Oak Street neighbors say gate destroys sense of community

Owners worry about liability, vandalism

By Kara Chalmers

When Deerfield Realty installed a gate blocking the stairs that lead from its property's parking lot to the Saratoga Village Center, Oak Street neighbors lost their longtime shortcut to the village. Some are unhappy about it.

Navin.com leases the Deerfield property at 20514 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. Deerfield owns the building, the stairs and the parking lot.

Residents of Oak Street and beyond have used the lot as a shortcut to the shops on Big Basin Way for some 20 years, said Bob Busse, an Oak Street resident. But since Deerfield installed the gate, area residents have had to walk from Oak Street to Saratoga-Los Gatos to Big Basin Way, which takes nearly twice as long, Busse said.

Deerfield put up a chain-link fence in May, but someone partially disassembled it so people could pass through. In July, Deerfield put up the sturdier wrought-iron gate that remains there now.

"I think it's totally unnecessary," said Afton Tuveson, an Oak Street resident. "I think it's silly and an extreme reaction."

Many other residents, especially those with children, said they miss the easy way to get to the village.

Deerfield property manager Laura Hesselgren said the gate was installed because she received several calls from people who threatened to sue Deerfield after they tripped on the stairs. She said Deerfield previously has faced lawsuits from people who tripped on its other properties.

Hesselgren added that skateboarders routinely pushed a parking lot concrete divider to the stairs to ease the ride off the bottom step and the staff at Navin.com had to keep removing the divider because it was a safety hazard.

Hesselgren also said that people were using Deerfield's lot for public parking, and the tenants had no place to park their cars. When notices on the offending cars did not work, the company opted to install a gate rather than have cars towed each day. The locked gate may stop some village shoppers from parking in Deerfield's lot, she said.

Busse said he suggested getting keys made for Oak Street residents to the people at Deerfield Realty, but they did not comply with his suggestions. "While this is private property, and they have every right to do with it as they wish, blocking this entry to the village just isn't in sync with Saratoga, and certainly is not neighbor-friendly," he said.

Hesselgren said providing keys to neighbors will not work because the keys could easily be copied and distributed. Hesselgren added that the gate has been vandalized six times since it was installed.

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