The Fontaine Place Neighborhood Association in Jackson is exploring the idea of installing public access gates.
“We discussed that at the last annual meeting and the board met on Monday (March 25) and authorized the hiring of a consultant,” said Jon Turner, vice president/treasurer of the Fontaine Place Neighborhood Association.
The consultant would be responsible for providing information about the best locations for gates, the costs of installation and maintenance, the city’s gating ordinance and a preliminary design, he said.
There’s a good chance the association would start with one gate that would be located on Fontaine Drive, Maurey Road or Jiggetts Road, Turner said.
The Fontaine Place neighborhood includes about 85 homes and lots in an area bordered by Brecon Drive to the north, East Northside Drive to the south, Old Canton Road to the west and Ridgewood Road to the east.
Turner said the neighborhood has talked about the idea of installing public access gates for years as a method to decrease and slow traffic.
Public access gates, unlike private gates, do not bar individuals from entering a neighborhood. All a motorist must do is drive up, push a button, or simply wait for the gates to open. The gates slow traffic by requiring motorists to wait before entering a neighborhood and are thought to deter criminals from making a quick getaway.
The city of Jackson currently has no outstanding applications from neighborhood groups for public access gates. Any organized neighborhood group may apply for the gates.
The city’s gating ordinance was revised in November 2020 to make the process more transparent.
A pre-application meeting with the city’s planning and development staff is required before an application for the installation of gates is submitted. A conceptual drawing showing the locations of proposed public access gates must be submitted to the planning and development department before an application for the installation of public access gates is submitted.
After conceptual drawings are submitted, the planning and development staff then provides written notice to proceed with a community meeting during which the applicant will share the drawings of the proposed gates and gather input. The planning and development staff is required to be present at a community meeting to provide technical support.
All property owners in a neighborhood are required to be notified by certified mail of the time, place and location of the community meeting at least 15 days before the scheduled meeting. All property owners identified by planning and development staff as directly affected by the gate outside of the neighborhood must also receive notice.
A public notice sign with the time, date and location for the community meeting is required to be posted at all proposed gate locations for 15 days before the community meeting.
The most recent neighborhood organization to win approval for gates, the Greater Eastover Neighborhood Foundation, is in the process of ordering and securing construction materials for five public access gates.
The foundation plans to add public gates at Eastover Drive at Ridgewood Road, Eastbourne Place at Ridgewood Road, Lake Circle between Restbrook Place and Rhymes Place, Douglass Drive between Ridgewood and Lake Circle and Quail Run Road at East Manor Drive.
In December 2020, the Woodland Hills Conservation Association announced it planned to apply for two public access gates, one at Old Canton Road and Glenway Drive and another at Wood Dale Drive and Ridge Drive, but it took an unexpected turn.
The association withdrew its application after it realized the location of the gate and an island needed for a gate’s mechanism would significantly impact a resident on Glenway Drive. Some residents opposed the location of the gate at Wood Dale Drive and Ridge Drive, saying it would create a two-tier neighborhood of Woodland Hills inside the gate and Woodland Hills outside the gate and the property values of homes outside the gate would be affected.
In April 2021, the Jackson City Council approved the construction of a single public access gate on Brecon Drive.
Katherine Tate, who applied on behalf of the Hillview subdivision for permission from the city to install a gate just past Spann Elementary School, said nothing has been done because not enough funds have been raised to pay for the gate.
It will cost about $10,000 to install and landscape a public access gate and another $2,000 annually for maintenance and liability insurance, she said.
“The city gave us a year to raise the money,” she said, noting that another neighbor is going to take on the task of raising funds. “We’ll have to get an extension.”
Hillview subdivision is part of the Sheffield Area Homeowners’ Association, which has discussed public access gates for the neighborhood but has never applied for them.
Ashley Ogden, president of the Sheffield Area Homeowners’ Association, said as many as seven gates would be needed to secure the neighborhood and there are no plans to seek permission from the city to install them.
Ogden said installing security cameras in the neighborhood would be useful to deter crime but like gates, that, too, would be dependent upon funds being raised.
Jackson City Council President Virgi Lindsay said gates are not an option for every neighborhood.
Some neighborhoods have numerous entrances, and it would be very costly while other neighborhoods have no interest in them, she said. Still other neighborhoods are not organized enough to go through the process of gating and cannot bear the expense of installation and maintenance, she said.
Here are some locations in northeast Jackson of gated streets:
- Old Canton Road at Banyan Drive
- Westbrook Road at Yucca Road
- Northpointe Parkway at Old Canton Road
- Northpointe Parkway at Plantation Boulevard
- Northpointe Drive at Waterford Drive
- North Cheryl Drive between 2206 N. Cheryl Drive and 4655 W. Cheryl Drive
- Heritage Hills Drive at Culleywood Drive
- Ridgewood Road and Petit Bois Street
- County Line Road and Avery Circle
- Old Canton Road at St. Andrews Drive
- Briarfield Drive mid-block
- North Lake Drive at Kristen Drive
- Old Canton Road at Rolling Meadows Drive
- Carolwood Drive between Briarwood Drive and Fairway Street
- Old Canton Road at Eastparke Drive
- Eastmont Place at Ridgewood Road
- Meadowbrook Road at the Meadowbrook Highlands
