Letters to the Editor

Editor:

GRF’s barricade across Del Monte Drive inside the Main Gate puts area residents in danger, and GRF’s plan for the second barricade will pose a danger to even more people. GRF should remove the barricades at Del Monte.

The first barricade blocks our safe return home from the Administration building.

A guard inside the gate used to help residents cross Golden Rain westbound on Del Monte inside the Main Gate. Now, GRF is sending residents out the Main Gate to make a Uturn and come back in the gate. This cuts across bus and traffic lanes without the protection of a guard. It’s very dangerous.

The second barricade won’t let us cross Golden Rain to reach the exit from Del Monte Drive. GRF is sending us on Golden Rain west to Burning Tree to make a U-turn between Clubhouse 1 and its parking lot in order to reach the Main Gate exit. This endangers pedestrians, as well as drivers.

We have lived here six years, and safe travel home is one of the amenities we expect from a community for older people.

We also have great concerns about the traffic backup on Seal Beach Boulevard when entering Leisure World. It’s causing congestion, and it compromises emergency services getting in. Sometimes buses even have trouble entering.

Steve Schacht Mutual 15 Editor:

GRF’s existing and planned barricades on Del Monte are endangering residents and hurting the quality of life here. These barricades affect many of some 2,000 residents in Mutuals 15, 14, 12 and 16. Just look at the number of people living near Carport 1 in Mutual 15 or off Sunningdale Road in Mutual 14.

GRF’s barricade across Golden Rain westbound at Del Monte blocks my trip home from offices inside Leisure World. GRF is making us exit the Main Gate and make a U-turn across incoming traffic to come back in the Main Gate.

GRF’s barricade at the Del Monte exit blocks our direct access to the Main Gate exit. It will make us go to Burning Tree and make a U-turn and drive back to the Main Gate exit. This is across busy pedestrian lanes and oncoming cars. Pedestrians coming from Clubhouse 1 are difficult to see because of the fence over the culvert.

My wife and I moved to Leisure World 27 years ago. We picked our home in Mutual 15 for its ease of access to and from the Main Gate. GRF has taken that away from us.

Joseph Munday Mutual 15 Editor:

My carport is the first one visible from the Main Gate, approximately 100 feet to the right.

I chose my home’s location for its proximity to the gate for ease of entry and exit. I did not wish to live in the middle of Leisure World. The proposed barricade on Del Monte is a real inconvenience when leaving Leisure World.

Rather than driving about 200 feet to exit, the second barricade across Del Monte will send me west on Golden Rain to the tiny Burning Tree intersection to make a U-turn and come back to the gate. That is crazy.

There is no stoplight at the Burning Tree intersection so pedestrians can cross at any time. It’s very difficult to see them because of the chain link fence and the shrubs.

If St. Andrews with a stop light is dangerous, Burning Tree without a stop light will be worse.

The increase in traffic at that intersection will certainly multiply the chances of automobile and pedestrian accidents.

When I play pickleball at the courts near Clubhouse 2, my drive home now makes me drive around the northern part of Leisure World just to get to my parking structure.

When I leave the pickleball courts, I turn left from Canoe Brook onto El Dorado, turn right onto Oakmont, turn right at St. Andrews, turn left on Interlachen, turn right on Del Monte to my parking structure near Golden Rain and the Main Gate.

John Gustaves Mutual 15 Editor:

To all my LW neighbors who live on or near the north side of Del Monte: Is it just me or does the latest proposal to make us all turn right onto Golden Rain and then U-turn to exit the community seem absurd to you? It’s bad enough that to get home from the south side of the community, we now have to exit and re-enter through the Main Gate (which requires us to cross the left entry lane at some risk of peril) or take a detour via Interlachen. Aren’t new policies supposed to enhance our lives rather than being regressive? If you agree, please contact the LW Administration and voice your displeasure.

Estee Edwards Mutual 15 Editor:

I got to experience the new traffic pattern at the Main Gate this morning. I found it to be extremely inconvenient and highly unnecessary. This may be one of the worst ideas yet to be done at the Main Gate. I know this is just an experiment and, hopefully, will be not permanent.

If you want to make an improvement at the Main Gate, have the city bus stop removed and suggest it be relocated to the St. Andrews shopping center.

Gerri Wright Mutual 11 Editor:

I’m opposed to the new barricade at the main front gate, it will slow down emergency vehicles. It will also make it difficult for service vehicles and delivery vehicles. We are a senior living community; this does not work in our best interest.

If you want to help us, then completely demolish the old entry system we now have and build a new state of the art entrance and exit of our community. Yes, that will cost a lot of money, but it will cost a lot more in years to come fix the problem we have now.

Reggie Potts Mutual 15