Northsiders will have a chance to sound off later this month on plans to amend the city of Jackson’s gating ordinance.
A public meeting is slated for Tuesday, August 22 at 5:30 p.m. to discuss changes to the rules allowing public access gates.
The meeting will be held at Jackson City Hall in council chambers.
Setting the meeting is the first action the council has taken on public access gates since the election.
Ward One Councilman Ashby Foote had hoped to push through his amendments to the ordinance earlier this year, but was stopped when alternative proposals were introduced by former Ward Seven Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon.
After the town hall, Foote plans to meet with new Ward Seven Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay, as well as city legal and planning and development to discuss changes.
“What I’d like to do is … go over the particulars of the items on the agenda and come to some common ground, and then bring it back to the rules committee to amend it,” Foote said.
Lindsay told the rules committee she would be willing to discuss the ordinance, and would like the meeting to happen “quickly so there can be some resolution to this.”
Jackson’s initial public gating ordinance was passed in 2011 and allowed the devices to be installed at neighborhoods or subdivisions with only one entrance.
At the urging of Foote, city code was updated in May 2016 to allow all neighborhoods the right to install the devices.
Public access gates are erected along streets to calm traffic and improve security.
Unlike private gates, which require a key or code to open, public access gates open when motorists drive up.
The gates deter through traffic and criminals who would be temporarily delayed waiting for them to open.
Several neighborhood associations applied for gates after city code was amended.
However, the council put the ordinance on hiatus in October at the request of the city’s legal department.
Among concerns, the ordinance did not include “due process” for those opposed to the gates.
Also, the 2016 ordinance allowed gates to be installed at the entrances to areas served by neighborhood associations, rather than a subdivision’s original plat.
Barrett-Simon’s ordinance would have required the gates to be located at the original platted entrances.
“Last year when it passed, we were so excited. Some of the people from the city came out, we moved forward, got our surveys done, the architectural drawings done. It’s unfair one group of people are holding the city back,” said North Lake co-president Sweyn Simrall.
Many neighbors supported the 2016 ordinance, but some residents, including a few in the Woodland Hills area, were opposed to it.
The Woodland Hills Conservation Association (WHCA) had petitioned the city to install gates at Glenway Drive and Old Canton Road, and at Ridge Drive, where the street splits from Wood Dale Drive.
Three houses that are part of Woodland Hills would be sitting outside the Ridge Drive gate.
One of those residents, Dick Dickerson, told the council that he didn’t want the gate at Ridge Drive, in part, because his home would not be located behind it. He argued homes behind gates are typically more valuable than homes outside of them.
Dickerson, instead, wanted the gate at Ridge and Old Canton.
WHCA officials said it wouldn’t be feasible to install a gate there, because it would impact several neighborhoods outside of Woodland Hills.
