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Entrance to a guard-gated community (Boca Bayou, Boca Raton, Florida, United States) Entrance to a guard-gated community (Paradise Village Grand Marina Villas, Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico) Entrance to a guard-gated community (The Estates: Heritage Green, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)

In its modern form, a gated community is a form of residential community sometimes characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences, but always containing controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles. Gated communities usually consist of small residential streets and include various amenities. For smaller communities this may be only a park or other common area. For larger communities, it may be possible for residents to stay within the community for most day-to-day activities.

Gated communities are a type of Common Interest Community (CIC) or Common Interest Development (CID), but are distinct from intentional communities.

Most gated communities, usually called guard-gated communities, are staffed by private security guards, often with CCTV and other electronic aids. These communities are often home to high-value properties.

Some gated communities are set up as retirement villages. Boarding schools, hospitals, nursing homes, psychiatric and social treatment centers and correctional facilities (including prisons) are forms of gated communities, thought not necessarily labeled as such. As well, geographical features can cause areas to become de facto gated communities; Point Roberts, Washington and Fisher Island, Florida are notable examples.

Contents

  • 1 Amenities
  • 2 A worldwide phenomenon
  • 3 Analysis
  • 4 Common Economic Model Types of Gated Communities
  • 5 Examples
  • 6 Gated communities in fiction
  • 7 See also
  • 8 External links

Amenities

The amenities available depend on many factors including location, demographic composition and community structure. If there are sub-associations that belong to master associations, the master association may provide many of the amenities. In general, the larger the association the more amenities that can be provided. Amenities depend on the type of housing. For example, single family communities many not have a common area pool since the individual owners may want their own pools whereas a condominium may offer a pool since the individual units cannot have their own pool.

Typical amenities offered can include:

  • Pool(s)
  • A Community Center or club house
  • Golf Course(s)
  • Marina
  • On-site Dining
  • Playground areas
  • Exercise areas that include exercise machines
  • Spa(s)
  • Sauna(s)

A worldwide phenomenon

Just before approaching Dhahran, one of Aramco's gated communities, all photographing is strictly prohibited. In the background one of Dhahran's main gates can be seen.

A limited number of gated communities have long been established for foreigners in various regions of the world. Some examples include, the worker compounds in the Middle East, built largely for the oil industry, or the compounds built under apartheid in South Africa. Related are the closed cities of Russia.

In more recent times, a much larger number of gated communities has rapidly developed in various regions throughout the world, especially in China, Mexico, Brazil and the United States. Especially in China, the trend towards gated communities is accelerating, in response to changing laws and economics.

In 2000, eight million U.S. residents lived in gated communities. In many parts of the world, buyers are expressing a preference for gated communities. While many see living in a gated community as offering increased security, this has not been shown to be the case. Walls are frequently low enough for someone to climb over them. Gates can be bypassed by tailgating cars and, for those willing, access through the sewer system.

In Brazil, the most widespread form of gated community is called "condomínio fechado" (closed housing estate) and is the the object of desire of the upper classes. Such a place is a small town with its own infrastructure (backup power supply, sanitation and security guards). Some even have schools for the children so that they will only need to leave the community after the first five years of elementary school. The purpose of such a community is to protect its residents from outside violence. The same philosophy is seen on closed buildings and most shopping centres (many of them can only be accessed from inside the parking lot or the garage). The boom of "condomínios fechados" has been receding lately due to the general perception that it is useless to fence the world outside to escape violence, as violence will eventually find its way in.

In China, all new residential developments are required to be gated.

In Saudi Arabia, gated communities have existed since the discovery of oil, mainly to accommodate Westerners and their families. After threat levels raised since late 1990's against Westerners in general, and Americans in particular, gates have become armed, sometimes heavily, and all vehicles being inspected. Marksmen and SANG armored vehicles appeared in certain times, markedly after recent terrorist attacks in areas nearby, targeting Westerners.

Analysis

Real estate developers design and build gated communities because buyers want them; the existence of walls and gates around a community enhances the value of the homes located there. Many homeowners prefer to live in gated communities, just as many apartment dwellers prefer secured buildings, not only as a deterrent to crime, but also to enjoy privacy and peace of mind.

Physical walls, in some cases fortified and surveilled, give the inhabitants a sense of security. Some sociologists have criticized the creation of these type of walls as fortressing and have compared them to historical fortifications. Opponents of gated communities argue that physical segregation is not always necessary to create defensible space, that is, to establish control over a particular space. They claim symbolic barriers can be sufficient. Another attribute of gated communities is that, in many cases, their population is homogeneous, that is, grouped along boundaries of social class, race/ethnicity or culture. "White flight" is often a factor in this respect, though less so in recent years.

