Westside Country Estates, located on the west side of Sylvan Lake, has been given the green light for a two year pilot project allowing them to lock the gate located at their front entrance at night, with the idea being to deter would be thieves.

The initial request was brought up in November of 2017, and was turned down by council.  A month later, a representative from the neighbourhood of Westside Country Estates made a formal presentation to council about the gate, urging them to reconsider the matter.

Manager of Operations for Lacombe County Phil Lodermeier says there are a few concerns involved when it comes to restricting access to a public road.

“In particular I think the biggest concern was if they are closing the gates at night, and that’s the intent that the gates are open during the day and closed at night, is how would the emergency services access the area if need be. So we wanted the residents to develop a plan to ensure that fire, police, ambulances could get into the subdivisions if they need to.”

This pilot project will also help any potential future requests for similar gates in other communities. 

Lodermeier says it will be up to Westside Estates to ensure emergency vehicle have access, and he thinks this pilot project will also shed light on any other potential problems.

“As always when there is change and when you are restricting public access to public property, there’s a fear that there may be issues we haven’t identified yet that may come up. So using Westside Country Estates as the pilot project, we hope to see if any issues develop that we are currently unaware of, and address those issues in any future considerations.”

Some of the issues already identified that will need to be handled include the costs of installing a gate if the community does not already have one like Westside Country Estates does, the county has to have keys to the gate, and the county reserves the right to withdraw approval for a gate at their discretion.

You can view the entire Westside Country Estates Gate Automation agenda item from the January 11th, 2018 Lacombe County Council meeting here.