Gateway to safety: Stone Canyon residents discuss gating their community with town council

At last weeks Sunnyvale Town Council residents outlined their plan to begin to deter crime, and to a lesser extent divert heavy work traffic, from their neighborhood.

Residents and members of the Stone Canyon Home Owner’s association spoke to the council in regard to a plan to install gates to all road access points to their neighbor hood. Residents feel a gate and other security equipment are one of the major ways to deter crime in their neighborhood.

“We applaud the efforts of the local sheriff department, as we have seen them in action catching felons in our neighborhood, but we know the sheriffs department cannot be everywhere 24/7 and there is no 100 percent fail proof safe guard out there,” said Gene Swank, Stone Canyon Home Owners Association member. “However, we do feel we can do a better job protecting our residents, families and children in helping deter these felons away from us.”

Swank said that in the past few years not only does it seem like crime is still a problem, but the number of cars that been cutting through there residents to avoid heavy traffic at the Collins and Clay Mathis seem to be increasing. And they seem to be picking up in speed as well he said. A traffic study has not been done to substantiate such evidence, but the HOA has spoke with Sherriff Russell Jacks in regards of the issue.

While the HOA still needs to vote as group on whether to do the fence or not, they did send a poll out to their members and of the 70 members to respond, out of 119 homes in the Stone Canyon area, only eight of them opposed the gate.

The council was not voting on whether the Stone Canyon community could have the gates or not, as Town Manager Scott Campbell said there did not appear to be anything town needed to approve. The HOA is not asking for town funds to be provided to build the gate, which will carry an estimated price tag of $75,000.

Where the council comes in is making sure the residents know that since they are not a private housing area, such as Stoney Creek, they cannot restrict access from the public. And, as many of the council members reiterated during the presentation they cannot impede emergency crews or town vehicles from responding in a timely manner.

Swank said their plans are to make sure the fence will not impede current or future businesses in the area and residents, emergency vehicles and town staff will be able to engage the gates with a device before they are at the gates to ensure they are not stopped.

“We know that we are not going to cut out all crime in our neighborhood,” said Amanda McNeill, resident and Stone Canyon HOA board president. “We feel like this is a deterrent. If we can cut down even one home break in we feel like [the gate] is successful.”

Mayor Jim Phaup said he was pleased to see residents taking pride in their community and doing something out of their own resources to make their area safer.

“These folks are acknowledging that they are still apart of Sunnyvale and because of the unique access to their neighbor hood finding a way to deal with this,” Phaup said. “It won’t be perfect when they start it and will probably have to come up with some tweaks to it. And I don’t see any reason not to take this leap of faith with them.”

Mayor pro-tem Karen Hill’s main concern with the gate is that the emergency vehicles and town vehicles are not hampered in their response to emergencies in the area. Swank said they are looking at a wide variety of technologies to make sure there is no delay for emergency vehicles.

“We are setting a precedent here,” Hill said. “We are obligated to provide right of passage. I guess I am not completely sold that [the gates] perpetuates the small-town atmosphere, the rural-homey feel that we are trying to achieve in Sunnyvale. I am afraid that some of the arguments they are presenting give the impression of a large issue of crime in Sunnyvale.”

In other council items a public hearing and application for the change of use for ECI Academy on 302 Town East Blvd. passed with a 4-1 vote. Council member Paula Yates was the single against vote. The ordinance was amended at the council to allow the council to review the impact the academy is having on the area should they reach a student population of 300.

The council also tabled the an ordinance in regard to the tax investment zone to June

Current Rating: 0 of 0 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****

 Plano Apartments
 Plano Attorneys
 Plano Auto Dealers
 Plano Auto Parts
 Plano Auto Repair
 Plano Beauty Salons
 Plano Car Rental
 Plano Dentists
 Plano Doctors
 Plano Flowers
 Plano Hotels
 Plano Insurance
 Plano Loans
 Plano Mortgages
 Plano Movers
 Plano Pizza
 Plano Realtors
 Plano Restaurants
 Plano Storage
 Plano Tax Preparation
 Plano Travel
 Featured
 More...