A plan to put 11 homes on a five-acre lot on the Mandeville lakefront has nearby residents concerned about how the gated development will affect their sense of community. Sunset Cove would be the first gated community approved in Mandeville in about four years, sectioning off a piece of land west of Causeway Boulevard that was formerly a clubhouse...
A plan to put 11 homes on a five-acre lot on the Mandeville lakefront has nearby residents concerned about how the gated development will affect their sense of community.
Sunset Cove would be the first gated community approved in Mandeville in about four years, sectioning off a piece of land west of Causeway Boulevard that was formerly a clubhouse for the Old Golden Shores neighborhood.
While residents of that subdivision and the nearby Lewisburg neighborhood raised concerns about several aspects of the development at a meeting of the Mandeville Planning Commission on Tuesday night, many focused on whether a gated-off neighborhood was in keeping with the city's ideals and the character of the area.
"This will create a separate class of people in our immediate community," said Ted Ralph, president of the Old Golden Shores Homeowners Association. He was one of several dozen nearby residents who showed up at Tuesday's meeting to raise issues about the project.
But attorney Paul Mayronne, who represents property owner David Briggs Jr., said a gate is necessary for the subdivision to prevent trespassing.
Trespassing already is widespread because of its location and the attraction of a pier on Lake Pontchartrain, and the number of people who came onto the property, including those hoping to admire the view over the lake or fish, has already prompted Briggs to gate off the property, Mayronne said.
"Before Mr. Briggs erected the gate out there, it was very common for Mr. Briggs to wake up and find people trespassing on his property," Mayronne said.
The question of whether to allow gated communities can be a balancing act for communities that have to juggle a sense of cohesiveness against the desire of some residents for the protections a gate can provide.
"I think there's a valid argument about the social aspect of that, and if you have gated communities at what point does that become unhealthy for the city," city Planning Director Louisette Kidd said. However, she said there were also good arguments to be made for the privacy and sense of security, features many people look for when they move to the north shore, that a gate could provide.
Mandeville now has six gated communities, including one neighborhood that is sectioned off from the rest of its subdivision, Kidd said. The Sanctuary, off of West Causeway Approach, is gated and contains The Preserve, a section of the subdivision that is gated off from the rest of the neighborhood. Lakeside Village and Chinchuba Creek, developments that consist of garden homes off of Mandeville High Boulevard, are also gated. And both Botanica and Chenier, two multifamily apartment complexes near Florida Street, have their residential sections gated off.
However, this is the first time a gated community has come to the city for approval since the adoption of Mandeville's comprehensive plan, which discourages such developments, in 2007, Kidd said.
The city's comprehensive plan urges caution on gated communities based primarily on two concerns: the impact they will have on connectivity and emergency services and the maintenance of the private roads they contain, Kidd said. The Sunset Cove project would be a single street about the size of a typical city block that would not cause problems for motorists trying to get around the city.
The issue of maintenance would be covered by restrictive covenants on the homes sold, Mayronne said. Homeowners would be required to pay into a fund that would go toward maintenance of the road and other shared portions of the subdivision, and the community would have the ability to put liens on the properties of delinquent residents, he said.
Residents have also expressed concerns about the traffic the project would bring, which Mayronne said would not be significant. Other aspects of the development that concern residents, including how closely its properties will be spaced, are still under discussion, he said.
The Planning Commission, which will discuss a tentative approval of the subdivision at a meeting later this month, may not have a say over much of the project. Commission Chairman Nixon Adams noted that the project meets the city's regulations for residential zoning and there does not seem to be much reason for the board to object to the actual plan for the project.
"The only thing where there's some discretion on this board is the gate," Adams said. "I don't like gated communities, I'll go on record with that."
Ralph said at Tuesday's meeting that citizens had a right to expect that the comprehensive plan's discouragement of gated communities would give them additional protection.
"While not legally binding, it is a moral contract," Ralph said.
But Mayronne noted that his client should be able to expect certain things as well.
"This is a single-family residential zone," he said. "We are proposing a single-family residential subdivision in accordance with that zoning."
Jeff Adelson can be reached at jadelson@timespicayune.com or 985.645.2852.