DEAR EDITOR:
I was absolutely amazed at the Shapell meeting held at the Eagle
Ridge Clubhouse Tuesday.
DEAR EDITOR:
I was absolutely amazed at the Shapell meeting held at the Eagle Ridge Clubhouse Tuesday.
Do we really live near the Silicon Valley, the high-tech capital of the world, or are we now in a controlled environment? Let me explain … As reported in the Gilroy Dispatch on March 9, the City Council has granted a first-of-its-kind special exemption to the city’s growth-control ordinance which allows Bonfante Gardens to re-classify a 33-acre land parcel as residential, and potentially sell that land to Shapell Industries, builder and part owner of Eagle Ridge. Shapell has no desire to develop the land unless it is an expansion to the existing homes at Eagle Ridge. Shapell will not add any new traffic entrances and will require the new 100-plus homes to use the existing streets. That’s the plan and all the Eagle Ridge homeowners get a vote. Well kind of …
My wife Debbie and I live at Eagle Ridge, own a Shapell home, and most of all love being in Gilroy. We love our wonderful home, our neighbors and have no complaints until now … As the homeowners walked into the clubhouse on Tuesday night they were surrounded with grandiose pictures of a swimming pool, tennis courts, and four different plans to cram 100-plus more houses into small 6,000-square-foot lots, while not adding any new traffic entrances or exits into the community.
This is the “bait” for current homeowners to vote yes for Shapell. We already have major issues with traffic and the city seems to dance around the core issues as they did again on Tuesday evening. After listening to the Bonfante sob story for more than a half hour, it made me feel like the only reason that I moved to Gilroy was to “save” Bonfante Gardens by voting YES for the sale of the Bonfante parcel to Shapell. By the way, Debbie and I have no children and have purchased season tickets to Bonfante Gardens every year.
We do support Bonfante Gardens and want the park to succeed. But bailing out Bonfante Gardens and making sure that Michael as a creditor gets some of his money back is not the problem for homeowners at Eagle Ridge.
What was even more appalling was to listen to the Eagle Ridge Homeowners Association Board explain the convoluted voting process on how Shapell will take over this land. My friends, this IS going to happen with or without your vote.
What was described is that Eagle Ridge is divided into seven districts, each with its own district delegate. Each homeowner within each district will cast one vote per house and it will then be up to the delegate to determine the district vote for or against the sale of the Bonfante land parcel to Shapell Industries.
When a question from the audience was asked, “Does the district delegate have to vote with the majority vote from their district? i.e. If the majority of the homeowners in that district vote NO for the decision, does the district delegate have to vote no?”
I was amazed at what I heard next. The current HOA Board president looked around a bit and said something like, “Well no, I guess that technically they don’t have to vote with the majority … But you as homeowners should neighbor with your delegate to make your opinions heard.”
Are you kidding me? The majority of the homeowners were up in arms. Many homeowners want to see changes to the voting process made here for this important vote. So this decision to add 100-plus new homes and 200-plus cars will be up to seven delegates voting on such an important topic. I personally stood up in the meeting and made the comment, “So assuming all districts are of a similar size, it is possible that only four votes (4 for, 3 against) could land the deal for Shapell?”
So, whether you are for or against this issue we as homeowners of Eagle Ridge should be allowed a majority vote and not have to rely on seven lone votes, or even as few as four votes. I’m sure if I called Al Gore he would support us Eagle Ridge Homeowners to go with the majority vote here …
Bruce Hatz, Gilroy
Submitted Wednesday, March 10 to ed****@****ic.com
