Woodland Hills, one of Jackson’s most exclusive neighborhoods, plans to install public access gates after it raises funds to do so.
The Jackson City Council approved on June 3 the association’s application for the installation of two gates. One gate will be located at Old Canton Road and Glenway Drive and another at Ridge Drive and Wood Dale Drive.
The application was approved with no discussion during what was the council’s next-to-the-last meeting with the current members.
All council members voted in favor of the application except for Kenny Stokes of Ward 3, who abstained from voting as he tends to do.
The association met all the city’s requirements for the gates, but the council had never voted on the matter, said Ashlee Smith, a Woodland Hills resident for the last two years.
The city’s Site Plan Review Committee “reviewed the petition to erect a public access gate on Feb. 7, 2019, and received clearance after all technical objections that were raised by the committee were addressed by the petitioners on March 29, 2019,” according to the order approving the application.
The association spoke with the city attorney and carefully went over details to make sure all the requirements of the city’s gating ordinance were met, she said.
Through the years, the association pursued gating but residents who lived nearby (but not in the official boundaries of Woodland Hills) opposed the gates and the matter became contentious. Covid also slowed the gating process for the association.
Woodland Hills includes about 60 houses set on four streets: Glenway Drive, Woodland Drive, Woodland Circle and Ridge Drive. Developed in the late 1920s, the neighborhood features a mix of homes built in the 1930s and 1950s set on large lots, wide streets and rolling hills.
For the last four years, it appeared gating was not going to happen for Woodland Hills.
In February 2021, a resident who no longer lives in the neighborhood, announced the association was not moving forward with its plans for gating.
The former resident e-mailed this statement from the association’s board of directors after the January 2021 community meeting that was conducted over Zoom:
“During the Community Meeting, many neighbors viewed the updated plans for gates for the first time. For those located closest to the proposed gates, there were some new concerns raised. They asked to visit with the City Planning office and members of the board to physically identify where the gates and islands would be located relevant to their properties. In those meetings with the City, we realized that because of the new Fire Marshall requirement that openings be greater than 60’, the location of the gate and island at Glenway Drive had to be pushed further back from Old Canton Road than originally drawn and would significantly impede one property in particular. The board agrees that none of us would want that obstruction to our own properties and that is unfair to ask a neighbor to sacrifice their property. We have considered other options and, unfortunately, at this time there are none that will work from a maintenance, financial or safety standpoint. It is for this reason, and not undue pressure from outside our neighborhood, that we are withdrawing our current application. We leave the door open (or the gate, as it were) to revisit this again in the future, but in the short-term, we have no other choice.
“We hope that everyone involved in the conversation about improving safety and beautification of our area will continue to be supportive and active good neighbors.”
Woodland Hills residents never gave up on getting the gates approved, Smith said.
“It was turned over to a few of us and a few of us said we’d do what we can,” Smith said.
Residents desire the gates because they will help slow traffic, which is needed because the neighborhood has 45 school-age children, she said.
Residents also want the gates because they provide another layer of security, she said.
“The gates do serve to slow anyone looking to cause mischief,” Smith said. “You can get in and out of the neighborhood but it’s not as quick.”
Public access gates do not bar individuals from entering. Anyone can drive up, push a button and wait for a public access gate to open. Most of the public access gates installed in Jackson are also equipped with security cameras.
The city does not pay for the costs of installing the gates. A homeowners’ association or neighborhood association must foot the bill for installation and maintenance of the gates.
“We have to raise the money,” Smith said, noting that when installation will begin depends on how quickly the funds are raised.
Eastover, the County Club of Jackson and numerous other neighborhoods have installed public access gates.
The process for public access gates is detailed. The city revised the process in November 2020 with the goal of making it more transparent.
To begin the gating process, the city requires a neighborhood organization to have a pre-application meeting where a conceptual drawing for proposed gates is submitted to the city’s Planning and Development Department.
After the pre-application meeting, there is the process of notifying individuals, who live near the proposed gate locations. Signs must be posted at the proposed locations and a notice posted on the city’s website.
The city’s site plan review committee and city staff must review the plans for gating to ensure technical compliance with design standards.
After an association’s plan clears the site plan review committee, the process requires the director of planning place the gate application on the city council agenda with written recommendations based on the review process, and the city council then holds a public hearing and makes a decision.
The Greater Belhaven Foundation does not want to install public access gates but is pursuing plans to block six neighborhood entrances and make them open only to pedestrians.
Belhaven has more than 30 entrances and the idea of blocking six of them and converting them to pedestrian-only entrances grew from consultation with the Fred Carl Jr., Small Town Center at Mississippi State University, said Mary Alex Thigpen, executive director of the foundation.
Wooden posts would block the entrances and keep drivers out but allow people walking or on bicycles to enter. The pedestrian-only entrances would look similar to one located in the Fondren neighborhood on Montrose Circle at the I-55 West Frontage Road.
Installing bollards would cost less than putting public access gates in the neighborhood and would not require the maintenance and repairs that gates do, she said.
The Town Center findings from community meetings and traffic data suggested these locations be converted to pedestrian only:
- Gillespie Street at State Street
- Belvoir Place at Riverside Drive
- Lyncrest Avenue at Riverside Drive
- Myrtle Street at Riverside Drive
- Monroe Street at the south side of Fortification Street
- Quinn Street at the north side of Fortification Street
The city’s Traffic Calming Committee has granted the foundation approval to start the traffic calming process. Meetings will have to be organized with affected residents to discuss the process, the foundation will have to collect petition signatures from residents of the affected streets and the foundation will have to raise money to pay for installing bollards at each identified entrance.
The city’s gating ordinance provides a time period for an appeal to Hinds County Circuit Court.
