Gated Communities on Rise in Number and Popularity

Visitors to homes at Vista Point in Calabasas had better be prepared to identify themselves. Even prospective home buyers stopping by for an open house have to be escorted beyond the community gates by a broker--and then escorted back out.

Gated communities such as Vista Point are growing increasingly popular in the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County. Ten years ago, Calabasas had only one gated community. Today, there are more than half a dozen--with two more on the way.

“It’s a rarity to see a community not being built behind a gate in Calabasas,” said Kurt B. Strasser, president of West Hills-based Westridge Security Services Inc. “There’s definitely a move to privatize protection.”

Calabasas isn’t alone. Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks regularly sends out news releases touting sophisticated security for those who can afford to live behind its gates. Home sites are priced from $800,000 and homes start at about $1.14 million.

This comes at a time when many neighborhoods are more worried about crime, and for some the answer is to provide additional security measures, especially at new, pricey housing developments.

“I think we can blame a lot of this on Proposition 13,” said Gretchen Fletcher, an association manager at Community Property Management Corp. in Camarillo. Residents all over California are unhappy with the level of services they get from cash-strapped municipalities, fueling the trend toward creating homeowner associations that offer a host of private security and maintenance services.

“People in gated communities usually take better care of their homes,” Fletcher observed. That also translates into a plus for property values.

“We just wanted to feel secure. It’s very important to us,” said Jack Hakim, a resident at Vista Point in Calabasas and a member of the homeowner association board of directors. “The gates are a feature that people are looking for.”

Hakim and his family moved to Vista Point from a home in Tarzana that already had a security system and its own private gates. The security of a whole gated community, however, was one of the amenities that attracted the Hakims. When prospective home buyers have to be escorted to open houses, he said, they are impressed. The 188 homes at Vista Point range in value from $750,000 to $3 million; homeowner association dues are about $145 per month. That includes keeping up the gates, landscaping, streets and tennis courts.

Residents at Indian Wells Estates in Chatsworth are seeking permission from the city of Los Angeles to redo one gate and move another while taking their streets away from the city and turning them into private roads. The project’s developer went into bankruptcy and the move to privatize the area’s streets is being organized by homeowners.

Private communities aren’t just for the well-heeled, though. At the more affordable Northridge Country & Garden Homes, 1,110 condos, townhomes and single-family residences benefit from private security.

Even Oak Forest Mobile Estates, a 196-unit mobile home park in Westlake, is looking to protect itself behind gates. Residents are planning to vote on gating their community in the near future. The estimated cost is about $35,000 for all the necessary motorized equipment plus a relatively small monthly expense for maintenance and repair. Residents will be able to gain access to their homes only with something like a card key or garage door opener.

Gated communities don’t necessarily cost more to build or to move into, said Duane R. Baker of Baker Security Systems Inc. in Thousands Oaks.

“Ventura County encourages management by associations,” he said. That way, the county doesn’t have to worry about offering more services in conjunction with more development. Residents through their homeowner associations simply contract privately for road repair, tree trimming and street patrols. Communities that don’t need municipal services are usually cheaper to build, Baker said. “You can probably get a better bargain for your money because of savings to builders.”

Gated communities served by Baker include The Colony--440 homes and condos at Mandalay Beach in Oxnard--and Hidden Canyon in Thousand Oaks.

Not everyone is thrilled with the growth of gated communities. Some see it as a sign of Balkanization and a growing separation of haves and have-nots.

There is also the possibility that eventually these developments may face financial problems, or as the developments age, that security expenses will rise dramatically. Additional costs, of course, will have to be borne by those who live in the area.

Still, supporters of these communities see them as a way to foster a sense of community.

“We don’t think they are just enclaves for the rich who want to flee crime,” said Ida Simmons, spokeswoman for the nonprofit Community Assns. Institute in Alexandria, Va. “Community associations are just groups of people with common concerns--they cross all socioeconomic borders.”

The number of gated and non-gated community associations in the United Stated has tripled from 45,000 in 1980 to 150,000 in 1992. Associations are expected to number 225,000 by the year 2000. Some observers also predict that by 2000, private security staffers will outnumber law enforcement officers by three to one.

“Recent events in L.A. have drawn attention to gated communities,” said Strasser, of Westridge Security Services. “There’s been a dramatic interest in gated communities.” Strasser said he has been asked by several associations and developers how to plan a gated community.

It’s much more difficult to gate an existing neighborhood, Strasser said, but it can be done.