Gated Communities?
 

The shooting case in Florida has me contemplating Gated Communities.

While I enjoy living where I need binoculars to see my neighbors, I know many people love the urban/city life and crave the closeness of other people, HOA’s and the implied security of such environments.

When I visit cities/towns that have Gated Communities, I am often puzzled by the layouts. One that I can think of has a man sitting in a “guard shack” at its only vehicle entrance. He asks you the reason of your visit, appears to write that in some logbook and gives you a colorful card to display on your dash, opens the gate and lets you in - you later drop the card in a box upon leaving. The amusing part of this whole game of “supposed security” is; the entire perimeter is un-fenced. ANYONE could walk onto the property from three sides - or attack by boat from the side that is bordered by a lake. Hilarious.

I have, of course, also seen Gated Communities that have large rock walls, or tall, ornate and costly steel fencing that do indeed surround the entire complex. Many seem to have just a keypad (no guard shack) that owners use to open the gates.

My questions are: Since these communities ( I assume ) are considered private property, when a fire occurs or when the police are dispatched, do they have the “codes” to open the gates?

How are plumbers, repair men, UPS deliveries, the mail service, etc. handled with the keypad-only situation?

And in the case of my first example, would a person that walks onto the property be considered a trespasser, if he wanted to walk the golf cart path for exercise or go into the clubhouse for a beer and a sandwich?

Anyone living in a Gated Community care to comment?

25 home HOA, gate with key pad, garners housekeepers have one code, kids have another code which changes annually or so. Not a security gate but a privacy gate. No common property,the property lines extend to the middle of the street, with easements for all HoA members across the street. I'm the prez, no one else wants to do it. Low key, and works well. We are an HOA out of necessity,as we are om a private road, and need to fund thrash, road repair and the gate. Ups has the gate code, USPS has their own key, sheriff and fire have. Knox box (key).

I've worked in many gated communities. Not in any order:
Fire and police have a bypass but they wait for the gate as you do. Same with mail, etc. although there may be a main mail box at the entrance.
Service people call the house where they have an appt and the owner opens the gate remotely with their phone.
A "clubhouse" would obviously be private and only serve on accounts, no cash.

What this does is keeps tabs on the houses. It would be difficult to case the place. And, no door bell ringers and throw away porch flyers and papers.

I don't like working in such places. It's not uncommon to see a line of trucks full of gardeners and trades at the gate at 7:00 am. Takes a while. And that's one more benefit, no one works before the gate lets them in. Some don't open until 7:30 and don't allow noise until 8.

Gated communities are one thing, but they is also some kind of association that dicate what cars you can drive, when to mow your yard, when you can have the garage door open, size and shape of your mail box, and what pets you can own. No thanks...... who thrives on this crap is a mystery to me.

I live in a non gated but HOA community. I like preventing the neighbors from doing things i'd likely do myself...having 50 cars for instance.

I like having neighbors around for my kids' sake.

I won't live in another community like this howeever. Its not low key...the pres of the HOA is a wanna be something...he's on the HOA who's who on the web. No kidding.

Never have lived behind gates or with an HOA. And hopefully never will.

My neighborhood is not gated but there are several in the area. I like the HOA that says you are not allowed to park a boat or RV in your driveway long term. For a weekend it is OK, but no long term storage. No junk cars allowed. No parking long term on the street. Park in your own driveway or garage. If you don't like those rules don't buy a house there.

Hit or miss...mostly miss. I live in a gated community going on 10 years now and my prior 3 homes only 1 was not in a gated HOA. I appreciate HOA rules regarding maintenance and controlling community aesthetics which protect us from homeowners who refuse to water their lawn, keep 10K potted dead plants in the yard and paint their home a shade of Pepto-Bismol pink. The negatives, which can be substantial, are directly related to how active the HOA is. Fortunately our HOA is lacking in "Nazi" like members so it's pretty peaceful here unlike the HOAs of my past.

The gate simply limits the street traffic. It is not a security device. YMMV.

We have a ton of them here in the Phoenix area. I think they offer a grossly false sense of security. When we were shopping for a house, we often needed a gate code to get into the neighborhood. I was usually coming on my bike, wife was coming from work in her car and our realtor (Eric Coffey) was coming in his car. Eric usually had the gate code on the MLS printout, but I almost always either rode my bike through the pedestrian gate on the sidewalk or followed another car in. My wife usually called from the gate to ask the code or have us walk in front of it to make it open or she also followed another car in. Any somewhat determined thief would have no problem at all getting in. Other than being a giant "keep out" sign, I really don't see what a gated community offers in terms of added security. The only way they keep me out is if I was planning to casually drive or ride through to look at the neighborhood. Usually, I just skipped it if I didn't get behind some other vehicle going in. I have the gate codes for the few friends I have here who live in such communities. I highly doubt anyone has kept from being robbed because of a gated community.

