How do we become a Gated Community?

therandomguy

I am moving into a new house in a small cul-de-sac containing only five houses. We are not part of any other estate and have our own street name. Does anyone know if it is possible to make this gated. ie a security gate to stop other people coming in? Obviously I would need the other owners to agree and we would probably have to split the cost of the gate and maintenance, but do we need planning permission or other permission from the local council?

homer911

therandomguy wrote: »

I am moving into a new house in a small cul-de-sac containing only five houses. We are not part of any other estate and have our own street name. Does anyone know if it is possible to make this gated. ie a security gate to stop other people coming in? Obviously I would need the other owners to agree and we would probably have to split the cost of the gate and maintenance, but do we need planning permission or other permission from the local council?

You would need legal advice...
-turning a public road into a private road
-extinguishing a right of way
-probably taking on the maintenance of the roads, drainage, cabling, grass, trees
-you would need a management company to handle all this

therandomguy

Thank you for your reply. Definitely more to think about re road maintenance etc that I hadn't considered. I will investigate further.

ted1

therandomguy wrote: »

I am moving into a new house in a small cul-de-sac containing only five houses. We are not part of any other estate and have our own street name. Does anyone know if it is possible to make this gated. ie a security gate to stop other people coming in? Obviously I would need the other owners to agree and we would probably have to split the cost of the gate and maintenance, but do we need planning permission or other permission from the local council?

You would have to buy the land off the council

patrickbrophy18

It sounds like a lot of hassle and money for what it is worth. As per ted1's observation, you might have to buy the land off the council (kerbs, tarmac and any other amenity space).

One of the many drawbacks to this could very well be the forfeiting of council funded road sweeps (I'm not to sure how often they do this).

Is the area surrounding the housing estate particularly unsafe or frequented by trouble-makers?

Anyway, a bit of food for thought there!

To cut a long story short, you might end up making life more difficult for yourself (yourselves)!

LeinsterDub

A lot of hassle and let's be honest unless you are also hiring a watchman useless. Quite easy to bypass if you wanted

schemingbohemia

Nice way to make your new neighbours love you!

I rented in a gated estate a few years ago. The gate was broken I'd say on average once a fortnight, pain in the hoop for visitors, you'd need a code to allow visitors in, after a few months with take-away deliveries, postmen, other deliveries it became useless as a security device as half the wider community would know the number.

Lucena

I lived in one of those gated communities for a short while in Mexico. To be honest, it felt a little like being in a prison, but then again, the gap between the rich and the poor over there maybe made it necessary.

Here are a few things I was told by the people living there.

When I asked about security guards (all gated estates have security huts at the entrance) and why most estates didn’t have them even though there were huts, a couple of things came up.

1. The guard was sometimes a source of break-ins, he knew when people came and went, so it was very easy for him to organize break-ins. So most estates don’t have them anymore.

2. Money. It’s very hard to make sure everyone in the estate pays whatever money is necessary for maintenance. This also applies to roads, lights, pavement, grass-cutting, sewage etc.

From a personal point of view, I also wouldn’t want to live in a society where I feel I need to “protect” myself from the rest of society. Having said that, I don’t know your area and what experiences you have had in your life.

therandomguy

Thank you for your replies. A lot to think about. I hadn't considered the delivery people etc having a code, I thought it would be an intercom release system. A much bigger project than I had thought.

Larbre34

In the case of a private party request for a Council to abandon a public road, extinguish the right of way and take on the cost of all the utilities, you would have to bear all the legal costs, advertising of intentions, and costs of holding a public hearing in the event of objectors - and they wouldnt have to be residents to object, plenty of people who object in principle to the privatisation of public areas turn up to object to give profile to their campaigns.

Having some experience with this, I would suggest you need a war chest of between €200,000-500,000 (depending on scale) to even contemplate starting down this course of action.

seamus

If this is a security matter, perhaps it would be worth discussing CCTV with your neighbours and arranging to mount cameras in appropriate places to monitor the entrance to the estate. There would be no problem with mounting cameras on the side of one or more of the houses, pointing at the road.

You would need agreement from all of the neighbours though that they're happy to be filmed entering and exiting the estate.

If it's a parking issue, you could pester the council to paint double yellow lines or similar.

Irish Steve

Also, much more important, you will need to ensure access 24/7 for emergency services, which could include gas, electricity, water, phone, sewerage, Cable TV, as well as the normal emergency vehicles like fire, ambulance, Gardai, etc. An Post, and all the other regular services will also need to be able to get in without hassle, otherwise they will refuse to do so.

You will not be popular if an emergency service has problems getting into a gated area, and in a desperate emergency, and with a large enough vehicle, such as a fire engine, they will use the engine to "remove" any obstacle to entry, and will NOT accept responsibility for the cost of replacement or repair.

Delivery companies, couriers, florists and any other on spec company that can have legitimate reason to call HATE gated communities, even when they have a "security guard", as getting access to make a delivery can take a lot longer than the value of the item justifies, and if there are too many problems, local traders may well black list such estates.

Apartment blocks with electronic access are bad enough, a gated area on a day like today, when it's very wet and cold will put most delivery drivers in bad humour before they gain access, especially if they have to spend a while trying a number of houses in order to just get in to offload whatever it is they are trying to delivery.

Nice theory, in practice, a total PITA to all concerned that have to deal with it on a regular basis,

Miaireland

Be careful about liability too. If someone falls on the private road it will be ye they will sue rather than the Council.