City of Casa Grande

Gating an established community requires many steps that must occur in an established order. The steps are summarized here with detailed information below.

1. Full disclosure of information for all residents and a majority vote in favor from the residents within the community is required.

2. The community must apply for abandonment of the roadways and infrastructure from the City.

3. If abandonment from the City is granted, the entire infrastructure must be repurchased from the City.

4. An electronic opening device must be installed on the gate for emergency access.

5. Sufficient funds must be budgeted for maintenance of the infrastructure.

6. A disaster cleanup plan must be in place as FEMA does not fund for private roadways.

The residents of the community must be made aware of the total costs associated with gating a community.  Public meetings and sufficient public notice to all property owners should occur before any applications are submitted. Over two thirds of the property owners must approve the initiative to become a gated community before the application is considered by the City Council.

The City Council has the following options regarding the abandonment of public roadways:

1.    The Council can determine that the roadway has no public use and grant a request for abandonment without requiring compensation.

2.    The Council can determine that the roadway has no public use and grant a request for abandonment but require fair compensation for the value of all relevant improvements and impose additional requirements as deemed appropriate.

3.    The Council can declare the roadway to have public use and deny a request for abandonment.

There are a few state requirements which apply to abandonment, one of which is Arizona Revised Statutes § 28-7206.  This statute governs the abandonment of a City roadway to a home owners association (HOA).  The statute states that a City may vacate a roadway and vest title in an HOA if the following three conditions are met:

1.    The HOA includes the owners of the land abutting the roadway or portion of the roadway to be vacated;

2.    The HOA has right and remedies under covenants, conditions, or restrictions of title to maintain the vacated roadway and to assess all members of the association for the maintenance of the roadway; and

3.    Two-thirds of the members of the association and a majority of the owners of commercial property abutting the roadway or portion of the roadway to be vacated approve the vesting of the title to the roadway in the association.


Once these conditions, as well as any other State requirements, have been met, the community must submit a formal request for abandonment to the City. 

Upon receiving a formal request, City Council will consider this action and direct staff to determine the relevant improvements located within the area, ascertain the fair market value for these improvements, and determine what other requirements (e.g., drainage, pedestrian access, etc.), if any, need to be met. 

If abandonment is granted by the City Council and it is determined that compensation must be granted to the City then the infrastructure must be purchased from the City. This includes the following (fair market value pricing from 2006):

Gating a community must also take into consideration emergency access for public safety vehicles. Access can be given in the form of a code and this is not an issue for a Police Officer in a car, however, in a high profile fire truck, this is problematic. It requires personnel to exit the vehicle in order to put in the code.  This can increase response time up to 30 or more seconds.  Furthermore, different gates have different codes, which sometimes get changed without the public safety departments' knowledge.

Gate installations should utilize the Opticom Gate opening system for gate access.  This will allow a Gate to automatically open to an Opticom Emitter flashing prior to our arrival, thus not delaying the response.  The equipment listed, works by flashing a strobe light (emitter) from an emergency vehicle  causing a mechanical relay panel to open the gate.  The equipment listed is generic and not optically encoded.   A more expensive model can be purchased to be optically encoded to allow only authorized entry. The estimated cost for this system is outlined below (prices are estimates only):

Sufficient funds should be included in the cost analysis to maintain infrastructure for the duration of the community. Estimated costs are outlined below.

When a community is gated, the roadways become private and this affects many aspects of public safety. 

-City police departments reduce the amount of time they patrol and do not issue tickets for speeding or illegal parking.

-FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, does not compensate for private roadway cleanup in the event of a disaster. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the community to be gated have funds available and an emergency plan in place should a disaster occur.

-Attention needs to be given on how the local street network functions.  The City could not support gating a street that makes connection through to an existing adjacent subdivision.

Gating established communities has pros and cons associated with the change. It is important for all property owners in the community to consider them. A cost analysis should be considered and whether the benefits exceed the costs associated with restricted access.