Gated Communities

History of Gated Communities

Gated communities are not a new phenomenon. Defensive walls surrounded ancient cities such as Athens, Rome, London, and Paris. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, cities were located around or in a fortress. Kings and noble families lived in castles with walls and moats. The trend toward gates continued during the nineteenth century as wealthy and famous individuals built exclusive, private communities. These private communities were separate from their surroundings. They were maintained and controlled by covenants, restrictions, and land deeds. Some early examples are Gramercy Park (1831) and Tuxedo Park (1866), both in New York City, and Louisberg Square in Boston (1844). Streets could also be privatized to restrict public access. St. Louis, Missouri, contained private streets where wealthy industrialists had their homes; for example, Benton Place (1866) had its own security guards and is one of the earliest private streets in the United States.

The idea of building common interest developments (CIDs) such as condominiums, cooperatives, and planned developments of single homes (e.g., gated communities) was derived from the Englishman Sir Ebenezer Howard (1850–1928), who advocated the garden city concept. His ideas were explained in his book Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898), which was reissued in 1902 as Garden Cities of Tomorrow. A garden city was a new community that was planned from the bottom up (physical layout, number of inhabitants, economic means of support, and governing structure) and merged the best of country life and city life. The citizens in the garden community would collectively have permanent ownership and control of the land and the leasehold property (houses, businesses, and farms). The moderate rents paid by the leaseholders and any surplus derived from the prosperity of the town would take care of the debt used to buy the land for the community and pay for the town's services and improvements. Ebenezer Howard did not want private developers to take over the land and profit from it. The renters would elect individuals with practical expertise to serve on the governing body.

During the 1920s, American private developers, architects, and planners took parts of the garden city concept (e.g., planned community, recreational space, and green belts) and constructed, for profit, the common interest development communities. The wealthy community of Radburn, New Jersey, begun in 1929, even had a homeowners association (HOA) to administer the restrictions imposed in the covenant. This served as a model for the governing structure of present-day homeowners associations and the common interest developments they govern.

Gated communities have increased since the 1970s. Real estate marketers and housing developers began promoting common interest development communities for the middle class in the 1960s. Planned communities were popular with senior citizens and others wishing to pursue certain types of recreation and sports. Later, communities were planned for upper- and middleincome citizens of all types. Land cost was high, and planned communities enabled more people to live on smaller land units. The homeowners would share in the common open spaces, security systems, and private security guards. They would also have common amenities, for example, park, playground, pool, golf course, and parking lot. Street lighting, sanitation, sidewalks, maintenance of streets, and pest control—services normally provided by city government—would be provided. The developments included a private government (the homeowners association) to run them. Homeowners were assessed fees to maintain the community and its security. Municipal governments faced shrinking budgets in the 1970s, and the common interest development community or “new town” had great economic appeal. The city would receive a new tax base but would not have to spend a great deal of money on supplying services to the planned community.

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