Vandal-Weary Residents Call for Gated Community

Homeowners in the luxurious Las Posas Summit area outside Camarillo say they are sick and tired of eggs being thrown, windows being broken, and outdoor lamps and mailboxes being smashed on their $1-million properties.

Since their security systems, wrought-iron gates and guard dogs have not worked, residents are proposing gating their community.

“It’s not elitism, it’s protection,” said Katherine Young, one of 33 residents to sign a petition submitted to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. “I’d rather have it open, but I see the need.”

Young said the homeowners want to erect a blockade--part landscape and part gate--at Calle Aurora and Vista Del Campo to keep vandals and speeding cars out.

They also want a “no outlet” or “dead end” sign on Vista Del Cima at the Fairway Drive entrance to Las Posas Summit.

But County Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee, who represents the area, indicated Friday that there could be board reluctance to the proposal.

She said she generally has a problem with gating communities, and particularly this one, where residents of the larger neighborhood object to the idea.

“When we permitted the subdivision, we said it wouldn’t be gated. We said it would be open . . . so that there wouldn’t be an exclusive area of Las Posas Estates,” she said.

The gate proposal was not received any better by county sheriff’s or fire officials.

Sgt. Frank Segall said a gate would just create problems for everyone, ranging from postal service workers to ambulance drivers.

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” he said of the vandalism complaints. “If they want a gated community, it’s a way to get one--start screaming and yelling that all kinds of activity is going on.”

In advancing the idea, the residents said a gate could be constructed that could be knocked over by county firetrucks responding to a fire. But county fire officials deemed that notion ridiculous.

“They’re proposing a gate that can be knocked out by emergency vehicles?” Fire Capt. Larry Bean asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

“We don’t drive firetrucks through barriers, and we’re not going to stand there with sledgehammers to knock (them) down,” Firefighter Rick Lajoie said. Bean and Lajoie work at Station 55, a block from the Summit neighborhood.

Young described the proposed barrier as one with bushes and low curbing so that golf carts and bicycles could go around it, but not cars. The road would remain a public street.

“Something pretty like a hedge,” she said.

The vandals whom residents are trying to keep out are described as five to seven local youngsters who have been seen driving up on lawns and breaking garden lamps.

“Rich kids,” said Judy Harrison, 23, who lives in her parents’ house on Vista Del Campo, where windows and garden lamps were broken. “I’ve seen them. We’ve chased them out.”

Lajoie said he has heard youths, who apparently like to drink beer on the vacant lots in the neighborhoods, approaching in a truck.

“You can hear them hitting mailboxes with a bat, stick or a board,” he said.

Sharyl Owen of Vista Del Campo, who has a 3-year-old daughter, said vandals threw eggs at the front door and roof of her house last month.

Her husband, a retired California Highway Patrol officer, cleaned off the mess, but she said she is still scared.

Careening motorcycles also create unwanted noise in the area, said Bertha Horn, whose property is bounded by streets at both ends of her house.

Her property is already protected by a locked gate, but Horn said another gate for the whole area would provide even more protection.

“I don’t think it will keep the necessary people from getting in,” she said.