SAN JOSE — For almost 20 years, frustrations between residents of Nation View Customized Estates and the town have festered.
Residents of the rich “restrictive access” Almaden Valley enclave has lengthy sought to put in gates round their neighborhood, pointing to brazen criminals who’ve tormented the neighborhood with waves of residence invasions, burglaries, robberies, automotive break-ins, hate crimes, mail and bundle thefts, and trespassing on their non-public streets.
San Jose’s planning division, nevertheless, has denied their requests 3 times — most lately final 12 months.
Now the neighborhood is combating again with a $160 million lawsuit in opposition to the town, accusing planning officers of violating Nation View residents’ constitutional, civil and property rights, and exhibiting bias in opposition to them all through the general public entry dispute.
Many residents blame the town for the realm’s crime points, believing gates might have blunted among the hurt.
Mike Barna, president of the owners’ affiliation, mentioned he has come face-to-face with “thugs” in his residence. Different residents report burglars routinely casing their multi-million-dollar houses or following them residence from the close by Safeway. A person who was not apprehended was noticed on surveillance cameras stopping at homes with a rented U-Haul truck and stealing packages from their porches. A industrial boot camp operator has even introduced hordes of individuals onto their non-public property to train with out repercussions.
An indication saying “private drive” close to the doorway of Glenview Drive close to the Nation View Customized Estates in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Town declined to touch upon the lawsuit.
Shaped in 1987, Nation View Customized Estates consists of 75 houses sitting on greater than 71 acres between Almaden Nation Membership and Quicksilver Park in District 10. Marked by steep hills, blind corners and an absence of sidewalks, the unique owners purchased their properties with the understanding that they might be liable for his or her non-public streets. However on the identical time, residents anticipated these non-public streets to be for his or her unique use.
In 2006, the owners’ affiliation’s first allow software to put in gates was rebuffed by metropolis employees as a result of it didn’t conform to the Common Plan.
In an article printed that very same 12 months within the Almaden Resident, then-District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle supported the gate undertaking, noting the legal responsibility points and the way the non-public road had “become a beacon for illegal hunting, firearm discharges and dumping.”
Owners additionally caught a whiff that one thing was amiss, as they allege that Pyle, who handed away two years in the past, instructed them of an “anti-elitist bias” throughout the planning fee.
As crime continued to extend, Barna mentioned the affiliation tried its gate software once more in 2010, forecasting that its troubles would worsen if the town shut down its proposal. He mentioned that the affiliation didn’t have board dedication to pursue a lawsuit or satisfactory authorized illustration after the town denied its second software.
The latest software — denied in September of final 12 months — sought to put in three gates on the northern terminus of the non-public portion of Glenview Drive, the intersection of Glenview Drive and Hole Lake Method and the intersection of Hole Lake Method and Quail Crest Method.
In denying the allow software, principal planner David Keyon mentioned final 12 months that there was no authentic provision or plan for gates. He additionally cited insurance policies such because the requirement that non-public streets seem like public streets and that new developments, together with non-public streets, wanted to attach with the road community and prohibited gating with the intent to inhibit public entry.
However the residents and their lawyer, John Falcocchia, disagreed and have filed a 32-page criticism in Santa Clara County Superior Courtroom, highlighting what they are saying are a number of situations of moral misconduct and misinterpretations of zoning guidelines which have precipitated irreparable hurt.
Together with disputing how gates would have an effect on the streets’ performance, the lawsuit factors out that the neighborhood is just not new and was accredited in accordance with the planning guidelines almost 40 years in the past. It additionally says that the county title ebook map reinforces that the neighborhood “is not offered for the use of the general public and is for the exclusive use of the residents and their guests.”
Residents additionally dispute the town’s narrative that the properties have been by no means meant to develop into a gated neighborhood, referencing the guarantees made to them once they first purchased into the neighborhood.
A parking restricted signal exterior the Nation View Customized Estates in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Falcocchia has alleged that the town has violated the Takings Clause of the Fifth Modification, which broadly states that the federal government can not take non-public property with out offering truthful compensation. On this case, the lawsuit has sought $2 million per residence for that specific violation.
The lawsuit additionally accuses metropolis staff of constructing a number of “intimidating and discriminatory statements” in violation of state civil rights legal guidelines, together with ones indicating that the undertaking would by no means occur and was doomed to fail, regardless that they’d made exceptions for different gated neighborhood tasks. They’re looking for a further $10 million for these alleged violations.
Barna added {that a} vendor engaged on the design and allow for the gate undertaking detailed how a planning division worker “obfuscated, delayed (and) placed inappropriate requirements” earlier than pulling them in, which seemed to be a calculated tactic.
“These same individuals already made their minds up that the project would not be approved, all while they were planning on approving other gate projects in San Jose,” Barna mentioned.
Whereas he acknowledged the potential of resolving the dispute via mediation, Barna mentioned the one appropriate consequence for his residents is the long-awaited set up of gates directly.
“Why do we even need to go through this?” Barna mentioned. “I think it’s because we’re no longer a nation governed by laws. These laws are being violated by this planning department left and right … It seems like we’re a nation governed by selective enforcement, political cowardice and bureaucratic betrayal.”
