ABSTRACT
Gated communities are viewed as a relatively new phenomenon in New Zealand. Defined as ‘walled or fenced housing developments, to which public access is restricted, characterized by legal agreements which tie the residents to a common code of conduct and (usually) collective responsibility for management’ (Atkinson and Blandy, 2005, p178), there are no official New Zealand figures on either the number of gated communities developed or the number of dwelling units within these communities. Similarly, little New Zealand research has been undertaken with people who live in gated communities and the potential implications for both the social and environmental sustainability of gated communities have yet to be identified by local government as issues for consideration.
