GILROY
– In a two-way real estate deal that would allow Shapell
Industries to build 99 luxury homes and help bail out financially
strapped Bonfante Gardens theme park, 450 existing Eagle Ridge
homeowners are being left in the dark.
GILROY – In a two-way real estate deal that would allow Shapell Industries to build 99 luxury homes and help bail out financially strapped Bonfante Gardens theme park, 450 existing Eagle Ridge homeowners are being left in the dark.
Eagle Ridge homeowners will not get to vote on whether Shapell should be allowed to acquire the 33-acre Bonfante Gardens parcel. Instead, a handful of mostly hand-picked delegates will cast votes. And even though Gilroy City Council will have to approve the 99 housing permits, homeowners association President Dave Light has declined to tell the community who those delegates are.
“You’re not going to get that information from me,” Light said Thursday. “The residents will be voting for new delegates in March anyway.”
At least one board member, Secretary Bill Ayer – the city’s former parks and recreation director – thinks all residents should have a vote.
“One man, one vote is the way everything else in America is done,” Ayer said. “It’s important that everyone be involved in the decision making.”
Light says the bylaws prohibit that. Light Thursday directed Community Management Services Inc., the company that manages Eagle Ridge, to withhold information regarding the delegates.
Ayer said he only knew of one delegate who was voted in by Eagle Ridge homeowners. That delegate is John Lang, who also serves as treasurer of the homeowners association board.
Lang was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Since the gated Eagle Ridge communityis not yet built out, four out of five delegates may be selected by Shapell Industries, the current owner of the undeveloped Eagle Ridge lots, explained disgruntled resident Joe Lomeli. Not until Eagle Ridge is at 51 percent capacity, Lomeli said, will homeowners gain control of their delegates.
Also frustrating some residents, Shapell already hand selected four of the five homeowners association board members, who vote on most policy decisions. And two of those board members do not live in Eagle Ridge, they work for Shapell.
Shapell Industries wants to expand Eagle Ridge by building up to 99 luxury homes. To get Eagle Ridge homeowners to support the necessary land deal, Shapell has said it is prepared to build long-sought amenities, such as recreational facilities, on a portion of the 33 acres.
“My opinion, and from what I hear from other residents, is that resolving the traffic issues are more important to us than getting tennis courts or a swimming pool,” Eagle Ridge resident Joe Botta said. “Right now you can go down the streets here 90 miles per hour and no one will stop you.”
Traffic issues have been a thorn in the side of residents and Shapell Industries since the opening of the ritzy west-end development.
The neighborhood has 25 mph speed limit signs posted in several spots. However, if cars ignore those signs, the Gilroy Police Department will not be there to issue tickets. When Shapell Industries was designing Eagle Ridge, the city told the company it would not provide traffic enforcement for private streets.
“Our policy is easy to understand: The city provides traffic control on public streets only,” Gilroy Planning Division Manager Bill Faus said. “It sounds like they want to have their cake and eat it, too. Shapell fought hard to make those private streets, and the city fought against it.”
There are two things that determine whether a street is private. Private streets are owned and maintained privately by homeowners or a homeowners association. They also do not have to conform to all size and safety standards the way public streets must.
There are solutions to the issue. Shapell could provide private traffic patrol, but they have refused to unless homeowners pay for it. Shapell also could contract with the city for particular traffic enforcement services. Again, this would take homeowners being willing to pay for it.
A third alternative would be to form a community services district that would, essentially, tax homeowners to pay the police department to do traffic enforcement. This alternative, however, is a slap in the face to some Eagle Ridge residents.
“I pay $123 a month in homeowners fees. I pay $9,000 a year in property taxes. And I’m being asked to pay even more for the same services other residents get,” Botta said.
Light and Mayor Al Pinheiro will meet today to discuss these and potentially other options to increase traffic enforcement.
“I don’t think (traffic enforcement) services should be kept from Eagle Ridge residents, but if things about their streets restrict us there might be some valid reasons not to provide those services,” Pinheiro said.
Faus says he understands the frustration of Eagle Ridge residents, but he stressed Thursday that those residents do get the same level of service. The property tax Eagle Ridge residents pay goes toward traffic enforcement and maintenance of all public roads.
“If someone was speeding down Santa Teresa Boulevard, an officer would give the driver a ticket,” Faus explained, and that protects both Eagle Ridge and other Gilroy residents using that road.
