Dennis Taylor has been spending too much time on the bar stool
of the Buzzard Gulch Honky Tonk. Unfortunately, by looking through
the bottom of his shot glass, he has a distorted view of the
salient issues confronting Eagle Ridge residents. Obviously, Taylor
didn’t spend much time researching the situation in order to
present the issues fairly.
Dennis Taylor has been spending too much time on the bar stool of the Buzzard Gulch Honky Tonk. Unfortunately, by looking through the bottom of his shot glass, he has a distorted view of the salient issues confronting Eagle Ridge residents. Obviously, Taylor didn’t spend much time researching the situation in order to present the issues fairly.
Eagle Ridge residents were not involved in the negotiations between Shapell and the city when this project was approved. What is clear is that the city approved a public golf course within the complex and, as a result, has made the streets of Eagle Ridge public. The public use of ER’s streets is almost equal to the residents’ use.
Many people in Gilroy enjoy the use of the clubhouse including golfers and business people as well as those who attend luncheons, weddings, parties and fund raisers. Taylor hangs his argument on the fact ER is a “gated community.” That just means there is a station to greet people and to direct them to their destination. To my knowledge, there has never been anyone living outside of ER refused entrance to the community.
Taylor also implies that the taxpayers of Gilroy would pay more in tax assessments if the police were to patrol the streets of ER … “have all of us pony up for police to patrol streets only he and other members of the guarded community has access to.” This is misleading sensationalism. The ER resident’s tax bill includes the same tax assessments that everyone in Gilroy pays, except, ER residents are not getting the benefit of having police traffic enforcement.
Taylor is correct on one thing; ER Homeowners Association does own the streets. It seems that’s an advantage for taxpayers of Gilroy – they don’t have to pay for the maintenance and repair through additional tax assessments. Homeowners pay for this.
If the city would have allowed the HOA to take traffic safety matters into their own hands, there wouldn’t be an issue. A solution is to put speed bumps in strategic locations. The city turned down our request. They first insisted we do a traffic study which was a waste of time. Second, they gave us other ideas to enforce traffic, again to no avail. When we wanted to install speed bumps, they refused, saying that the city doesn’t allow speed bumps and, in addition, it would slow down the fire department’s response time.
The residents of ER are concerned about someone getting seriously hurt or killed. We want both the residents and the public to slow down. Either let the ERHOA or the City of Gilroy deal with the issue, it doesn’t matter. Something has to be done.
One last comment, Dennis Taylor is no colleague of mine. Sitting on a bar stool presiding over the Buzzard Gulch HOA has nothing in common with setting on the board of ERHOA.
David Light is president of the Eagle Ridge Homeonwer’s
Association.
