GILROY
– If being a neighbor to 120 new homes is inevitable, Eagle
Ridge residents may have to enjoy it – alongside a junior
Olympic-size swimming pool, potentially.
GILROY – If being a neighbor to 120 new homes is inevitable, Eagle Ridge residents may have to enjoy it – alongside a junior Olympic-size swimming pool, potentially.
With opinions on a mega real estate deal still volatile, officials made one thing clear Tuesday night – if Eagle Ridge homeowners don’t approve the land deal between Bonfante Gardens and Shapell Industries, the park will foreclose and out-of-town creditors will determine what happens to potentially hundreds of acres abutting the gated west side community.
“What choice do I have?” said Eagle Ridge resident Julie Robinson. “If I don’t vote for this, I’m being told I might get a hotel or a roller coaster in my backyard. My hands are tied.”
During a three-hour meeting jam-packed with more than 200 Eagle Ridge residents, Bonfante Gardens board president Bob Kraemer guaranteed the park’s demise if homeowners did not agree to the deal.
To reduce the park’s massive debt by $56 million, Bonfante Gardens wants to sell a 33-acre storage lot to Shapell, which will build and sell up to 120 homes on 6,000-square-foot lots. Prices were estimated to run from the mid $600,000 range to the low $700,000 range.
To appease residents disillusioned by a lack of amenities and chronic traffic violations, Shapell will use three acres of the parcel to build amenities such as a swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts and a cabana/meeting room next to an existing one-acre park.
“We felt we might as well put our best foot forward and deliver something the community has been asking for,” Shapell Vice president Chris Truebridge told Eagle Ridge residents Tuesday. “This project doesn’t work if the homeowners don’t support it.”
Truebridge preached win-win possibilities for each party – Bonfante Gardens, Shapell Industries, Gilroy and Eagle Ridge homeowners.
Truebridge also told homeowners his company would consider paying for traffic calming devices such as speed bumps. However, he did not commit to paying for traffic enforcement, a service not provided by the Gilroy Police Department since Eagle Ridge streets are privately built and owned.
“We believe there can be a four-way win,” Truebridge said. “If I didn’t think it was possible, I wouldn’t be here tonight.”
Meanwhile, Kraemer told expansion-wary residents their prospects wouldn’t be as rosy if creditors sell the park to a major entertainment venue who may want to expand the horticultural theme park beyond its community-friendly scope.
The 33-acre Bonfante Gardens parcel is zoned commercially, opening the door to a host of attractions such as a hotel, bed and breakfast or convention center.
“I don’t want to be in the position to give you an ultimatum,” Kraemer said. “All I can tell you is the truth. If the park is sold, it will not meet the vision we have for it now.”
But throughout the three-hour session, many homeowners remained skeptical of the project and worried about its impact on them.
Specifically, residents worry that 120 new homes with roughly 200 more cars using the Club Drive access will cause even more traffic safety issues. Residents are asking for traffic enforcement as well as a second access road coming off of Hecker Pass.
But, Shapell says it cannot make a profit if it builds a bridge to cross Uvas Creek. And Paramount Parks, which operates Bonfante Gardens, balked at a plan to make the park’s entrance do double duty as an Eagle Ridge entrance, according to Truebridge.
“This makes our street a thoroughfare,” said Brian Walker, a new Eagle Ridge resident who lives next to the 33-acre parcel. “When you move in next to a sound wall, you assume you’re not going to have 120 homes next to you.”
“I don’t want to see my piece of heaven changed because Shapell wants to make a little money,” said another resident who refused to identify himself.
Homeowners asked Shapell and Bonfante Gardens to give them sufficient time to digest the impacts of the land deal. However, the park is hard pressed for time.
Bondholders are chomping at the bit since the park defaulted on its debt payments in December. The park is using reserves to make those monthly debt payments now.
“I personally love Bonfante Gardens, but their debt is not our problem,” Eagle Ridge resident Annette DiResta. “You’re trying to shove this down our throats.”
Instead, Eagle Ridge homeowners must now learn how a yet-to-be-determined slate of candidates lean on this issue before they elect delegates March 30.
Half a dozen or so delegates will represent homeowners in an April 25 election. That is when the homeowners association must approve or decline the annexation of the 33-acre parcel.
Residents soured at the delegate system and called for a popular vote to occur, even if it meant changing the association’s bylaws.
“This is way too huge an issue not to have homeowners vote,” Robinson said.
“This isn’t a decision about whether to make the tennis courts green or black. You’re talking about changing the entire end of a development,” Walker said.
Dave Light, the Eagle Ridge homeowners association board president, said changing the bylaws would take too long given the April 25 timeline.
Light acknowledged the inherent weakness of the delegate system, but he stuck to his claims that in the end it will be fair.
“It would seem to me if the delegates are smart they’ll vote according to the opinions of the people in the district (neighborhood) they represent,” Light said. “But the bottom line is they can cast their vote how they want.”
