November 18, 2025 | Mark Luis Foster

I often wonder how many HOA Leaders are faced with the question: Can we put up entry gates to keep the riff-raff out? I must admit, the issue has come up a few times at our own HOA in Lakeville, but it can’t happen for many reasons, not the least of which is violations of a city ordinance.

In San Jose, California, though, an HOA is now suing the city after years of wrangling to build that wall. From the Mercury News:

Residents of the wealthy “restrictive access” Almaden Valley [Country View Estates] enclave has long sought to install gates around their community, pointing to brazen criminals who have tormented the neighborhood with waves of home invasions, burglaries, robberies, car break-ins, hate crimes, mail and package thefts, and trespassing on their private streets.

Apparently the crime wave has hit them hard, so installing gates as a protective measure is a real issue for them in fighting back.

Mike Barna, president of the homeowners’ association, said he has come face-to-face with “thugs” in his home. Other residents report burglars routinely casing their multi-million-dollar homes or following them home from the nearby Safeway. A man who was not apprehended was observed on surveillance cameras stopping at houses with a rented U-Haul truck and stealing packages from their porches. A commercial boot camp operator has even brought hordes of people onto their private property to exercise without repercussions.

The HOA was created in 1987. Country View Custom Estates has 75 homes that are situated on more than 71 acres between the Almaden Country Club and Quicksilver Park in San Jose. The article states that the HOA is “marked by steep hills, blind corners and a lack of sidewalks”, and that “the original homeowners bought their properties with the understanding that they would be liable for their private streets.” Apparently, residents were told — and subsequently expected — that those private streets were to be for their exclusive use.

But crime has become a serious problem in the area, and likely due to the exclusive nature of the HOA, they have been hit hard.

“For a while there, we were getting hit every week to two weeks, and it was insane,” Barna said in an interview with The Mercury News. “People were moving out. People were buying guns. People were panicking. I dealt with women who were crying for weeks because their home was robbed or burglarized. They were traumatized. In one case, a child came within eight minutes of being face-to-face with criminals stealing the stuff inside his home, including the presents underneath his Christmas tree.”

The HOA has attempted to install gates several times, starting in 2006. They tried again in 2010 and most recently, in September 2024, when they sought to install three gates at strategic entry points. All efforts were denied.

In denying the permit application, principal planner David Keyon said last year that there was no original provision or plan for gates. He also cited policies such as the requirement that private streets appear like public streets and that new developments, including private streets, needed to connect with the street network and prohibited gating with the intent to inhibit public access.

Despite the crime, it seems like the city has a leg to stand on. The city argues that the gates would affect the streets’ functionality.  Additionally:

…the lawsuit points out that the community is not new and was approved in accordance with the planning rules nearly 40 years ago. It also says that the county title book map reinforces that the community “is not offered for the use of the general public and is for the exclusive use of the residents and their guests.”

The board goes on to state that there was an “anti-elitist bias” among city employees, which seemed to skew the city’s decision-making.

The lawsuit also accuses city employees of making several “intimidating and discriminatory statements” in violation of state civil rights laws, including ones indicating that the project would never happen and was doomed to fail, even though they had made exceptions for other gated community projects. They are seeking an additional $10 million for those alleged violations.

The whole thing is at its boiling point. Barna ends by saying:

“. . . It seems like we’re a nation governed by selective enforcement, political cowardice and bureaucratic betrayal.”

You can read the article HERE, but they may require you to give up an email address to get behind the free-wall.