GILROY
– Mayor Al Pinheiro may have found a way to make
traffic-disgruntled Eagle Ridge residents happy, potentially at the
dismay of other Gilroyans who live in neighborhoods with private
unpatrolled streets.
Pinheiro wants the city and the Eagle Ridge homeowners
association to sign an unprecedented agreement to put Gilroy police
officers on traffic enforcement duty in the ritzy development.
GILROY – Mayor Al Pinheiro may have found a way to make traffic-disgruntled Eagle Ridge residents happy, potentially at the dismay of other Gilroyans who live in neighborhoods with private unpatrolled streets.
Pinheiro wants the city and the Eagle Ridge homeowners association to sign an unprecedented agreement to put Gilroy police officers on traffic enforcement duty in the ritzy development.
The deal would appease concerned residents of the west end luxury housing project who want traffic violations enforced on their private, but often publicly traveled, streets. It also could stretch city laws that prohibit public traffic enforcement on private roads.
“I believe the citizens of Eagle Ridge have a right to a level of service that others throughout Gilroy have,” Pinheiro said. “They paid their police impact fees, and they pay their property taxes like everyone else.”
Eagle Ridge residents have been fighting for more than two years with the city and the project’s developer – Shapell Industries – to find a way to stop motorists who break the neighborhood’s 25 mph speed limit. In a St. Andrew’s Circle accident a while ago, two cars drove through a fence. Their speeds were estimated at 60 mph by Gilroy police.
Now that Shapell needs the support of homeowners to pull off a lucrative real estate deal with neighboring Bonfante Gardens, Eagle Ridge residents are open to arranging a quid pro quo agreement. If Shapell provides traffic enforcement, especially around Eagle Ridge’s popular public golf course, homeowners would support the land deal that could bring up to 99 luxury homes on what would become the northwest edge of the development.
There is one catch. Homeowners won’t cast votes. Delegates – four of whom are Shapell employees – will do it for them. And Shapell representatives have thus far argued that Eagle Ridge’s tax paying residents deserve traffic enforcement from the city’s police.
Pinheiro met Friday with Dave Light, board president for the Eagle Ridge homeowners association. The two men discussed having Gilroy Police Department officers perform routine patrols for traffic violations in the 1,850-acre development.
“What I’m suggesting is to make a list of all the items they are concerned about and then sign an agreement that allows for … patrol,” Pinheiro said. “If they require extra services that the police don’t provide elsewhere around town, then they’d have to pay for it.”
Pinheiro said he has not discussed the matter yet with city staff and would defer to their expertise before presenting City Council with any formal proposal. But the city already has said such a deal does not pass muster.
Planning Division Manager Bill Faus said last week the city cannot use its officers to enforce public vehicle code on private – often smaller and narrower – roads such as Eagle Ridge’s. The police impact fees and property taxes paid by Eagle Ridge and all other homeowners go toward the patrol of public streets, Faus explained.
No other Gilroy neighborhood with private streets receives GPD traffic enforcement. However, for emergency calls and other policing services, the GPD is available citywide.
Assistant Chief of Police Lanny Brown said Tuesday his department would provide whatever services to Eagle Ridge the law will allow.
“This is going to cost somebody something,” Brown said. “The builders (Shapell) knew about all of this at the front end. They saved incredible amounts of money by getting (the city) to let them build those streets below public standard.”
GPD only has one full-time traffic enforcement officer for the entire city. Brown said the city may have to charge Eagle Ridge residents for his services depending on what level of enforcement the city needs. Brown said Eagle Ridge also may be required to post certain traffic signs and vehicle codes before enforcement could begin.
The Eagle Ridge traffic enforcement could open up more than one can of worms for Pinheiro.
Other homeowners associations in Gilroy may tag onto Eagle Ridge’s requests and ask for enforcement on their private streets, too.
Also, the mayor sits on the board of directors for financially strapped Bonfante Gardens, which stands to haul in millions of dollars in a real estate deal with Shapell. Pinheiro is a voting board member but does not receive a salary from the park.
“This does not cloud anything for me,” Pinheiro said. “I am mayor of this city first. I will not make a decision that is not what’s best for Gilroy. If I can help find answers to a problem in any part of this community, then I’m going to try to do that.”
