Photograph by Dai Sugano
Oskar Thurner and Elizabeth Saiz Shapiro are two of the Horseshoe Drive residents who decided they'd had it with the blighted look in the area between two points where their street meets Highway 9.
Neighbors take matters into their own hands
They've assessed themselves to beautify Saratoga
By Steve Enders
The signs along Highway 9 call attention to the fact that it's a "Scenic Highway," one of those roads you sometimes think to take in hopes of seeing something natural instead of the standard concrete and buildings.
For the most part, the drive between Saratoga and Los Gatos certainly qualifies as scenic. For years though, litter, tall weeds and abandoned cars and trucks plagued the area of Highway 9 on the road around the two Horseshoe Drive intersections, between Saratoga and Fruitvale avenues.
Now, however, a group of neighbors that live there have done something to fix the mess. Through their own organization, and mostly out of their own pockets, the residents are improving their own "front yard."
It all started in 1997, when residents, including Oskar Thurner, Elizabeth Saiz Shapiro and Greg Blackwell, decided they'd had enough of the garbage that was piling up on the highway. At the time, it was also often used as a construction staging area and attracted heavy trucks, piles of asphalt and other unsightly materials. A county bus stop was also in disrepair, as was the city-owned walking path that parallels Highway 9.
The three took it upon themselves to first lobby the state to improve the area, and then the city after being turned away by Caltrans, which owns the road.
"The city has been great," Thurner said. "They've acted pretty much as our agent to the state.
"We felt there were some public benefits, so we decided, 'Let's make this a community project.' People walk on that path, and it's the gateway to the Village."
According to Public Works director John Cherbone, the Horseshoe landscape project is unique in Saratoga. Rather than letting a developer or a public agency take care of the blight, the residents decided to do it themselves and foot the bill. And now, the area is part of the city's Landscaping and Lighting Assessment district, which receives annual funding for repairs and maintenance.
"Usually the districts are done with subdivisions, and developers have landscaping required as part of a development," Cherbone said. "In this case, Horseshoe Drive is very established and they just wanted to make the area look nice."
The landscaping project, two years in the making, carries a hefty $80,000 price tag. Of that, the 52 households polled themselves a number of times between 1997 and 1999, eventually voting to levy a $1,160 tax increase that will show up on everyone's bill at the end of the year. The neighbors will also pay up to $70 per household a year to keep the patch maintained after it's all planted, Thurner said.
"It improves our way of life and our property values," he said. "It just looked like an unkempt front yard."
But as a reward to their hard work, not to mention some well-placed connections, the neighbors also received more than $20,000 in material and services donated from groups like the Saratoga Rotary Club and the San Jose Water Company.
The city of Saratoga also took advantage of the project to improve the walking path there, and the Valley Transportation Authority spruced up the bus stop.
What used to be brown, waist-high weeds and trash will soon hold an irrigation system to feed native flora, including manzanitas, poppies, Mexican sage and oaks.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