Common Economic Model Types of Gated Communities

  • Lifestyle – country clubs, retirement developments
  • Prestige – gates used to enhance status
  • Security Zone Communities – gates for crime and traffic

Examples

Florida is well known for its gated communities:

  • Legacy of Leesburg A nature-based gated community in the heart of Central Florida
  • Lakes of Mount Dora A gated Waterfront Retirement Community located in beautiful Mount Dora where 70% of the lots are waterfront.

Some of the newest gated communities in China include:

  • Riverside Garden (more info), (Shenyang city, Liaoning province) A luxury development with over 1,000 housing units, a supermarket, business center, laundry delivery service, tennis court, and fitness club.
  • Beijing Riviera (more info), (Chaoyang District, Beijing) This multi-faceted development includes hundreds of apartments, condominiums, and villas, along with an onsite water treatment plant, an office center, sports and recreation facilities (including swimming pools, tennis courts, a skate park, and a golf driving range), a supermarket, a beauty salon, and a travel agency.
  • Oriental Grand Garden (more info) (Pudong District, Shanghai) The facilities at this gated community include a swimming pool, spa, gym, tennis court, a hair salon, and a 24-hour convenience store.
  • Vanke Garden City (more info) (Wuchang District, Wuhan) is a new gated community on the southern side of the Wuchang District of Wuhan City in Hubei Province, which currently (May 2005) is awaiting its first new occupants. Some residential buildings are still under construction, but most have already been built, with apartments being decorated prior to the new owners moving in. Facilities(not restrooms) already up and running include the "Cross Country Jeep Bar" bar/restaurant. Facilities normally expected of such a community are expected to open once the new residents arrive. A similar Vanke development already exists in the northern Hankou area of the city, near the Tian He Airport expressway and the new racecourse.

Some of the gated communities in Mexico include:

  • Bajamar (more info), Baja A gated complex of homes and condominiums, with a view of the Pacific Ocean, centered around a 27-hole golf course.
  • Chula Vista Norte (more info), (San Antonio, Jalisco) This secure development overlooks Lake Chapala, and offers various sizes of lots on which to build homes.

Examples of gated communities in the United States include Seagate in Brooklyn, New York; Broadmoor in Seattle, Washington; and Coto de Caza in Orange County, California.

The perpetrators of the famous $17 Million Loomis Fargo heist [1] moved from a mobile home into the gated Cramer Mountain community in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, NC following the theft in the hope of keeping the authorities at bay. Consequently, the gang became known as The Cramer Mountain Hillbillies.

In the United Kingdom, gated communities can usually be found in London, especially in the Docklands, such as New Caledonian Wharf, Kings and Queen Wharf and Pan Peninsula and East London, for example Bow Quarter in Bow, London.

The city of Lima, which is the capital of Peru, has several gated communities, especially in the upscale districts of La Molina and Santiago de Surco. They are home to many prominent Peruvians.

Brazil also has many gated communities, particularly in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. For example, one of Sao Paulo's suburbs, Tamborei, has at least 6 such compounds known as Tamborei 1, 2, 3, and so on. Each consists of generously spaced detached houses with very little to separate front gardens. Thus many of the city's suburbs resemble wealthy suburbs in North America, Europe and other wealthy countries.

Because of the high crime rate, Manila in the Philippines also has a large number of gated and heavily defended communities.

There is an increasing number of gated communities in Poland.

In Saudi Arabia, expatriate workers are required to live in Saudi Aramco controlled gated communities such as Dharan, being the largest. Gated communities are also popular with well-to-do Saudis. The largest communities include, in addition to Dhahran, Ras Tanura, Abqaiq, and Udhayliyah.

Gated communities in fiction

J.G. Ballard has examined the phenomenon in his novel Super-Cannes and in his novella Running Wild. T. C. Boyle's novel The Tortilla Curtain is also set in and near a gated community in California. Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash depicts a future where gated communities are mass-produced by franchising systems and operate as sovereign city-states.

See also

  • intentional community

External links

  • Gate Operators
  • USA Today: Gated communities more popular, and not just for the rich
  • Renaud Le Goix: Gated communities as an urban pathology?
  • The Privatization of Urban Space: Gated Communities - A New Trend in Global Urban Development?
  • Land Use and Design Innovations in Private Communities
  • China's Transition at a Turning Point
  • Forbes: Most Expensive Gated Communities In America 2004
  • Gated Communities
  • Gated Golf Communities

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "gated community".