<i> Do </i> Fence Me In! : Gated Communities Explore Ways to Shut Outside World Out

In some wealthy cities, the security fence, guard service and live-in caretaker planned for the house on Pine Tree Lane might not attract attention. But this house is in Rolling Hills, a gated community of 1,871 on the Palos Verdes Peninsula where outsiders can enter only with the permission of residents or the homeowners association.

Fencing a home inside a gated community might seem extreme, but throughout the four cities on the relatively crime-free peninsula, residents in increasing numbers want to close themselves off from the rest of the world. Over the past year, more than half a dozen homeowners and groups have considered everything from taking over city streets to constructing guard posts.

Elected officials typically have given preliminary approval to plans, but none of the gates and guard posts have yet received final permits. Critics, meantime, say such security measures do more harm than good.

“You lose the sense of belonging to the rest of the city,” said former Rancho Palos Verdes Councilman Mel Hughes. “Everything gets turned inward to the homeowners’ association, instead of people reaching out and participating in the community.”

The most extreme example of the push for extra security may be Hou Polyn’s home on Pine Tree Lane, where a neighbor is suspected of poisoning 10 trees and severely trimming 13 others to get a better view of the city and ocean. No arrests have been made in that case.

“We want to put up fences; we want to put up a gate, and maybe even contract a security company,” said Polyn’s sister, Joan Chen Zuckerman, who looks after the home when Polyn is out of town. “We’re also having a (full-time) caretaker live there.”

Another alleged tree killing in Rolling Hills, also sparked by a view dispute with a neighbor, prompted Victoria Buell and her mother to install a 5-foot-high wooden fence around their home. When they continued to hear intruders, they installed 10 pairs of 300-watt floodlights. They go on when a person or animal trips a motion sensor. Buell and her mother haven’t had any trouble since.

Residents of nearby cities are also turning to security fences and guard posts to help solve their security problems.

In Rolling Hills Estates, the Cayman Development Co. has submitted plans for a gated community at the former Northrop site on Crest Road. The city already has three gated communities dating back to the late 1970s, said Planning Director Richard Thompson.

In Palos Verdes Estates, one homeowner wants to buy 140 feet of Visalia Lane from the city so he can install a security gate to protect his home and that of three neighbors.

Rancho Palos Verdes, the peninsula’s largest city with a population of 42,000, has received requests in the past year from four homeowners groups to cut access to their neighborhoods, said Carolynn Petru, city planning administrator. The city already has five gated communities, she said.

By most standards, the four peninsula cities are relatively safe. The communities, with a combined population of 65,000, reported three homicides last year and only one the year before. Three rapes were reported in 1994; the year before, it was six.

The most frequent crime is larceny, or theft from non-residential buildings such as cars and front lawns. In 1994, area law enforcement officials reported 686 cases, up slightly from 636 the year before. Car thefts were down, from 131 to 129.

Some speculate that peninsula residents are fearful because they often read of rising crime in other communities.

“A fear that their security is in danger has prompted more requests” for gated communities, said longtime Rancho Palos Verdes City Councilman John C. McTaggart.

McTaggart, who has often sided with homeowners asking to restrict access, acknowledged that many vandals live near their targets. But he said some of the culprits may be outsiders. And sheriff’s deputies can’t get to a home in the time it takes a vandal to spray-paint or blow up a mailbox.

“I don’t feel I can expect the Sheriff’s Department to increase their patrols when I’m telling them to cut their costs,” McTaggart said. He added, “If it’s a matter of public safety, I can find a way to vote” for gated communities.

But McTaggart had no desire to live in one.

“When you gate a community like Rolling Hills, it gives it status,” he said, but “you realize that you’ve all become inmates.”