Farrell: Automatic gates at Westbury repeatedly broken
Someone really wants to get into Westbury Park and the Estates at Westbury in Bluffton.
Over the past two months, the new automatic gates there -- which replaced ones that were not in use for nearly a year -- have been repeatedly damaged.
I say "someone" is doing this but, according to management, at least four someones have been identified thus far.
The gates at both entrances, however, have been broken more than just four times, residents say.
I went over to the neighborhood Friday and, sure enough, the entrance gate off U.S. 278 was bent backward, as if the driver who did it said "Hahaha. Nope," and drove on through.
I am often a "Hahaha. Nope" person in life -- the kind who disregards signs and rules that seem silly and ineffective -- but never when it could cause damage to another person or their property ... or, let's face it, worse, me and my own.
So who are these people breaking the gates there? Are they too good for the gates?
Or are they too bad for entrance?
After a few false starts, the new gates at Westbury went live Nov. 30, and there were problems from the beginning, exacerbated by residents who didn't make the effort to get their new cards registered and those who didn't realize the Buck Island Road entrance is now just for residents and not their guests.
This initially caused backups onto the road.
And with that, came frustration.
People at Westbury have been piggybacking into the community, using the driver in front of them as the gate-opener. Even those with access devices are doing this because there's a delay in the gate closing between cars, and it's simply too much to bear.
Others have been driving into the development through the exit gate just to avoid the line at the entrance, a move that is ill-advised, especially because the gates are now being watched.
New cameras in the community can easily see the license plate of anyone who enters. This means violations, fines and possibly police involvement for anyone tampering with the natural order of the gates.
"If anybody breaches the gate, they will be found," said Patricia Miller, property manager for the Westbury Park homeowners association. "At this point, we feel pretty comfortable that everyone who wants to have access has access, but it's just these people who don't want to abide by the rules."
Those who have lived in developments with automatic gates can tell you that the gates are often temperamental, that they're inconvenient for guests and they do not seem to prevent crime.
"Unmanned gates cause more harm than good," reader Jessica Sparks commented on a video of the broken gate on The Island Packet's Facebook page, "because people think they're protected when they're not and leave cars unlocked and doors unlocked. Then they are surprised their stuff was stolen."
Another reader, Nina Escobar, said, "In all reality, I think you're probably paying more to live in these communities for 'protection' that isn't really there."
Many, including Escobar, pointed out a critical flaw in the gate system.
You can always go around.
Would-be criminals determined to get into a neighborhood with an automatic gate -- but not willing to scrape their wicked awesome paint jobs by driving through the gate -- can get to where they need to go by walking, if such motivation existed to do so.
And sometimes it does.
Just over a week ago, a man went to pick up his Internet date at the Estates at Westbury.
When he got there, the woman -- whom he was meeting for the first time -- took him around the corner of the apartment building. There he was held at gunpoint and robbed by two other men, according to a report from the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.
The suspects do not appear to have been connected to any resident, the apartment's management says.
"I'm sure many of you are wondering how these individuals gained access to the property," Estates at Westbury's association manager Denise Dominguez said in an email to residents Tuesday. "It appears that the suspects were on foot. The victim was able to drive through the gate because it had been damaged earlier that evening, allowing entrance. The gate has (since) been repaired."
Why have gates at all then, right?
That's a question for a few dozen other neighborhoods in the Lowcountry.
Manned gates say something about what's behind them, I suppose. This is ours, so we've hired these people to yell at if you try to take it from us.
But automatic gates say, "Well ... I mean, technically ... this is gated."
Any gate seems like a bit of a stretch for some neighborhoods, particularly those where students, people with roommates, young families and those with perhaps more than one job and busy social lives tend to live.
That's a lot of entering and exiting. Maybe Westbury isn't meant to be a "gated community" anymore.
Capt. Bob Bromage, spokesman for the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, says automatic gates really do serve a purpose, though.
"Sure," he said. "(The gates are) a legitimate deterrent. ... They regulate access. You're not getting vehicles driving through."
Automatic gates, he said, can prevent opportunistic crimes.
Unless the desired crime is to break the gates, I guess.
Follow columnist and senior editor Liz Farrell at twitter.com/elizfarrell and facebook.com/elizfarrell.
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This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 6:27 PM with the headline "Farrell: Automatic gates at Westbury repeatedly broken ."