy, Boyd’s Fresh Choice chain was left with less than $700,000 in assets and more than $10 million in debt, according to court records, and owes the IRS $1.6 million in unpaid taxes.

Boyd personally owes more than $1.36 million in federal taxes and $472,000 in state taxes, according to numerous liens.Adding to his woes, a hilltop property of Boyd’s made the East Bay Municipal Utility District list of excessive water users, slurping more than 3,100 gallons of water a day. He was fined $344.

Boyd said his tenuous economic position led him to start renting Skyfall, which was vacant.

“I probably would never have rented out the house if I didn’t need the money,” Boyd said. “I owe property taxes on it, yes I do. Is that a sin?”

To keep the property operational, Boyd plans to team with Tom Miller’s Green Cities Fund nonprofit and convert the 5,000-square-foot residence into a meditation center, donating 10 percent of gross receipts, his attorney said. Boyd would manage the center, which would host charitable and fully paid events.

Kalb is having trouble finding any inner peace with such a plan.

“Noise, fire safety, there are all sorts of issues with this,” the councilman said, “and they don’t seem to give a hoot about it.”

Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni.