Some thoughts as we begin to pull our committee together….
As I drive along El Camino, all the other developments seem to be self contained and autonomous. Barron Square should have the same rights.
The condo developments in our area [old and certainly the newer ones] appear to maintain the integrity of their physical space; they have not been breached. I don’t believe any of the condo communities similar in structure and make up to ours have been forced to have another community go through and penetrate its environment and land area, thus ‘invading’ its physical location and psychological security.
It would be of interest to learn of any condo community [even with a city street running through it] that’s been forced into making a ‘right of way’ down its middle….as is being proposed here.
Ruth and Michael Lowy
Thank you for everyone’s input & concerns. Shall we have a meeting on this issue so that we will be prepared to present our arguments when the hearing comes.
I realize that making Thain Way a “Private Street” would involve a number of very expensive issues.
I would start by asking the following questions:
What kind of “Liability” would we be taking on?
Who would enforce Parking Restrictions?
Who would maintain Street & paving if The City had to dig up pipe or other utilities?
I’m sure that there are more questions many of you could add to this list
I share all of your concerns & opposition to having any Development use “Thain Way” as “Egress”, etc. and participated in the fight to prevent it, when they tried to put 8-12 Townhouses there a number of years ago.
The “Climate at City Hall” has changed considerably since then, and I feel that we are much more vulnerable now than we were at that time.
The “plus side for us” as I see it, is that the demographics of our community have changed. There are now many children in our Community now, whereas there were only “Three” at the time they tried this before. The fact that we have a “sub-standard width street”, no sidewalks along most of the street, which necessitates pushing strollers down the middle of the street, children and Seniors walking in the street to get to “our” Pool and Spa, and the Tennis Court, as well as children having to Bike down the middle of the street to get to school and back.
Please remember there are at least two issues here. The request by the current owners of 4146 El Camino to increase the zoning from RM 15 to RM 30; and the issue of Thain Way vs El Camino access to that property, a property that already does have a ‘drive way cut’ onto it. I believe it lined up with the driveway to the old house that used to stand there.
If making Thain Way a private road would settle the matter regarding 4146 El Camino, then my husband and I are definitely interested in hearing the details. The Arastradero restriping project has significantly increased traffic on Maybell when school is in session. The last thing we need is to add more traffic on to Maybell from Thain Way.
Dave and I went to a city council meeting regarding the Arastradero restriping project a few weeks ago. The City voted 6-0 to continue the project through 2012 and shared its estimates of the increased traffic on Maybell through 2013. The city admits it had not previously studied the effects of the restriping on side streets like Maybell, so its current projected traffic numbers for Maybell take in to account only growth in the city, and not other factors such as increased traffic from the proposed 4146 development.
What would be the expense of converting Thain Way to a private road? Considering the level of disruption from opening it for traffic and parking by another community, can the board discuss this again?
I will share my copy of the original documentation regarding parking, etc. on Thain Way, with the members of the Committee and the Board of Governors, in order to determine it’s value, if any, in our efforts to keep Thain Way a Self Contained Community.
The fact that we have no “continuous sidewalks and residents must cross the street to access the Pool and Spa, strollers must be pushed in the street, and children on bicycles must also share the street, may be a factor.
Chris,
Thanks for letting us know about the street situation that you researched last year. In light of the potential new developments being, a request to rezone for higher density and the unresolved matter of Thain Way being the access route to 4146 El Camino, would it make sense to re-analyze the situation and do some ‘what ifs’.
Good observation and thoughts. How many of these communities have public streets running through them though? I suspect most have private streets or access. A year or so ago, I inquired with the board about asking the city to convert our street to a private street where we maintain it which may also allow us better privacy, but the expected expense wasn’t worth further consideration or investigation at the time.