Beyond picket fencesGated communities have been a rarity in Minnesota. Now, two are planned in Blaine and Coon Rapids. Four more are slated for small towns outside the metro.
Nancy and Mark Ness were looking for a sense of community and something else -- security -- when they moved in 1995 to Bearpath, a gated development in Eden Prairie. "Safety is an issue, and I feel safe in the gated community," Nancy Ness said of the neighborhood where kids ride bikes to the private pool and park. "I love it; we know the neighbors really well."Although gated communities have long been fixtures in cities in the South and West, the Nesses' neighborhood has been a rarity in Minnesota. Until now, the state has had only a handful of the so-called secured developments -- including Bearpath, Clay Cliffe in Tonka Bay and the city of North Oaks, which took down its gates 24 years ago after high-schoolers kept giving out access codes. But gates are increasingly becoming part of new Minnesota developments. In the Twin Cities, two new gated communities are underway -- St. Andrews Village, under construction in Blaine, and Villas on the Boulevard, recently approved in Coon Rapids. New gated communities built around artificial lakes are also going up in smaller cities around the state -- Pine Island, Center City, Glenwood and New Germany. "It's a significant trend, and we're likely to see more of them here," said University of Minnesota faculty member Carissa Schively. "Whether it's a good thing or not, I'm not sure," said Schively, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the Humphrey Institute.
Symbol of affluence The fenced-in lifestyle has long attracted curiosity and criticism. A cable TV show that premiered last season, "The Real Housewives of Orange County," chronicles the lives of women who live in a gated community in California. Karal Ann Marling, professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota, said gated communities have become a symbol of affluence as well as a way for homeowners to feel safer about crime. "It's a sad commentary on our times that we have to hide behind our walls," said Marling, who has studied the role of gated communities in America's cultural landscape. According to the census, the Midwest has the fewest communities secured with walls or fences compared to other regions of the country. So why is that? "I don't know that Minnesota Nice is so involved in it as it is that trends from the coast take longer to get here," Marling said. "It would be nice to say that [Minnesotans] are not as scared as our neighbors, but I don't think that's accurate," she said.
Developers such as Jason Budzynski, project manager of the Blaine gated community,
also said he believes it was just a matter of trends arriving more slowly here.
Donald Wegmiller, 67, said he rests easy wintering in sunny Arizona knowing that his Minnesota townhouse in Bearpath is safe, and he believes others his age are looking for the same type of security.
Security is important "They like the fact that they can lock up their house and go away and won't have people running through the neighborhood and possibly breaking in," Schmitt said. "Every time you hear about somebody getting shot in Minneapolis or breaking into a home, the security issue becomes very, very important." Villas on the Boulevard will have 36 detached townhouses starting in the low $200,000 range and will be aimed at people age 50 and older. The entrances will be controlled electronically. Marc Nevinski, Coon Rapids community development director, said the city staff had some concerns that a gated community might wall off that neighborhood from the rest of the community. "Part of the reason you do planning is so you can build a community and interact with people," he said. Blaine officials also hesitated at first, said community development director Bryan Schafer. "There's that initial reaction of 'we're not sure we like gated communities because it smacks of excluding people,' " he said. The City Council ended up approving the proposal, in part to provide more housing choices. St. Andrews Village will have 60 single-family homes ranging from $500,000 to more than $1 million. The development is also geared toward people 50 and older. Budzynski, the project manager, said the gates actually create community. "When people take a look around where you live, how many people do you really know? Three, four, maybe five?" he said. "This just defines your neighborhood." The Trophy Lake Estates developments planned outside the metro area will surround artificial lakes used for water skiing and boating, said developer Grant Hustad. "You can turn your kids loose in the community and just not worry about them," Hustad said of gated communities. "They can bike on the streets without having a lot of congested traffic from the outside."
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