by Mary Pope-Handy | Sep 29, 2011 | Belwood
Two speed bumps for Belwood Gateway were planned to be installed after the August Los Gatos Town Council Meeting (which followed a May 11th traffic calming meeting at the Belwood Cabaña and a vote of the affected neighbors).
The first speed hump, which was not contested, will be placed fairly close to the community pool in the area between Belblossom and Bacigalupi on Belwood Gateway. It appears that this has the resounding endorsement of the folks who live nearby.
The second speed hump did not seem to enjoy the same unanimous approval (despite the vote). The next one, along the stretch of Belwood Gateway between Bacigalupi Drive and Harwood Road, left some Belwood of Los Gatos homeowners feeling that the process wasn’t done right, that the voting should have been teased out a little differently, and that perhaps a better resolution to the speeding and volume of traffic could be found. That resulted in another meeting, which happened earlier this evening.

Todd Capurso, the Los Gatos Director of Parks and Public Works, is very good about meeting with residents to discuss concerns, ideas, feedback etc. and this was no exception. Residents who live along the block of Belwood Gateway where the second speed bump or hump was to go (about 15 households in all) were notified of a meeting that took place tonight at 7pm in front of one of the homes. (I was notified so that I could keep the rest of the community updated via this and my other blog, LiveInLosGatos.com. Jim and Bella, our aging black lab, walked me over and then after meeting a few neighbors, continued on their walk while I stayed back to see what was decided.)
Only about half of the households had members show up for this informal discussion. One neighbor who was in favor of the traffic calming speed hump asked a couple of times why the meeting was even called since the vote was clearly in favor of this measure.
(more…)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Sep 7, 2011 | Belwood
Summer was busy and I managed to miss the end result of the voting done in June over the speed bumps (or humps) and the traffic triangle that was proposed at Harwood and Belwood Gateway. This week I emailed Todd Capurso the Los Gatos Director of Parks & Public Works, and he got me updated in no time. In case any of you neighbors also blinked and missed the upshot, I thought I’d post it here.
This subject was addressed at the town council meeting on August 15th and the results of the voting were written up in advance. Read all about it here:
http://losgatos.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=874&meta_id=93994
Todd tells me that “the residents on the block between Harwood and Bacigalupi have requested that I come back and meet with them because some of them do not want the speed-hump that was proposed (and passed) for their block” so there will be some ongoing discussion there about whether to add it or not. Stay tuned!
Many thanks to Todd Capurso for updating me on this topic.
by Mary Pope-Handy | Jun 12, 2011 | Belwood, Uncategorized
Traffic calming issues on Belwood Gateway which impact neighbors on nearby streets have been the recent conversation in this part of Los Gatos. As a followup to a recent traffic calming meeting meeting, residents on Belwood Gateway, Bacigalupi Drive and others were recently asked to vote on a proposal to block traffic from going through from Belwood Gateway to Almond Blossom. Homeowners on Bacigalupi Drive and Harwood Road are concerned that this would cause a tremendous increase in traffic and speeding, so are trying to prevent it.
We are awaiting the results of the vote. (Interestingly, it was “one vote per household” but certainly in some homes not all of the residents agreed on how to vote….)
This has been an eye-opening experience as many of us did not know, until recently, what the procedure was for getting the town’s attention regarding areas with too much speeding.
by Mary Pope-Handy | May 3, 2011 | Belwood
If you live near Belwood Gateway, be sure to attend the traffic calming meeting at the neighborhood cabana on Wednesday, May 11th from 6:30 to 8pm. Be on time as the agenda and discussion periods are chronological and all of it will be relevant to our neighborhood traffic patterns.
If you’d like more information, call the Los Gatos Parks and Public Works Department at 408 399-5770.
See you there!