By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Gate greeter Terry Spurlock talks with Heritage at Miami Bluffs resident Ann Justice at the guardhouse. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

LIBERTY TWP. - Wetherington's gates may have opened the floodgates in the Tristate to a national trend toward secluded living.

More gated communities are coming to Greater Cincinnati's suburbs, after its highest-income community became the region's first gated subdivision last year in West Chester Township.

Now gates are in the plans for subdivisions being built in neighboring Liberty Township, in Warren County's Hamilton Township, and in a Northern Kentucky community. When are all completed, more than 1,000 Tristaters will live behind gates. Real estate experts expect more gates in future projects.

Homebuyers like the security and also the upscale look.

"You feel more secure, especially at night," said Ann Justice, 60, who recently moved to Heritage at Miami Bluffs in Hamilton Township. "When you're away, nobody can get in with a vehicle and rob you."

INFOGRAPHIC

Map of gated communities

But critics of the communities say they are exclusionary and undermine community togetherness. And, they can add to traffic flow problems.

Hamilton Township Trustee Clyde Baston said he didn't mind the gates at Miami Bluffs because the subdivision targets an older audience. In general, however, he frowns on gated communities, saying they keep too many people out.

"It cuts everything off," he said. "Crime can occur anywhere and there's other ways to stop cut-through traffic. It's not the proper way to do things. If that's the case, we'd have all of our subdivisions cut off and no one could get in and out of them."

A regional planner says he's a little surprised that it's taken so long for the trend to catch on here.

"It's surprising we have so few in my mind. It's quite the trend in land use across the country," said Bob Craig executive director of the Warren County Regional Planning Commission. "That whole cachet appeals. (But) there is an elitist perception about these communities in the planning realm. It's not without its controversy."

Realtors predict more gated communities of expensive homes across the Tristate.

"Gates add to the prestige of the development. For example, I am in the process of selling a gorgeous home and one of my prospects was quite attracted to Wetherington because he saw the gated community being a benefit," said Frank Chapman, a Realtor with Comey & Shepherd Realtors in West Chester Township.

Originated in Sun Belt

Gated subdivisions, which emerged in the 1970s in the Sun Belt states, are catching on in the Northeast and Midwest as more people vacation in warmer climates and return home with a desire for such communities, experts say.

Nationally, the number of gated communities rose from 2,500 in the early 1970s to more than 20,000 in 1997, according to the book Fortress America - Gated Communities in the United States.

"It's a very specific lifestyle and very specific demographic it appeals to," said Maria Roberts, vice president of privatecommunities.com, a Vero Beach, Fla., Internet company that generates real estate leads and Web site traffic for gated communities nationally.

"Now with the retirement of the baby boomers and the transfer of their wealth to the lower levels in their families, living in a gated community is more achievable than it used to be."

Wetherington, off Tylersville Road at Interstate 75, activated its gates in March 2002.

While there are a few gated condominium developments in Southwest Ohio and many gates guard private estates in Ohio and Northern Kentucky, Wetherington was the area's first gated subdivision, with 384 homes and condominiums.

Wetherington residents say cut-through traffic concerns, not a desire to be exclusive, drove them to close their streets.

Wetherington's homeowners association president, Kevin Plank, reports that since the gates closed, the number of vehicles has dipped from 11,000 per day to about 3,000 to 4,000 daily. Wetherington residents hold the second highest median household income - $161,448 - in the state, according to U.S. Census figures.

Plans are under way in neighboring Liberty Township for a 90-home neighborhood called The Sanctuary on 105 acres off Kyles Station Road.

Homes ranging from $400,000 to $1 million are expected to begin construction later this year in a heavily wooded area near where Panther Run Creek flows into Gregory Creek.

Coming soon

In Warren County's Hamilton Township, plans call for 390 homes and town homes ranging in price from $139,100 to $420,000 at Heritage at Miami Bluffs off Striker Road along the Little Miami River.

In Newport, The Estates at Wiedemann Mansion will have 17 homes on seven acres ranging in price from $250,000 to $1 million, said Dale McPherson, managing partner of The Estates at Wiedemann Mansion, LLC.

Faux gates

In Warren County's Mason, a subdivision with "faux gates" is Heritage Club, which sits just east of Butler-Warren Road on Hamilton-Mason Road.

Gates and a guardhouse adorn the Maxwell Drive entrance to the golf course subdivision, which was the site of Homerama in 1996 and 1998. But the gates haven't closed because the streets are public, maintained by the city of Mason, according to Jill Prior, division coordinator for Heritage Club Ltd.

Another "faux gates" community exists in Northern Kentucky's Hebron, Rivershore Farms, according to a resident, Ray Neverovich.

He also is the division president of the town home division of The Drees Co., which is co-developing Miami Bluffs.

"It's more of an aesthetic appearance," he explained of the gates in his subdivision. He said the neighborhood has decided not to close them (privatizing streets is expensive and usually financed by homeowners associations).

"It's a wonderful feel when you drive up to a community and it's gated," Neverovich said. "There's a sense of community."

E-mail: jedwards@enquirer.com.