Gated Communities Go West - By Elizabeth Oliver, Utne.com

[applegrove]

Gated Communities Go West
New developments seek nature, then fence it in with New Ruralism
—By Elizabeth Oliver, Utne.com
December 7, 2006 Issue

"Imagine a huge log cabin hugging a mountainside, with horses running past the picturesque red barn. Strategically placed ponderosa pines dot a perpetually green meadow. A stream meanders through. Now what if that picture included a private club, equestrian center, pool, golf course, and wireless internet? What if next door were 30 other faux "western outposts" just like yours? And what if all of you were enclosed within one giant fence with a security gate? Whether this appeals to you or not, brace yourself, because this Disney-esque interpretation of rural living may soon be coming to a countryside near you.

Gated communities have long held a reputation as promised lands for well-heeled retirees: segregated, elitist, and pseudo-secure. But this new type of community, where residents possess multi-acred mini-ranches within the rigidly ruled and fenced-in fashion of association living, has put a new spin on the gated community, and on country living. As Florence Williams astutely observes in High Country News: "The presence of a gate for humans in the middle of range country poses the obvious question: Why? Who lives 'inside' and who lives 'outside,' and why underline the demarcation in such an in-your-face way?"

Inside Hamilton, Montana's "Stock Farm" development, for example, you will find club membership initiation fees of $125,000 and lots as expensive as $1.2 million (the cheapest ready-to-move-in building -- a two-bedroom cabin -- sells for about $800,000). Most residents are part-time, flying in on private jets for golf tournaments and long weekends. Outside, in the town of Hamilton, you will find a poverty rate of 16 percent and a general bitterness toward the Stock Farmers, stemming primarily from the newcomers' disinterest in getting to know their neighbors, as well as local resistance to change. "The resentment I feel is part of a larger bag of resentments I haul around about the increasing privatization of the West," one Hamilton resident told Williams. But it isn't just the West that is being fenced-in and privatized.

The idea of the gated rural community, reports Roberta Fennessy for Urban, was spawned in Florida by Peter S. Rummel, CEO of the state's largest real estate operating company. Rummel, not ironically, once worked for Disney as a creator of the notorious New Urbanist mecca, Celebration. Now, Rummel has taken planned development to a new level by selling expensive pre-fab farms in the swampy, isolated, mosquito-ridden panhandle of Florida. He's dubbed the concept -- touted as a reconnection with nature -- "New Ruralism."

..............SNIP"

http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2006_278/news/12355-1.html

[Nay]

1. Mr. Nay and Sonny Nay were born in Montana--Mr. grew up there--

and all we can say is that huge numbers of Montana farmers and ranchers have been voting Pub for decades, mostly cuz they wanted their pork and subsidies, and now the chickens have come home to roost. They loved Reagan, and mostly voted for the Bushies, and hated Clinton. Of course, they will never connect the dots.

[Lisa]

2. thanks for posting!

I'm teaching a landscape architecture course next term, and I was looking for something about "landscapes of power" and social responsibility issues -- this'll be a great reading!

[applegrove]

3. These gated communities are typical of countries with a terrible

distribution of wealth... though it is often just high walls for the rich and diplomats in the less developed nations.

[Lisa]

4. my boss just got back from working for the UN in Africa ...

And as you say, that's how it's like. Even for people who aren't comfortable with the concept. He was only persuaded to go along with it, after one of his colleagues was shot and almost killed on the way to work.

But these luxury "rural retreats" seem to be in a whole new category (particularly since they seem to be creeping into Canada, which has much less of an income disparity ... though admittedly that's been on the rise). Shades of those wealthy "Old World" aristocrats who would install a "ha-ha" (very deep boundary ditch) on their palatial estates, to keep the peasants from wandering onto their land, but without a high wall to block the view!

In the course, we'll be looking at those attitudes and the impression they left on landscape aesthetics ... contrasting them with the more recent association between social justice and the environment (e.g. the assertion that enjoyment of nature ought to be a human right regardless of income).

[applegrove]

5. Right. People have to live that way in cities with huge amounts

of terrible poverty. Seems to be a choice in the USA. And the worry is with the people then worsen the tax system of the inner city or the subburbs they left. Didn't know we had this in Canada. Knew we had wealthy areas on top of hills..but not gated communities. Except in Florida (that is part of Canada eh!).

[Lisa]

6. gated and semi-gated enclaves are becoming more common up here

Some of my students noticed one under construction at the edge of town, here on Vancouver Island. (I know that a few people disparagingly call the entire island "Canada's largest gated community", but this was one with actual gates and fences.)

This researcher did a count a few years ago, and suggests that BC is a major growth area for them (likewise, luxury resort developments).
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/cnrpapersword/gated/grant.pdf