"I can just speak from where I live," said Stephanie Chapa, who lives on Britton Avenue between Ridley Way and Weaver Drive, "but we get a lot of big parties with hundreds of chairs, barbecuing on the curbside and alcohol."

Chapa and her neighbors led the effort to get alcohol banned from the park premises after her husband, Juan, was stabbed in 1990 when he went to ask people who were drinking to turn down loud music at night so his daughter could sleep.

"Enforcement has never been strict," Chapa said. "That [ban] was passed 13 years ago, and it still goes on. The park has gotten better, but we still have issues."

For Francis and Elizabeth Smith, who also live on Britton Avenue, traffic is a safety concern.

"People come flying up and leave skid marks right around dusk," said Elizabeth, pointing to the skid marks in front of her house and the circular marks where cars spin around where the street widens and Ridley Way and Britton Avenue meet. "We saw a car drive up on the sidewalk."

These and other concerns including double parking, vehicles driving into the park, unpermitted jump houses and the proposed dog park were discussed at a Sept. 9 meeting of 11 neighbors with San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Parks Manager Steve Roemer.

"Some neighbors felt I was giving more attention to the proposed dog park than the park's other issues," he said.

Roemer said he wanted to hear neighbors' ideas for capital improvements that could improve the park and alleviate problems.

Neighbors like Chapa said that a low, ornamental fence with landscaping would prevent catering and party rental trucks from driving into the park, discouraging the large parties and company functions sometimes held there.

Francis Smith agreed that the large gatherings at the park were tiresome. "Regional parks are better suited for big parties," he said. At various parties, people bring public-address systems and jump houses, which are not allowed, he added.

"Police have got other responsibilities, but somebody ought to be dealing with it," he said.

Rather than a fence, Francis said, he would like to see more enforcement of park rules.

"A fence is a passive system," he said. "And with landscaping it becomes more of a haven for crime."

Kathleen Starr suggests that the number of park users could be reduced by adding a fence with multiple gates and removing some of the barbecue grills.

"I consider it a privilege to live in a place that people pack up and go to, but the park is exhausted," Starr said. "It's a trash sea after the weekend."

Unlike the other 10 neighbors at the meeting, Starr was in favor of the dog park, as long as it was away from people's property, because it would make the rest of the park more sanitary, she said.

Neighbors asked Roemer why the Bramhall Park site was still being considered for a dog park.

"We're trying to do more than one site," he said. "We'd like to do several throughout Willow Glen."

Roemer told residents that a public meeting would be scheduled specifically to discuss an alternate location for a dog park in Bramhall Park. Neighbors earlier had protested a proposal made at an Oct. 28, 2003, meeting to locate the dog park at the west end of the park on the hill.

He added that he would take the neighbors' recommendations for a fence, multiple gateways, landscaping in front of the fence and a granite walkway inside the fence to the San Jose Parks Commission for a final decision.