GILROY
– Cypress Court is still a quiet little street, for now.
At one end is busy Westwood Drive, at the other a
cul-de-sac.
GILROY – Cypress Court is still a quiet little street, for now.
At one end is busy Westwood Drive, at the other a cul-de-sac. Except for the houses lining either side, the only thing on Cypress Court is an orchard that stretches north to First Street.
But half of that orchard – the southern half, along Cypress Court – is set to become a 104-unit housing development called Benassi Oaks, named for the Benassi family, which owns and lives on the property.
It’s not the new neighbors Cypress Court residents have been objecting to; it’s the traffic. Benassi Oaks’ only entrance and exit will be on their street, and Gilroy city staff say there is no workable alternative.
While neighbors don’t mind having residents of 24 new senior citizens’ houses drive on their street, they say adding the cars from 80 apartments is just too much. The apartment dwellers should have to enter and exit at First Street, 60 residents have said in a petition to the city.
Despite the organized complaint, the city Planning Commission approved the development plan a month ago. City Council members will now take up the matter a week from Monday, and their decision will be final.
City staff is recommending that the Council approve the project as is.
“The developer came up with quite a number of alternatives,” city planner Cydney Casper said Thursday. “A viable alternative was not found.”
A huge factor is that the Benassis plan to build a shopping center – rumored to be anchored by a supermarket – on the north half of the orchard, which is zoned for commercial use. They haven’t filed a proposal with the city for such a plan, but city staff are planning the current residential development with the stores in mind.
That means any road from the apartments to First Street would have to accommodate this as-yet-unplanned retail complex.
One possibility is that the road to the apartments could run up one side or the other.
“That was the first thing we took a look at,” Casper said.
Here’s the problem, according to her: At some point, the city plans to install a stoplight at Kelton Drive and First Street, directly across from the middle of the future shopping center. Unless the apartments’ access road is at this light, it would be too close to the light for safe entry and exit.
“The only access point would be at Kelton, which would be right in the middle of the commercial development,” she said.
That wouldn’t be so bad, said Steven Sanchez, who lives at 1340 Cypress Court. He imagined a Kelton extension with shops on either side facing First Street, like Wren Avenue between the Safeway and Nob Hill supermarkets.
Sanchez has perhaps more reason for concern than most. The Benassi Oaks entrance will be right in front of his lawn.
A couple of doors down early Thursday afternoon, Ron Lawson was standing in his open garage at 1300 Cypress where he’s lived for 27 years, looking across the street at the orchard and chatting with neighbor Ed Vogel, who has lived in his house 29 years. Both are very involved in the neighborhood cause.
“It’s a nice-looking development,” said Lawson, who has seen the plans. “We don’t have any problems with the design of it; it’s just the traffic.
“We would like to see an appealing barrier between the apartments and the senior duets,” he said. “We want the apartments to dump onto First Street.”
According to Lawson, this is one of three imminent housing developments that will use Cypress Court. To the east, “They’re going to build 125 units down here in Westwood where Nob Hill used to be.” Just to the west, he said, housing is planned for between Ponderosa Drive and Santa Teresa Boulevard.
“We already have people driving up and down this street at about 70 mph,” he said. “I wound up about six months ago with a car up there on my (lawn), took out sprinklers and everything. … So we’re concerned. … There’s kids on this street.”
“When I moved here, this was Cypress Court,” Vogel said. “Then we got Cypress Street. … Now we’ve got Cypress Freeway.”
A traffic study the Benassis paid for showed that anywhere from 600 to 800 cars travel Cypress Court every day, according to Lawson, Casper and traffic engineer Keith Higgins, who conducted the survey.
The study predicted this number would go up to more than 1,100 when Benassi Oaks is fully occupied – a rise of about one-third.
“That doesn’t jive,” Lawson said. “They’re almost tripling the neighbors in this area.”
There are presently about 65 households on Cypress Court and within a block of it, according to Lawson and Vogel.
Higgins defended his projection by saying apartments and senior housing generally do not generate as much traffic as single-family dwellings.
Even with 1,100 cars a day, Casper said, Cypress Court would remain a Class A city street, the category of lightest use. Westwood, which Higgins says gets about 6,000 cars a day, is Class B.
Other city streets with about 1,100 cars per day include Lions Creek, Rancho Hills and Santa Paula drives, according to Casper.
Nevertheless, Lawson said he felt city staff and the Benassis “shoved (the) traffic study down our throat,” but he says the Cypress Court neighbors are standing firm.
“Nobody that we passed out petitions to objected to sign it. Everybody that answered their door signed it.”
