by Mary Pope-Handy | Oct 15, 2022 | Belgatos, Belwood, Cabaña, Events, Recreation, Surmont
It’s official – the Halloween party is back!
The September 2022 Bellringer, the community’s newsletter, has announced it. After a two-year hiatus, Belwood is ready to have this family-friendly monster bash yet again. This event is held at the cabana club for members. The party will start around 3pm with wrap-up at 7pm on Sunday, October 30, check the Belwood event page and newsletters for updates. Feel free to reach out to Belwood’s Events Coordinator, Mary Schepman, by email through hoa@belwoodhomes.org if you have ideas or would like to help! Volunteers needed!
Info below is from previous years
Halloween fun in the Belwood of Los Gatos Community!
Put on a costume and celebrate Halloween at the Belwood of Los Gatos cabana club, Sunday Oct 27th, 2019 from 3- 6pm. Enjoy games, prizes, pizza, snacks & the spirit of All Hallows Eve. The featured event will be either a spooky haunted house or a movie, beginning at 6pm. Costumes highly encouraged!
Belwood residents and invited guests only, please. Free admission, donations appreciated.
Learn more at the Belwood Homes Halloween Party event page.
Volunteers needed! Find sign-up information through the link above.
by Mary Pope-Handy | Sep 12, 2022 | Los Gatos government
Overgrown signs can keep motorists from being aware of dangerous conditions ahead.
What to do about overgrown signs?
Do you know what to do about overgrown signs so that they can be trimmed and maintained?
Here in Los Gatos, the job of keeping these road signs visible falls to the Department of Parks and Public Works.
If you see a sign like this one (taken on Belwood Gateway near Harwood Road), you can snap a photo or two and email it to the Department of Parks and Public Works at ppw@losgatosca.gov
You can also phone it in, if you prefer. The office number to report overgrown signs or other road hazards is (408) 399-5770.
We saw this on a walk earlier today, and I just emailed it in with the address. Thought it might be useful information for our neighbors!
Related Reading:
Trees near the property line: who pays to trim in California? (from our Live in Los Gatos blog)
Water table (on this site)
Elevation map (on our main blog, SanJoseRealEstateLosGatosHomes.com, aka the Valley of Heart’s Delight blog)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Sep 2, 2022 | Belwood, Maps
Adjacent to Belwood of Los Gatos is a small subdivision with 14 homes along Jamie Court and Bacigalupi Drive. Ten homes are in Tract 5921, and 4 are Lots A – D.
Not every subdivision has a name, and that is true for this pocket of Los Gatos. It would have been great if the builder had labelled it Belwood Foothills or some clever name, but no such luck.
This is a tidy little neighborhood (even if some lawns are a bit brown from drought restrictions) and from here it’s super convenient to get to Noddin Elementary School, Walgreen’s Shopping Center, or the Belwood Cabaña and pool.
The houses were all constructed between 1977 and 1979, so generally about 10 years younger than the Belwood of Los Gatos houses.
Where are tract 5921 and Lots A – D?
Here’s a map that I created to show Belwood of Los Gatos along with the “Class D” membership areas. The small pocket on the right is the subject of today’s post: homes along Jamie Court and part of Bacigalupi Drive.
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This area is not part of Belwood of Los Gatos proper, but is an adjacent community which has optional membership with the Cabana, also known as a Class D membership area. The larger and older Surmont and Belgatos areas are likewise Class D areas.
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by Mary Pope-Handy | Jul 26, 2022 | Water
Have you ever wondered about the depth of the water table, or if the Belwood, Belgatos, Surmont and nearby neighborhoods have a high water table?
Today I checked the website of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, also known as Valley Water, for info on our water table’s depth. Our water table is more shallow than I expected, just 10 – 20 feet in our far east corner of Los Gatos!
I marked up a screenshot and linked the map to the source, so if you click on it you will find our neighborhood water depth info on the Valley Water site.
Click to visit the Valley Water site for groundwater depth
Ours is not the highest water table area or the smallest depth to first groundwater. The Edelen District, near Old Town Los Gatos, appears to have a depth of just 5-10′. It’s close to the Los Gatos Creek, so I imagine that may have something to do with it as well as seepage from the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Unsurprisingly, when I checked areas adjacent to the San Francisco Bay, the depth to first groundwater was between 0 and 5 feet.
