Lomas de Angelópolis (Lomas) is a large-scale suburban gated community in Puebla's metropolitan area that originated in the early 2000s with the expectation that it would provide around 21,000 housing units over 900 ha. This chapter focuses on the third scale of the gatedness analysis framework, in which the case study is analysed locally, mentioning the differences between the stages of the research project. The analysis explores the conditions that enabled the construction of this gated city, emphasising deregulation, financialisation, municipal disarticulation, and the privatisation of urban management. It also explores the different cognitive dispositions regarding the enclave's slogan, ‘Life as it should be’, its private governance, and the visions of a safe community. Finally, it explores the different physical borders that delimit the enclave, focusing on the differentiated lives of those inside and outside the fortified compound.

Structural incentives and constraints for gated communities’ developers

Lomas de Angelópolis is just one of hundreds of gated communities built in Puebla's periphery since the 1980s. The enclave is located over former agricultural land used by local communities for livestock and crops, aided by the bordering Atoyac River, which strengthened the fertility of this floodplain. This enclave developed beyond the supposed state-defined city edge, the ecological ring road. Therefore, the developers required planning modifications and flexibility for this project to exist, since tenure, land-use restrictions, and soil conditions were not the most favourable for urban development. The direct support of Puebla's State government, influential businesspeople, and municipal public officials facilitated this ambitious project even when planning regulations, infrastructure, services, transport, or security were inadequate.