GILROY
– If Bonfante Gardens lets Eagle Ridge residents use the theme
park to access their homes, the financially-strapped horticulture
park could be saved from financial ruin.
GILROY – If Bonfante Gardens lets Eagle Ridge residents use the theme park to access their homes, the financially-strapped horticulture park could be saved from financial ruin.
Year-round access from Hecker Pass is just about all it will take to get Eagle Ridge board president David Light to support a mega real estate deal between Eagle Ridge developer Shapell Industries and Bonfante Gardens.
And already the developer and the theme park have reached a verbal agreement to let Eagle Ridge residents use Bonfante Gardens’ entrance off Hecker Pass to access their west side homes. As the arrangement stands now, residents could use the access road on weekdays that do not fall on national holidays or special event days planned by the park.
On weekends, the busiest time for Bonfante Gardens, Eagle Ridge residents would have to use one of the two existing access roads – Club Drive or Ballybunion Drive.
“I have no problem, personally, with access five days a week,” but some residents may expect more, Light said.
Light and fellow Eagle Ridge board member John Lang are scheduled to negotiate details of the access point this weekend, according to Light. Light also said he would press for access seven days a week, at least during the park’s off season.
“I see no reason why the limited access can’t be extended … when Bonfante Gardens is closed,” Light said.
Light also wants assurances that if the park were sold – or if creditors foreclosed on the park – access rights would remain with the land.
“I want to see a permanent easement regardless of who owns the property,” Light said.
According to Bonfante Gardens board president Bob Kraemer, creditors have given “verbal assurances” that access would be permanent.
Whatever the case, Light said he would go back to his constituents and “make sure they were satisfied” with the agreement.
Light is one of seven delegates who will vote next month to approve or reject the land deal. With 142 votes to his name and only 154 needed to garner two-thirds approval, Light’s vote by far holds the most weight. No other delegate possesses more than 38 votes, so virtually all the other delegates will have to vote no to kill the deal.
“No deal is done until the deal is done, but I’m optimistic the overall package appears to be positive to the homeowners (of Eagle Ridge),” said Kraemer, who is quarterbacking Bonfante Gardens’ game plan toward financial solvency.
Last year, the park turned its first profit by turning its daily operations over to Paramount Parks, one of the leading theme park operators in the country.
Paramount was able to cut costs and drive up attendance via special two-for-one deals with passes to its Santa Clara-based Great America theme park.
Only the few details regarding the access road stand between Bonfante Gardens and now its most critical goal – pulling off the multimillion dollar land deal with Shapell to help pay off its $70 million of debt.
Kraemer has said the land deal, coupled with a bondholders agreement the park and its creditors have signed, would turn the park’s $70 million of debt into a more-manageable $14 million.
The land deal between Shapell and the park involves a 33-acre parcel that is used by Bonfante Gardens for storage. Shapell wants to build 118 luxury homes on roughly 6,000-square-foot lots there. In exchange, the Bay Area developer will build amenities such as a swimming pool and tennis courts, which some residents of the gated community have been clamoring for.
Still, the delegate election is being contested by disgruntled Eagle Ridge residents, who wanted the popular vote – not a handful of delegates – to determine the fate of the real estate deal.
Eagle Ridge resident Michael Patterson said he contacted the District Attorney’s office Wednesday so he eventually could file a complaint. Patterson says the delegate format breaks Eagle Ridge’s bylaws as well as the state’s laws that guide homeowners associations.
According to Patterson, the district attorney has not committed to taking the case as the office still is deciding which of its branches should handle the matter.
Shapell Executive Vice President Chris Truebridge says a popular vote is warranted, and he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is.
Truebridge said he hopes the Eagle Ridge board of directors directs its management firm to conduct some sort of straw poll, and he said he would pick up the tab. The delegate vote would still formally approve or reject the land deal. The straw poll, however, would help the delegates determine the popular opinion.
“I still want to know if the majority of homeowners support (the land deal) or not,” Truebridge said. “That’s important to me.”
Truebridge said disgruntled Eagle Ridge residents could fight the project every step of the way as it moves forward at City Hall.
“Residents could make this project miserable, and I’m not willing to push this rock uphill,” Truebridge said.