I remember the "estates" gated community a co-worker of mine lived in. He loved it. Had to have five or more acres, homes had to be specific size ranges, so many car garages, so many bathrooms, only a specific type of construction and exterior facade allowed within a specific range of colors, no fencing allowed, no animals other than inside only cats and some very specific breeds of dogs (mutts apparently were not allowed), only able to do things outdoors during certain periods, had to have so much in forest and so much in lawn, no livestock.......

Oh, they were called something like Black Horse Equestrian Acres and had horses and barns all over the front gate and entrance. Yeah, no horses were allowed.

I thought the place idiotic. Guess it is why I don't live with hoas.

Bingo.


gated "communities" are for those who cannot handle real communities

Down here you don't have much choice about that.

There are whole cities like that. Google Irvine CA.

Some towns publish crime maps. If you analyze a map, you will clearly see a significant reduction (95%) of burglaries and other property crime in gated communities if they are in problem areas adjacent to regular neighborhoods. What I am saying is that they do deter crime significantly, if you are in a pretty rough area.

That said, they always remind me of the movie "The Truman Show". I have had the option to live in them and couldn't get myself to do so. Here in CA they usually are very new, the lots are tiny, everything looks the same and there usually is no mature tree in the whole complex. You also are so close to your neighbors that you could shake their hand out of your bathroom window or grab food off their plate when they are in their "yard" for a bbq.

That's my impression.

G

Across the county road from us is gated in the wintertime, but that is only to keep the livestock in when they graze. I don't think I could live with a HOA unless it was a politically incorrect one. Maybe make it a rule you had to own at least one sports car, couldn't have a house the same as the neighbor, must own a family freindly dog...

Around here, the "gated communities" are named after the animals that were displaced (Pheasant Ridge, Beaver Creek, etc... and other such BS). Me and my neighbors are the folks who were kicked out of HOA's. Hey, we have to live somewhere!!

I did not care for the gate. It was a PITA for everyone involved. Guests, Pizza, Cleaning Lady, and most important ..... ME.

If someone wanted in they could gate surf off someone who did have the code. I resented the stop n go exercise just to get to my home. Oh sure it looked all hoity - toity ... but puleeze ... security .... I think not.

We eventually moved 'outside' the gate (but same Country Club) ..... one of the driving rationales was the PITA factor of that efffing gate.

It's called "security theater"...

My neighbour and I have a gate and a shared driveway. I call it "The Compound", a la the Kennedys. We have a creek that runs under the driveway. Named that Chappaquidic naturally.

Love the privacy a gate affords and its one more defense against property crime and crimes of opportunity in particular. Not really the same as a GC but I sure like it.

I used to live in one, but that wasn't really by choice as much as it just happened to be where the house we liked the most was located. It was one of those things that really was neither here nor there... hit the button on the remote to come in / wait for the gate to open when you go out. House values and specs were comparable to the neighborhood immediately next to ours, which was ungated.

When we moved out our realtor commented that the Mexican nationals preferred neighborhoods with a gate or someone standing around out front. The part of San Antonio we lived in was becoming more popular as a place where the well to do over there would move from in order to escape violence and kidnappings. I used to see nice cars with plates from several Mexican states and D.F. all the time around where we lived.

You couldn't force me at gun point to live in any neighborhood with a HOA or a gate. We have lived in our community for 22 years. Only one breakin and they got caught. I have seen how HOA's work in Cary and Raleigh with all the restrictive covenants. Covenants where I live are you can't subdivide your lot, no mobile homes, cannot rent out home, and no farm animals. I know my neighbors it's quiet and no jerk is coming on my property and telling me what to do.
We have enough rules spewed out by government endlessly.

Once in a blue moon you'll see a HOA that makes sense - limited power, etc. For example, one of my coworkers and almost neighbors is in a HOA... $50/mo fees, used to maintain the shared dirt/limerock road leading back to the 15 houses. Extra funds are collected and saved to have the road paved eventually.. which should be in about 10 years.

After one of my old next door neighbor turned his house into what looked like a Burger King, then replaced the sod with concrete (to park his cars) and turned his garage into an additional room, I can relate to the usefulness of some rules.

Regretfully, some HOA's go to far IMHO.

Right about now, a gated community is looking like a pretty good idea. Our neighborhood is enduring an incredible rash of burglaries. We had five here on Tuesday. These guys - apparently there are at least two teams; a man and a woman and another of three men - hit during the morning and early afternoon, ransack the house, take jewelery, laptops, other things they can walk off with. I'm thinking this would be at least somewhat more difficult to do if the only way into and out of one's neighborhood was through a gate that had a watchman looking after it.

Oh - those burglaries - cops say they're the result of California's court-ordered prison realignment program, which has nonviolent offenders being moved to county lockups, and/or released, to ease overcrowding in the state's prisons. A big mess. But the result certainly has everyone in our neighborhood being very watchful and suspicious of strangers, and has pumped life into the Neighborhood Watch program.

Same here. Am in an HOA right now and on the board of directors but this will be my last one. Just do not need anyone telling me what I can do to the house or which plant I can put in the yard...

