St Johns County Family Friendly Gated Community (Sarasota: 2014, HOA fees)

[justinb491]

My family and I are relocating to Florida. We have been looking in the Sarasota area but finding family friendly gated communities is not looking to much in our favor. We will be visiting St Johns area next week looking for a great community to move to. With Sarasota GC's we saw very few kids and actually very few people outside. Even stopping at the community pools it was just a handful of adults and one pool had a mom with here 2 toddlers. We tried the Lakewood Ranch area and that was the same story. We have 3 young kids that love to play outside and have fun, I'm extremely concerned with some of these communities by-laws on noise and nuisance. We are not a loud party family, but would like to enjoy our pool outside with music (normal volume) and have fun. I would love to find a family friendly gated community were you can have a beer with the neighbors, go to the community pool for the day and let the kids play or let the kids be kids outside without worry of violations and fines. Any local advice would be greatly appreciated. With all these great schools, there has to be families with kids. Where do they all live???

[socalbee]

Try Palencia or Nocatee. Good luck and have fun looking.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean....-Augustine_FL

[Gromicide]

Does it have to be gated? In my experience, gated is a false sense of security that just costs more. If it's a must, try Coastal Oaks in Nocatee. Crime is so low in the area, gates are just a means of slowing down the drop of of kids to sleepovers.

Would be happy to have you as my neighbor though! I love beer!

[des999]

Originally Posted by Gromicide

Does it have to be gated? In my experience, gated is a false sense of security that just costs more. If it's a must, try Coastal Oaks in Nocatee. Crime is so low in the area, gates are just a means of slowing down the drop of of kids to sleepovers.

Would be happy to have you as my neighbor though! I love beer!

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[Florida2014]

Originally Posted by Gromicide

Does it have to be gated? In my experience, gated is a false sense of security that just costs more. If it's a must, try Coastal Oaks in Nocatee. Crime is so low in the area, gates are just a means of slowing down the drop of of kids to sleepovers.

Would be happy to have you as my neighbor though! I love beer!

Exactly. I have a friend who lives in a gated security community. Can't tell you how many times I've just whizzed past that gate without punching in any codes and have seen dozens of other vehicles do that too. The only true gated community that I know of in our area is Cimmarone. You actually have to stop and speak to a security guard before being let in.

[rtt]

When we moved down here I didn't really get the whole gate thing, but we fell in love with a house that was in a gated community. That was 23 years ago. There is value in it. It's a deterrent to people trying to break into cars. You won't have solicitors knocking on your door handing you pamphlets. My husband was on the road alot and I was home alone with toddlers. Did I leave my doors unlocked? If course not. But if someone's going to commit a property crime they're going to choose an area with the least risk.

[Florida2014]

Originally Posted by rtt

When we moved down here I didn't really get the whole gate thing, but we fell in love with a house that was in a gated community. That was 23 years ago. There is value in it. It's a deterrent to people trying to break into cars. You won't have solicitors knocking on your door handing you pamphlets. My husband was on the road alot and I was home alone with toddlers. Did I leave my doors unlocked? If course not. But if someone's going to commit a property crime they're going to choose an area with the least risk.

I'm not sure if there have been any formal studies performed but just doing a quick Google search says the opposite, according to this Sheriff there is "no difference" in crime in gated vs. non-gated communities.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-gated-story.html

[Thundarr457]

Originally Posted by Florida2014

I'm not sure if there have been any formal studies performed but just doing a quick Google search says the opposite, according to this Sheriff there is "no difference" in crime in gated vs. non-gated communities.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-gated-story.html

I disagree. We live in a manned, patrolled, gated community. Can people lie and get by the gates, of course, but its a deterrent. A non manned, gated community would have minimal or "no difference" since you can get the code and waltz in. Burglars are basically lazy and go for the easiest targets plus each car is photographed entering and exiting our community.

[Florida2014]

Originally Posted by Thundarr457

I disagree. We live in a manned, patrolled, gated community. Can people lie and get by the gates, of course, but its a deterrent. A non manned, gated community would have minimal or "no difference" since you can get the code and waltz in. Burglars are basically lazy and go for the easiest targets plus each car is photographed entering and exiting our community.

Gated vs. gated-with-a-security-guard are two entirely different things. Absolutely that would be a huge deterrent to criminals.

Just through keeping my ear to the ground, the people who are most susceptible to petty theft are those who park their vehicles in their driveways and on the street. Many times they are left unlocked, which is insane to me. Can't tell you how many times I've read on FB or NextDoor reports that someone "broke into my vehicle last night!" and when pressed, they admit they didn't lock their doors. Very few smashed windows unless there is something of extreme value sitting out in the open.

I personally wouldn't base such a decision on where to live based on a community having a gate. Generally those are the ones with the highest HOA fees anyway.

[Ivan Putski]

Originally Posted by rtt

You won't have solicitors knocking on your door handing you pamphlets.

That's probably my only complaint with our non-gated community. Only happens 2-3 times a year but annoying nonetheless. There were so many out of state "storm chaser" roofers canvassing the neighborhood after Matthew and Irma...