Despite stepped-up, city-paid police enforcement of traffic laws
in the private Eagle Ridge housing development, residents still
complain of dangerous driving conditions and are considering
putting in speed bumps, development residents said.
Despite stepped-up, city-paid police enforcement of traffic laws in the private Eagle Ridge housing development, residents still complain of dangerous driving conditions and are considering putting in speed bumps, development residents said.
In April 2006 residents persuaded councilmen to extend police patrolling efforts to a quarter-mile stretch of Club Drive between its intersection with Santa Teresa Boulevard and the Eagle Ridge Golf Club. Up until that point, the road in northwest Gilroy was not patrolled at the city’s expense because it is gated private property that limits the public to its golf course.
In the first few months after the decision, few, if any, citations were handed out in this area because the Gilroy Police Department did not have a traffic officer, police said. Though the department hired Nestor Quinones for this position 11 months ago, he has not given out any citations, Sgt. Jim Gillio said.
This does not mean that Quinones has not been patrolling the area, Gillio added.
“The terrain and the territory up there makes it difficult to enforce traffic,” he said. “You can’t actually park on a side street amid parked cars. You’re completely open up there.”
Upon seeing a patrol car, speeders and would-be traffic violators slow down or drive more cautiously, thus preventing officers from giving tickets, Gillio said. Still, this deterrence is a positive effect, he said.
However, John Larson – president of Eagle Ridge’s homeowners association – contends the council’s decision has not had any impact on the dangerous driving occurring on Club Drive.
“I don’t think (patrolling has) been working as a deterrent only because there hasn’t been a presence,” he said.
Larson said he still sees speeders and drivers running stops signs. In addition, police are nowhere to be seen, he said.
Police and councilmen said these infractions are a reality of life everywhere and that police are not neglecting the development.
“We patrol Eagle Ridge as we do other streets in our city,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “There’s speeding and running of stops sign all over town. We get calls into the city from all over the city. We try to respond to it as much as we can.”
Ambivalent about lobbying for more police presence, members of the homeowners association are looking into traffic calming measures, including speed bumps, Larson said. The association is testing four speed bumps in a remote area of Club Drive not patrolled by police.
The city has been working with the association to make certain traffic-calming measures would not impede fire department or police service to the area in an emergency, city Traffic Engineer Don Dey said. However, the cost of these measures, if implemented, would be borne by the association, he said.
There has been no discussion of putting traffic calming measures on the stretch of Club Drive patrolled by police, Dey said. If the measures were put in, the association would have to pay for them, he said. However, Larson said the association has no intention of paying for traffic-calming measures or extra patrolling in this area.
The association’s reluctance to spend money to slow speeders highlights the continuing disagreement over whether police should be patrolling the private development. Pinheiro – who voted last year to extend police presence – plans to meet with homeowners to hear their ongoing problems. Other councilmen, such as Craig Gartman who voted against the patrolling extension, remain reluctant to spend city money on the area.
“This is their private community,” he said. “They should be watching out for each other on their own.”
