LAGUNA NIGUEL : City OKs Gates for Community

Residents of El Niguel Heights received city approval Tuesday to gate their community, five years after they first decided to privatize their streets.

The City Council voted 4 to 0 with one abstention to let the quiet hilltop neighborhood install gates on Augusta Drive at Niguel Road and on Glen Abby Drive at Club House Drive.

The decision was met with enthusiastic applause from about 200 residents who had donned green ribbons to show their support for privatization.

“This should have been a slam dunk,” said Councilman Thomas W. Wilson, who approved giving two dozen city streets to the El Niguel Heights Homeowners Assn. “All we should be doing is approving the will of the people.”

The request for gates ran into trouble at the Planning Commission. Concerned about access to the public Seminole Park, the commission had required that park users be let in through the unguarded Glen Abby gate just by pushing a button.

This was opposed by residents, who said they wanted gates to keep out speeders, vandals and crooks.

“Don’t force us to guard our front door while we leave our back door wide open,” resident Maureen Parent said at the meeting.

Under the council’s decision, only residents and their guests will be able to pass through the Glen Abby gate. Non-residents will be able to access Seminole Park through the Augusta Drive gate during daylight hours.

Opponents of the measure had said gates would fragment the city and take away streets that taxpayers had paid for.

Mayor Janet Godfrey sided with them, saying she believed gated communities inhibit friendliness. She said she decided to abstain rather than vote “no” because gate proponents had spoken eloquently in favor of privatization.

“I’ve moved three-quarters of an inch to the ‘pro’ side,” she said. “And I’m mad as hops about it. It offends my humanistic side.”