Since July, the 192-home community on Pipers Glen Boulevard west of Jog Road has left its gates open during daytime on weekdays, closing them only on nights and weekends.

"Since they've been open, I think we've had one fee of $170 for repairs," said Lynda Romanoff, president of the San Marco homeowner association.

The six-month experiment, which the board will review in January and decide whether or not to continue, was not without controversy.

"We've received quite a bit of flak from people," Romanoff said, despite the fact that San Marco's entrance is on a private stretch of Pipers Glen between and Jog and Hagen Ranch roads that has gates at each end.

"You have people who really want the (entrance) gate closed because they have a feeling of safety," Romanoff said. "But it's really a false sense of security."

It's an issue many of the area's gated communities struggle to manage: Gates are regularly knocked down or broken by vehicles and storms, motors and electronic parts are burned out by lightning strikes and, very often, they just don't work.

That's what happened at Coral Lakes, where residents invested in a $275,000 high-tech gate system to replace old gates damaged in Hurricane Wilma.

The system was installed in June but didn't work, said Robert Slatnick, president of the Coral Lakes homeowner association.

As a result, the nearly 1,400-home development on Flavor Pict Road west of Military Trail has hired electricians to fix the system and expects to go after the gate company in court, Slatnick said.

Meanwhile, the gates are open and the fix is expected to cost an additional $20,000.

"They've been open all the time," Slatnick said. "Now out of eight gates, we have one that closes and works."

Similarly, association officials throughout the western communities say they spend a lot of time and money on gate management.

Barry Hochheiser, chairman of the management committee of the Westchester Community Master Association, puts it this way: "It's the bane of my existence."

His committee, which manages the private, gated portion of Pipers Glen that San Marco is on, is meeting this week to discuss ways to reduce the $16,000-a-year in repair costs to the gates at Jog and Hagen Ranch roads.

"We are just going through a whole controversy over it because of the repeated knocking down of the gates by vehicles and malfunctions," he said.

The committee is considering installing security cameras or adding swinging gates behind the bar gates, he said.

All these problems seem to beg the question: Why not do away with the gates altogether?

"I'd love to remove the gates, but we can't," said Hochheiser, who said the county requires the private section of Pipers Glen to be gated.

Others, like Slatnick, of Coral Lakes, say their developments' bylaws require gates, and people who buy in the community expect them.

"To amend the bylaws would take a vote of 75 percent of all the residents," he said. "It would never happen."

Sandy Greenberg, past president of the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations, said headaches over community gates are simply a fact of life.

"As much of a pain as it is, it's a selling feature," said Greenberg, who lives in the gated Palm Isles development on Boynton Beach Boulevard.

"People want to live in gated communities," she said. "Are they worth it? That is in the eye of the beholder."