The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

PG&E, city fenced in by neighborhood disagreement

By Justin Berton

A group of unruly teenagers in a quaint pocket of Sunnyvale's Cherry Chase neighborhood appear to have unknowingly sparked a three-way dispute between the city, the neighborhood and the Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

Problems for the neighborhood started in April when a group of bike-riding teenagers began hanging around vacant lots between houses on Dona and Lois avenues.

The lots, where 12 pine trees once grew beneath a PG&E electricity tower, served as a racetrack for the riders.

But the more the teenagers hung around the area, the more they bothered residents in the neighborhood. According to one neighbor who spoke under the condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by the teenagers, "They are to blame for all of this."

After a resident filed police reports that stated the teenagers intentionally swerved in front of cars, were verbally abusive and threw bottles at one of the houses, the victimized neighbors took action.

They asked the city and PG&E to build a fence to close off the lots.

But when the chain-link fences went up in June, the pine trees that had been there for more than 40 years had to be removed because of a potential fire hazard.

Michelle Hornberger, a member of the city's Planning Commission and a resident in the neighborhood, said the fences have created more headaches in the area than the teenagers ever did.

"It looks as if there is something wrong there," Hornberger told councilmembers at the July 14 meeting.

Now, with the trees gone, the lots have filled in with a new fire hazard, neighbors say--dried weeds.

The chain-link fence, while effectively kept the bike-riding teenagers away, has touched off fears from neighbors that the lots are stigmatizing the neighborhood and, worse, could impact home values.

Scott Blakey, a spokesperson for PG&E, said once the fence was built to enclose the area, the trees became a greater fire hazard due to inaccessibility.

Now, Hornberger and other neighbors have called on PG&E to set back the chain-link fences and add landscaping to the area. But PG&E has no plans to redo the work, according to Blakey.

"The city asked us to build a fence, the neighbors asked us to build a fence and we built a fence," Blakey said. "We are not inclined to spend another $6,000 to $8,000 to build it again."

Hornberger would also like to see PG&E trim the weeds in a timely manner. The city, which owns 20 feet of land around the edges of PG&E's land, has only been trimming the weeds that grow on its easement.

The fence-high weeds on PG&E's land were finally trimmed, Hornberger said, on the same day she went before the City Council to complain about the circumstances.

Blakey said PG&E has a regular schedule for trimming weeds on the lots but has been running behind because of "El Niño cleanups."

Under the city's weed-abatement ordinance, the city could hire a contractor to remove the weeds on PG&E's property and add the cost to the company's property tax.

Councilmember Pat Vorreiter suggested the city be the contractor for the weed cleanup, noting that city workers are already on site to trim weeds.

At the July 14 council meeting, City Manager Robert LaSala pledged that the city would sit down with PG&E officials to come up with a long-term solution for the neighborhood's concerns.

But Blakey said PG&E has already upheld its end of the bargain and will do little to improve a situation the company has already tended to.

"We feel we have already complied with the neighbors and the city," Blakey said.

The neighbor who asked that her name be withheld said she didn't care if PG&E would return to touch-up the area.

"I care about peace, with the guarantee the kids won't return," she said. "But you can't ask for that, because that's the society we live in right now."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 29, 1998.
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