Gated communities in the Denver‐boulder metropolitan area: Characteristics, spatial distribution, and residents’ motivations

This research examines gated communities in the Denver‐Boulder area to better understand the phenomenon at the metropolitan scale. To gain some insight into why they have proliferated, we examine the characteristics of gated communities and the areas in which they are located, as well as residents’ motivations for moving into one. The Denver area has most of the types of ownership‐based gated communities prevalent across the United States. We also studied rental gated communities. Ownership‐based communities are located in the suburban, exurban, and prestigious inner urban areas of Denver. Prestige, privacy, and maintenance are among the most important reasons for moving to a gated community, but the gates per se were among the most important considerations only for those residents who had previously lived in such a community. Spatial distribution within the area leads to the conclusion that competition among developers may help explain the clustering of these communities.