Trump wanted to build a family mausoleum on his golf course complete with 'imposing obelisks.' After officials called the plans 'overwhelming and garish,' his ex-wife was laid to rest in a modest grave instead.

• In 2007, Donald Trump filed plans for a mausoleum with four obelisks on his New Jersey golf course.
• The city called the plans "overwhelming and garish," so he scrapped the idea.

Though Donald Trump's 2007 plans to build a mausoleum with four obelisks on his golf course in New Jersey were rejected by city officials who called the design "garish," he ultimately managed to use his property as a family gravesite.

More than 15 years ago, Trump began planning a family cemetery on the Bedminster, New Jersey, property. The size and design of the project has changed over the years, but this month his first wife, Ivana, became the first person known to be buried on the property.

Originally, Trump's plans for the mausoleum — where he would eventually be interred — included a 19-foot-high, classical-style stone structure to be built at Trump National Golf Club, which features two courses, the news site NJ.com reported in 2012.

The mausoleum would have included "four imposing obelisks surrounding its exterior and a small altar and six vaults inside," according to NJ.com. But after encountering opposition from city officials who called the design "overwhelming and garish," Trump floated the idea of redesigning the structure as a "mausoleum/chapel," The Washington Post reported.

Plans for the large-scale mausoleum were ultimately scrapped, and Trump proposed several other cemetery redesigns, including a 284-plot portion of the golf course with burial sites available for purchase. No such cemetery has been built, but the presence of burial grounds on the golf-course property could offer tax breaks to the business.

Ivana Trump was laid to rest on the property in July in a modest grave in a grassy area behind the first hole of one of the courses, "not too far from the main clubhouse," the New York Post reported. She died following a fall in her Upper East Side home on July 14.

The Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster is hosting a tournament for the new LIV Golf tour, which has faced scrutiny over its funding by the Saudi government.