Plan for Sheriff’s Patrols in Coto Attacked

Outraged Coto de Caza residents have vowed to stage demonstrations and line the main road with “Save the Children” billboards to protest plans to bring public traffic patrols into their gated community.

Residents of the upscale South County community have long been lobbying their homeowners associations to do something about speeders. But the price for getting law enforcement officers to ticket in their community has been the removal of crosswalks and a stop sign, and higher speed limits.

The actions by the CZ Master Assn., Coto de Caza’s largest homeowners group, have come in preparation for routine traffic patrols by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s deputies can issue traffic tickets inside Coto’s gates only if the roads conform to the California vehicle code.

That has some residents accusing the board of “putting the cart before the horse” and laying the groundwork for county patrols without ever asking residents if they want them--especially if it means higher speed limits and fewer stop signs, resident Chris Hebard said.

“I’m not enamored with having public police on private property,” he said.

Hebard has vowed to place 4-foot-by-6-foot billboards on his property overlooking Coto de Caza Drive that would ask motorists to stop at the intersection.

The series of three signs will read “Stop ahead!” “Save the children,” and “Please stop.” Hebard and other residents also are organizing sign-waving protests at the intersection to draw attention to their cause.

“The message to the [association] board is that I can’t afford to wait,” he said. “Someone’s going to get killed here. This is the issue.”

The public-private arguments began last year, when a group of residents vehemently opposed bringing Wagon Wheel Elementary, a public school, within the gates. The controversy drew national media attention and ultimately led to a community vote that defeated the board-driven proposal.

Association board members contend that in this case, switching from a private security firm to county traffic law enforcement should come as no surprise to residents.

“There have been talks for years” about bringing in the Sheriff’s Department, said board president Jan Glisson, adding that community newsletters and town meetings have mentioned the possibility.

“I can’t say we’ve been clear enough for everyone . . . but we’re certainly trying to make things clear,” she said.

The community has no contract yet with the Sheriff’s Department, but the changes made to roads and stop signs mean that deputies are free to patrol the streets and use radar guns to snag speeders, county traffic engineer Ignacio Ochoa said.

There isn’t much the residents can do to lower speed limits and restore stop signs while the association board pushes for county traffic patrols, he added.

“Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for because you might get it,” Ochoa said.

The issue reached a boiling point Wednesday night, when a half dozen angry residents faced off with the five-member board. They demanded that CZ Master Assn. replace a stop sign removed earlier this month at Coto de Caza Drive and Via Peralta, a T-shaped intersection where the community’s main artery meets a residential street.

Without the stop sign, they said, this “blind” intersection forces cars to inch into traffic that whizzes by at freeway speeds, residents said. The speed limit on the road was raised six months ago from 35 mph to 50 mph to conform with state codes.

Ochoa said the intersection does not meet state requirements for having a stop sign. Similarly, the four-lane Coto de Caza Drive is too large for a 35 mph limit, he said.

Though board members promised to lobby for the stop sign’s return, Ochoa said the county cannot budge on state law. The only way to get the stop sign back is for the board to forget about county traffic patrols, he said.

But Glisson said private security patrols have failed, and that county enforcement is the only way.