More Communities Trying to Lock Out City Problems : Security: Whether from fear of crime, traffic or other urban ills, South County neighborhoods are increasingly considering the costly and controversial step of gating their entrances.

Kay Constant-Zoltan fears that street people may be living on a brushy hill within view of the living room window of her El Niguel Heights home.

Her neighbor, Jerry McCloskey, worries that speeding motorists who use neighborhood streets as a short cut are endangering children’s lives.

And Pamela Hill complains of being awakened in the middle of the night by rock music blaring from the cars of youths in Seminole Park, across the street from her home.

These are some of the reasons McCloskey, Constant-Zoltan and Hill joined neighbors in the El Niguel Heights Homeowners Assn. in voting to install gates and guardhouses at the two entrances to their neighborhood of upscale homes.

What is happening in the 12-year-old development near the El Niguel Country Club is not uncommon.

Whether it is fear of crime or traffic, or simply a quest to keep the ills of the outside world at bay, an increasing number of South County’s planned communities are considering the costly and controversial step of gating their neighborhoods.

But in their drive for privacy and safety, these communities have triggered a growing debate over an unintended result: as neighborhoods are transformed into gated communities, public parks and community centers built in the middle of those tracts become the sole domain of those living within the gates.

And in South County, where recreational open space is already at a premium, some fear that as gated communities become more popular, public parks will become more scarce.

“In the long run, 40 years from now, some of us might look back and say that it is a lot more crowded and maybe we should have kept a few more places open,” Laguna Niguel City Councilman Paul Christiansen said in a recent interview.

Although each case is different, several applications by South County homeowner associations that want to gate their communities have included land open to the public.

Some examples:

* In what is believed to be the first South County neighborhood taking ownership of a public park, the county last year deeded open parkland to Rolling Hills Estates in Laguna Niguel as part of its plan to become gated, said Bob Orozco, the community’s property manager.

* An exclusive Mission Viejo community announced in October that it wants to install gates at the only two entrances to the eastern shore of Lake Mission Viejo. The plan angered Mission Viejo residents who do not live in the community but pay annual fees that give them rights to the lake. If the gates go up, they lose access to one side of the lake.

* In Dana Point, the Dana Woods Homeowners Assn. is studying a plan to install gates, igniting a controversy over permanent privatization of a park that has long been maintained by the association.

* And in El Niguel Heights, the homeowners association’s plan to gate the community and assume responsibility for maintaining streets depends on whether Laguna Niguel city is willing to give up two-acre Seminole Park, located in the middle of the neighborhood.

The El Niguel Heights case is controversial because the park was built with $110,000 in tax money in the early 1980s and has been maintained by the Laguna Niguel Community Services District at a cost of $7,000 to $10,000 a year, said acting Laguna Niguel City Manager Warren S. (Ben) Benson.

McCloskey, president of the El Niguel Homeowners Assn., argued that the homeowners are willing to invest another $50,000 in improvements to the small park.

But some questioned why taxpayers, who paid for the initial improvements and the ongoing maintenance costs, should be denied access to a park no matter what its size or how heavily it is used.

Johanne Gibson, chairwoman of the Laguna Niguel Parks Advisory Committee, said a city study showed there is not enough public parkland to accommodate the burgeoning population.

And the dearth of public recreational parks is likely to grow as the city is built out in the early 21st Century.

“We need to assess the recreational needs of the community for years to come,” Gibson said. “We want to make sure the public good is served as well as the private.”

Residents of El Niguel Heights, 75% of whom support adding gates at Glen Abbey and Augusta drives, agree that gating the community is an idea worth investing in, despite figures that show their association fees will almost double.

If gated, the association will have to pay for maintenance of the streets, landscaping, street lights and the park, as well as salaries for gate guards, according to a financial report submitted to the city.

Many residents said they are willing to foot the bill for privatization, including reimbursement to the county if privatization of the parkland is granted.

“For me it is definitely a security issue,” said Hill, who lives across the street from Seminole Park.

Constant-Zoltan, who has lived in El Niguel Heights for two years, said that since living across the street from the park she has been the victim of a “bottle bomb” attack that destroyed her mailbox.

A guest of her home also had his stereo stolen from his Mercedes Benz while it was parked in her driveway.

“I know that it seems like tunnel vision,” Constant-Zoltan said, “but we want to protect what we have.”

Although they recognize residents’ desire to protect themselves, some public officials are critical of taking public land in the process.

San Juan Capistrano Mayor Gary Hausdorfer said he opposes any proposal to gate a community that includes taking parkland from the general public’s use, even if the association is willing to reimburse the public agency with money.

“What good is money? It doesn’t help kids have a place to play,” said Hausdorfer. “Cities grow together a lot more cohesively if they don’t have walls that create a lot of separate entities.”

UCI associate professor Mark Baldassare, who studies social issues in Orange County, said that gated communities could become the norm as more people seek escape from problems of urbanization.

“Gated communities are a status symbol in South County,” Baldassare said. “It certainly seems to be a growing trend in South County. People find it very attractive.”

But, Baldassare warned, the result could be a society splintered by communities that do not interrelate.