MANNED GATE PROPOSAL FOR GREER RANCH QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Revised 3/17/2008 1. Why do we need manned guarded gates in Greer Ranch? Have we had any incidents in or around Greer Ranch in which residents should be concerned?
Yes, recently there was a person who entered the community and stabbed his estranged wife who was living there with her relatives. Additionally, there was a black truck seen in Greer Ranch on two occasions, one on Halloween night about a year ago, attempting to stop and talk to young girls in such a way that it scared them. Within the same time period there was an attempted abduction at Antelope Elementary School just across Clinton-Keith from our development. There was also a report by the roving guard concerning what he thought may have been a black Cadillac parked close to the Artisan homes with two men selling drugs. A few months ago someone’s car was stolen from their garage. Just within the past month there was an intoxicated non-resident driving in Greer at a very high speed who had a car accident and did major damage to our fence on Crabapple. He certainly could have hit one of our residents. There was another incident within the past few days of an old Cadillac with four men in it driving slowly down several streets, at first with lights on, and later with them off. Fortunately, a resident noticed this and called the police. Most of these offenders would either have been prevented from entering our community or caught when trying to exit.
2. Why not just close the gates? Why do we need manned guarded gates? Closing the gates would certainly be better than leaving them open as they currently are during the day. However, just closing the gates doesn’t provide much additional help with unauthorized traffic entering our community. It does address unauthorized vehicles following residents through the gate – when the gate is closed – assuming we put in an additional arm so only one resident can enter the association at a time. However, there are still many problems with this approach. First, we can’t close the gates during the day yet. The builders per the CC&Rs have the right to leave the gates open until they leave – which could be more than a year from now. Additionally, since there’s no one there to monitor the gates, some people will just break the arm and the gate and enter anyway. We’ve already had several incidences of people breaking the gate and entering. Also, with unmanned gates you would still need to give a guest pass code to your cleaning service, your gardener, your contractor, UPS, all who come when you’re at work. This gives them the ability to come through the gate any time they want. Worse — what happens when you change service providers? Then even more people have pass codes to enter Greer Ranch. Multiply this by almost 700 homes, and you have a lot of unauthorized access. This is on top of the lack of unauthorized access we have until the builders are finished building – which would also be addressed with manned gates.
3. What is the proposal? Build guard villas on the island at the Greer Rd and Nutmeg entrances. Additionally install an extra arm at these two gates so only one car can enter at a time. This will eliminate cars following residents in before the gate closes. As soon as the arm goes up and lets one car through, it closes and the main gate opens. Additionally, to facilitate traffic flow homeowners will have a separate lane (the current guest lane) and the guests will use the current resident lane. Also the Evandel gate will be an exit only gate. There will be noise-resistant tiger teeth installed at the exit gate to prevent cars from entering the exit gate before it closes. One of gates with a guard villa will be manned 24 hours per day. The second gate with the guard villa will be manned 8 hours per day – during the peak traffic times. Video technology will be installed to monitor drivers and license plates so we know all cars that enter at all times of the day. Thus, if a crime occurs and we know the approximate time, we can narrow down the suspects. Video technology will also enable the 24-hour manned guarded gate to check a visitor’s driver’s license ID remotely against the visitor list just as if he were in front of the individual. He can talk to the visitor remotely and open the gate if the visitor is authorized. To help ensure only authorized guests enter our community, residents will contact the guard villa and provide a guest list that includes their guest’s name and date expected. The guard will validate the guest’s identity against their driver’s license and provide a guest pass with expiration date. This way when residents move or change gardeners or other service providers, these guests will no longer be able to use old guest pass codes and enter the Association. The roving guard will address guests on premises whose guest pass has expired. We will also be implementing resident car stickers before the manned gates are implemented. This will allow the roving guard to note immediately unauthorized vehicles within our community.
