Trending

Advertisement

Rancho Bernardo’s Westwood residents unite against Waterbridge condo complex

Share

Waterbridge representatives promised nine years ago that the overflow problem its condo residents and guests were creating in Westwood due to Waterbridge’s parking space allocation system was temporary and a solution was coming.

On Tuesday night, more than three-dozen Westwood residents gathered, agreeing they’ve waited for that solution long enough.

The impacted streets — Poblado Road, Botero Drive, Poblado Court, Poblado Way, Oculto Road, Oculto Place, Oculto Way and Oculto Court — are filled with vehicles residents say do not belong to them, their neighbors or guests. Each evening and all weekend long parking spaces are hard to find and residents have to park a block or farther from their houses because of the Waterbridge overflow.

Besides not having a place to park, Westwood residents said they sometimes cannot pull out of their driveways, since vehicles illegally block them. Vehicles are also illegally parked at corners, non-residents have been seen smoking drugs while sitting in vehicles, there has been an increase in vehicle break-ins and their trash bins are not being emptied due to vehicles impeding garbage trucks’ access.

The residents are organizing to explore methods to force Waterbridge to fix the problem. These include having the city create a resident permit parking district or limiting parking to two hours. The latter would negatively impact residents, but some said they are willing to endure the inconvenience if it would get Waterbridge’s vehicles out of Westwood. Attendees divided up tasks, such as volunteering to notify every impacted resident of the effort, speak at community government and homeowners association meetings, create a website, get a traffic study done and research potential traffic solutions.

They decided to keep a log of non-resident vehicles, take photos and document everything for police so they can ticket illegally parked vehicles, such as those blocking driveways. There was also talk of residents choosing a night or day to park all their vehicles on the streets, a “park-in” of sorts, so there is no room for Waterbridge vehicles.

“The option of doing nothing is not an option,” Brian Kuck said.

About a decade ago the apartment complex along West Bernardo Drive and across from the Westwood single-family homes was converted into condominiums. Until then, longtime Westwood residents said there was no problem because each apartment had one parking space and it was a free-for-all for remaining spaces in the complex’s parking lot.

But the condo conversion included deeding parking spaces based on the number of bedrooms in each unit. This means there are often empty spaces in the Waterbridge lot that cannot be used by its residents since they will be towed if not parking in their allotted space. So Waterbridge residents and guests park across the street, in the Westwood neighborhood.

In September 2006, Waterbridge representatives sought the Rancho Bernardo Traffic Committee’s help in temporarily halting a petition campaign Westwood residents started to prohibit parking on impacted streets between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. They said the parking prohibition would not be necessary since they were working on a solution and just needed more time. But creating sufficient parking spaces on Waterbridge property never happened.

Westwood residents said they want to organize another petition and this time won’t relent until Waterbridge fulfills the commitment it made years ago.

“What we want is to make (Waterbridge) do something,” Kuck said, adding if Waterbridge residents have nowhere to park they’ll force their HOA to fix the problem. “Right now they do not have to do anything. They’re fine (since it’s a city street).”

Kuck said city officials told him that creating a resident permit parking district will be the most difficult to accomplish since there are only six citywide, near universities and large hospitals.

Kim Callahan said with Palomar College opening across from Westwood by 2017 and it likely causing problems on nearby Matinal and Capilla roads, the district might be feasible since Matinal Road residents are getting ready to launch a petition effort too.

Brian Grimes said Palomar is not the only impending problem that will make the current situation even worse. When Phil’s BBQ opens in the former Elephant Bar site, customers will also likely park in Westwood when the restaurant’s parking lot is full.

“You’ve lived here way too long … to put up with this,” Grimes said. “If I leave by 4:30 p.m. (to run errands) I lose parking by my house. I never dreamed when buying my house I’d have to deal with this.”

Advertisement