I want to live on an island and have a draw bridge.

Just moved out of a gated HOA and I don't plan on ever going back until I'm retired and living in a Golf Community. Too many neighbors with nothing other to do but complain and stir up $hit. I can talk for hours about stuff that happened in that neighborhood.

IMO the gate is nothing more than a false sense of security. I did like the fact that it kept traffic to minimum so the kids could play in the streets without too much concern.

I disagree. I looked at the LA crime map and gated sections of the same neighborhoods had about 5% of the property crime compared to the neighboring non-gated communities. I guess this isn't so much the case if you live in an area that is already very safe. Then gated vs. non-gated of course doesn't matter.

The key is that a gate deters opportunist petty criminals.

- Not easy getting in
- Getting recorded driving in
- Escape route / getting out quickly

The last point is probably the biggest deterrent. There is only a few ways in and out. No burglar likes that. They like to go to places that have multiple escape routes that are close to major roadways. When cops show up to a burglary they often do from several sides to close in on the perp. If you are in a gated place, you will get busted much more likely than in an open area.

G

I'm the Prez of my HOA and my brother is the Treasurer, so we have the power and the money. It's very relaxed and easy going, biggest problem is a few houses that park their boat and trailer in their driveway all summer long.

As long as it is big enough to put a decent sized road course. ;)

What have you been able to do about it?

As a matter of fact, I rather like keeping the riff - raff out of our gated community. The guard is now gone (not worth the expense and effort) but the shack is up and we have automated gates. Keypad is only for guest to dial the resident and does not open a gate. A sensor on the residence vehicles opens automatically. We also have a credit card RFD to scan next to the keypad for our other vehicles, motorcycles or out with others. Police and Fire have access. Paper delivery has an authorized code. All other deliveries and visitors dial on a phone and if we approve, remote operate the gate thru the home phone line. DVR images of all coming and going.

No its not a perfect secluded solution but before all this, we had solicitors and nosey drive-by's. The entire community is fenced but of course anyone of able means could climb it. If not authorized, they can be charged with tresspassing and as noted by signage. What happens, happens but a little deterent today is fine with me.

get this i work at a "gated " community. lets just say we have more votes than anyone. everyone loves us come vote time and gives us lots of oral favors. when we dont vote their way(which we never do), then the pettiness b.s. hoa nazi's flex their lil "luftwaffle" wings and the poo goes down big time. it gets real old FAST!


now the other night my buddy who has had the lil hoa nazis take pictures of his property and vehicles. hes an electrician. typical van with ladder rack. well he attended meeting because he got a nasty gram from them invitation. he went ARMED as PER AZ LAW to the letter concealed. he got a phone call lifted his shirt, and the next thing ya know, it got REAL QUIET. then this sawed off needle richard who was beat up all his life for being a "richard" , finally got some power in his life, dropped the hammer on him and told him he had to remove his ladder rack. actually told another guy he couldnt have diamondback stickers on the window of his vehicles.

i mean come on..............everyone i have known that lives in a hoa decides that they will run for office and there will be "changes". well after a year their commited to the loony bin and on meds after the fubard experience.



never in my life no matter how bad azz a house it is would i live in a freek a zoid hoa. pure lil sawed off needle richards with freeking nazi swastika armbands.


so the bottomline here...........how in the hell does my buddy complete his company biz WITHOUT LADDERS! so they are taking his livlihood away and fining him $165 a month until compliant.


take these stoopid hoa's and shove em where the sun dont shine.



VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Unfortunately nothing. We don't have the C,C&Rs to effectively fine anyone. We do assess late fees on the dues however. What we found that works well on the monthly dues is we give a month break if they pay upfront for the year. A few people write 12 checks at the beginning of the year and give them to my brother the Treasurer, which seems to work well.

Police/Fire/Medics have their own master keys ("fire-keys"), codes, transmitters, etc.
Plumbers/repair men/etc. usually need a "temp" code given to them by a resident. The reality is that most residents just give them their personal/permanent code for access. FedEx/UPS/USPS/etc. have their own codes/keys (usually just waved-in if guarded).
Have lived in one previously, and they are a PITA IMO. As mentioned, it is little more than security "theater".

Some HOA's (behind gates) can be much more restrictive with their rules, and the dues can be comparatively higher than most non-gated ones. This is usually to cover the additional cost of the gates, maintenance, and repairs due to gate-crashing which happens frequently.

If it's guard-gated, then the dues can be steeper still. Guard-gated, patrolled, on a golf course, with clubhouse, rec-center, and man-made lakes? Prepare to bend over. You better pray nothing catastrophic happens to any of those "amenities" either, as you can/will be hit with a fat "special assessment".

If nothing else, the actual gate itself is a pain for ingress/egress. Not to mention, several gated communities have speed bumps and ridiculously-low, radar-enforced speed limits. No thanks.

The primary benefit that I see with gated communities would be the limiting of solicitors.

YMMV.

Add Santa Clara, CA to that list. Been there, done that, never again.