GILROY
– For disgruntled Eagle Ridge residents, springtime in Gilroy
may symbolize a second chance at the life they envisioned when
moving into their gated hillside community.
GILROY – For disgruntled Eagle Ridge residents, springtime in Gilroy may symbolize a second chance at the life they envisioned when moving into their gated hillside community.
Through March and some of April, residents who feel cheated out of amenities – from police services they say they pay for to resort-like facilities they claim had been promised – will get a chance to make Shapell Industries come through on at least some of those things.
Shapell Industries, the firm that developed Eagle Ridge, has announced a March 9 community meeting. At the session, residents can air their grievances with the company as they learn more about the developer’s hopes of purchasing a 33-acre Bonfante Gardens parcel and its plans to develop up to 120 luxury homes on the land.
“We want to know if residents are generally interested in us pursuing this,” said Shapell Industries Vice president Susan Mineta. “If they say no, then it dies there.”
To garner support for the land deal, Shapell Industries is prepared to build things like tennis courts and a swimming pool on the 33-acre parcel. However, in recent weeks, Eagle Ridge homeowners said they will seek traffic enforcement on their private streets that are often publicly traveled because of the popular golf course at Eagle Ridge.
“We’re still looking at the (33-acre parcel) to see if it’s something we can take on,” Mineta said. “We’re going to tell them what we’re proposing, and we want to talk with them about potential amenities.”
The March 9 session has implications that go far beyond the ritzy 1,850-acre development.
If the land deal dies March 9, it would also kill a Bonfante Gardens debt restructuring plan that reduces the park’s $70 million debt to $14 million.
Eagle Ridge resident Joe Lomeli said he’s ready to lobby the developer March 9. But Lomeli isn’t expecting Shapell to lend an open ear.
“I think the land deal is a done deal, to be frank,” Lomeli said. “There’s a real disconnect going on with the delegate situation.”
Eagle Ridge bylaws prevent homeowners from voting on a one-person-one-vote basis. Instead about half a dozen delegates representing homeowners across the various neighborhoods in Eagle Ridge will cast votes.
Homeowners will get a chance to elect new delegates in early April, said Dave Light, president of the Eagle Ridge homeowners association. However, if voter apathy reaches historic levels, a majority of delegates could get hand-picked by the homeowners association five-member board.
Because much of Eagle Ridge is still undeveloped, two of the board spots are filled by Shapell employees.
This structure has met with scrutiny and skepticism by the community, but Light said the voice of Eagle Ridge residents will be heard.
“The residents control the majority of the board,” Light said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Mineta and Shapell Industries spokesman Gary Marsh took great pains this week dispelling misconceptions about the company’s role in choosing delegates.
The misconceptions arose partly because Light, who was appointed to the board by Shapell, sealed the names of current delegates last week and homeowners only recalled voting for one delegate, resident John Lang.
Homeowners worried that the other delegates were appointed by Shapell, but in fact the delegates were appointed by the board, after an insufficient number of Eagle Ridge residents showed up at the polls.
“This is not a situation that Shapell can be coaching or cheer leading,” Marsh said. “The delegates will vote on (the land deal) and Shapell has no control over who the delegates are nor how they vote.”
If Shapell can win over Eagle Ridge residents with a plan that promises them some sort of amenities at a reasonable cost to the developer, several next steps will occur.
First, City Council must grant Bonfante Gardens housing permits under a special exemption for nonprofit companies within the city’s growth-control ordinance.
If that goes through, Shapell will work with city planners to develop the 33 acres. Ultimately, Council will have to approve those plans.
Shapell says Eagle Ridge residents will not be kept in the dark regarding those plans.
“There will be a full public review process with the city,” Mineta said.
