Proposed Ban on Gated Communities

The Sunday Star-Bulletin reported that "Kauai Mayor Brian Baptiste wants to ban gated communities as part of his plan to build stronger communities on the Garden Island." Mayor Baptiste said that he will be submitting a bill to the Kauai County council that would ban future gated communities. The Star-Bulletin reports that there are only two gated communities on Kauai. Mayor Baptiste said, "I envision our island with integrated communities where people of various socio-economic levels and cultures can live together without gates or barriers that hinder access."

Government encourages community associations because associations allows government to shift certain costs and responsibilities to the communities. Counties typically require that developers build parks for the community and require the community associations to maintain them. This not only reduces the need for the county to build more parks, it eliminates the requirement that the county maintain them. The county does not provide trash services to many community associations even though there is no reduction in the property tax rate for associations. The shift of other costs and responsibilities are less overt. Many community associations provide security and enforcement of activities that might otherwise become police matters, thereby reducing the demand on overworked police officers.

While I'm not sure that gated communities promote the general good of the community at large, it appears to me unfair that the government would seek to ban them while at the same time shifting these costs and responsibilities to community associations. Moreover, why is it permissible for an owner of a single-family home to put up a fence and gate, but impermissible for a community to do the same thing? After all, the park located on private property that is paid for and maintained by the community association should be protected from trespass just like the swing set in my back yard. Rather than banning gated communities, it would be better to address some of the inequities I mentioned and address the problems that lead people to want to live in gated communities.