What is a high water table? Does the Belwood area have a high water table?
Per Cotterill Civil Engineers:
A high water table area is defined as any area where the water table is within 1.8 metres, or 6 feet off the ground surface during the frost period up until the end of August or within 2.4 metres or 8 feet of the ground surface during the rest of the year.
It looks like the answer is no, we don’t have a high water table here generally. The depth to groundwater can change with heavy rains or with drought, so it is possible that at times water could percolate up in some circumstance. Since this is the average range for our area, any particular home or parcel may have something unique and different. You’d need to do some sort of testing to find out the actual depth to first groundwater for any specific address.
Other water issues
Many homes in this area do have water issues as there’s runoff from the hills, and sump pumps are commonly found in homes in our neighborhood. Water can travel downhill both above and below the surface, my drainage experts tell me. Not every property has the same level of challenges with managing surface or subsurface water. Foundation problems, which often are related to water issues, are not super uncommon, either, but most can be prevented by managing the flow of water away from the house, particularly from the downspouts. That’s low cost prevention but of the homes I see, probably only 10% have the water directed away from the home. Big mistake!
Curious about the groundwater depth beyond Santa Clara County? I found a list of the groundwater depth in various cities or towns in California which shows most of Los Gatos as having at least 10′. Parts of Foster City and Redwood Shores (Redwood City) have less than 5′.
Related Reading
Where are the natural hazards in Los Gatos? (on the Live in Los Gatos Blog)
Interactive map to view risk of flooding from dam failure in Los Gatos (Live in Los Gatos Blog – our area does not appear to be in these zones)
What to consider when buying a hillside home in Silicon Valley (on the Valley of Heart’s Delight blog)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Jul 2, 2022 | Belgatos, Belwood, Cabaña, Events, Recreation, Surmont
The Belwood of Los Gatos community is hosting its annual Independence Day or 4th of July celebration and the details are announced on the Belwood HOA website. The neighborhood festivities run from 1 – 5 at the cabaña. Read all about it on the Belwood HOA site!
The party is open to Belwood residents and their invited guests only. This will be the first July 4th community party since 2019, and it’s a great opportunity for newer residents, especially, to get to know their neighbors.
Please note that since the weather is warm, dry, and windy, the risk of fire danger is high right now. A sign at Belgatos Park warns that viewing fireworks is strictly prohibited.
Got Facebook? If so, you might consider “liking” the Belwood Cabaña page on Facebook. They are great at keeping people updated on neighborhood events (this is not my page, btw). That’s where I first learned that the holiday is being celebrated in traditional fashion.
by Mary Pope-Handy | Apr 22, 2022 | Market reports
About 10 months ago I pulled the sales in our corner of Los Gatos. The market was wild then, and it has only gotten fiercer since! Let’s have a look at what has sold in Belwood, Belgatos, and Surmont since this time last year.
(click to open the full size image)
Overbids appear to be consistently higher than they were a year ago, as are the prices. While homes on the busy Blossom Hill Road are still selling below $2 million, the average sale has risen from between $2 – $2.5 million to a range of approximately $2.5 – $3.5 million over the last 6 months! Homes on busier streets, with smaller lots, and / or with fewer updates are more likely to sell below that range, while larger homes on larger lots with recent remodeling (and possibly views) are more likely to sell above that range.
How does that compare with the last time we checked? Keep reading below for the year-to-date chart from June 26th, 2021.
Are you curious about the most current home sales and values in Belwood, Belgatos, Surmont, and nearby? If so you can see what’s for sale, pending, and sold year to date in our corner of Los Gatos at this link.
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by Mary Pope-Handy | Oct 20, 2021 | Belgatos Park, Events
The Town of Los Gatos is hosting Park for Parks, a fun and informative event, at Belgatos Park on Saturday, October 23, 2021 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bring your lunch and learn about bird watching, mountain biking, and much more.
There will be live music and a variety of booths (no food booths that I can find). All the details are on the town’s website – links posted below.
Park for Park info on booths and what’s happening at this Belgatos Park event:
Check out all of the details on the town’s website page dedicated to events.
