Dennis Cortesi wants to build what would be the first gated community in Hoffman Estates, one reserved for people age 55 and older in the University Place development along Shoe Factory Road.
His dream was met with hostility recently when members of the village’s Plan Commission failed to see the logic of building a “secure development” in a town that has little crime.
But Cortesi is pushing ahead with his plans for Haverford Place, convinced that the development will sell.
“I think that the majority of our buyers will like the gated community and its perception of security,” he said.
Gated communities offer residents a sense of security and privacy that typically enables a developer to charge a higher price for the homes — up to 20 percent, according to some estimates — to cover the cost of a fence and guardhouse.
Yet gates also can lead to a feeling of “unneighborliness” and exclusion that not all municipalities want to promote, housing experts say.
Cortesi, president of Shoe Factory LLC, proposed to build 573 single-family homes and three-unit villas on 150 acres along Shoe Factory Road, west of Beverly Road. Homes would be base-priced from $150,000 to about $250,000.
He said he believes there is a market for a gated community in Hoffman Estates, styled toward aging Baby Boomers from surrounding suburbs who want to live in an exclusive neighborhood but stay close to friends and family.
In Inverness, privacy is the big selling point at Sanctuary of Inverness II, a gated community going up off Bradwell Road.
“You don’t have people driving through the neighborhood to look around and see the houses,” said Mario Naccarto of Liberty Craft Builders, the developer.
Karen Danielsen, director of residential policy and practice for the Urban Land Institute in Washington, agreed that security and privacy are big lures of such communities.
“People are trying to escape fear of more urbanized kinds of environments,” Danielsen said. “They want to return to a small neighborhood feel, where they can leave the doors open and have the confidence that no one is going to (break) into the house.”
But what appeals to the residents of that neighborhood could be considered snobbery by others.
“All the facilities within a gated community are not accessible to the larger community,” Danielsen said. “Typically, people see it as exclusive, like you’re trying to wall yourself off.”
Hoffman Estates officials also criticized Cortesi’s proposal because gates could hamper access by emergency vehicles. They also said the neighborhood would have to stay open anyway so children’s sports teams could play in a 10-acre park that would be built within the project.
“I detest it,” Commissioner Gordon Thoren said of the plan.
In addressing the commissioners’ concerns about emergency-vehicle access, Cortesi said he would consider equipping the gates with the same technology that changes traffic lights.
No date has been set for Cortesi’s next appearance before the Plan Commission.
In the meantime, Hoffman Estates Mayor Michael O’Malley said he doubts the proposed gates would deter thieves and vandals.
“If someone wants to get in,” he said, “they can jump the fence.”
