A developer who wants to build South Portland’s first gated community for homeowners has won preliminary approval from the city’s Planning Board.

A.E. Brown Co. is proposing to develop 42 free-standing condominiums off Highland Avenue that would resemble one-story, single-family homes and sell for up to $500,000. The South Portland Planning Board voted unanimously May 28 to grant the developer preliminary approval to move forward with designing the subdivision known as Carlisle Place.

Developer A. Earl Brown said he expects to submit plans for final approval this summer, with construction to start this year or in early 2009.

Carlisle Place would have a gatehouse, with homebuyers using an electronic card to access the development. Brown said older homebuyers often prefer a locked gate to their subdivision for privacy and security.

“If you don’t have the gate, there will be young people in there hoopin’ and hollerin’ with no privacy for the homeowner,” he said. “This would be a private project, so you don’t have every Tom, Dick and Harry driving through there.”

A camera and radio at the gatehouse also would allow residents to monitor the entrance from their homes, speak with visitors and remotely grant people access to the development.

“Basically, the whole development would have controlled, electronic access to the living units. There would be a gatehouse and a locked gate,” said Steve Puleo, community planner with South Portland.

Carlisle Place would be the city’s first gated community for homeowners. The only other so-called gated community in the city is RiverPlace, a development of rental apartments off Mussey Street that overlook Portland Harbor.

If approved, Carlisle Place will be built on 24 acres near the Grandview subdivision on outer Highland Avenue. Grandview, which was built in five phases, consists of approximately 100 homes on former farm fields.

The new gated community would be off Colchester Road, a looped road in the Grandview subdivision. The neighborhood has large homes that are among the more expensive in South Portland.

Brown said he already has several interested buyers, including “seasonal dwellers” who want to summer in South Portland and have a second home out of state.

The subdivision would be marketed to retirees and so-called “empty nesters” who want the privacy of a single-family home but not the responsibility of mowing lawns and plowing driveways, Brown said.

Homeowners would belong to a condominium association that would assess fees to hire contractors to do all the outdoor maintenance, he said.

“We find that there is a large percentage of homebuyers who want separate houses that are a little more costly than a duplex or townhouse that is in a single, big building,” Brown said.

The two-bedroom homes would have two or 21?2 bathrooms, gas fireplaces and two-car garages. Homebuyers would be able to choose the flooring, countertops, carpeting and other furnishing before the homes are built.

Prices would start at $375,000 and run to $500,000.

The Cape Cod-style units would be built in a so-called clustered development, with a large buffer of wooded land around the development.

The site contains the city’s only waterfall, known as Spit Falls, which would be preserved by the developer. Private hiking trails that traverse the wooded subdivision would be among the amenities, Puleo said.

“The developer will protect the natural environment as much as possible,” he noted.

Homebuyers would be able to choose from 11 different exteriors for their homes, according to the city’s Planning Department. The one-story homes would range in size from 980 to 1,200 square feet.

The development would not have a swimming pool or tennis court, but provide meeting space and an exercise room.

“In essence, these units would be well-designed and well-built single-family homes,” Puleo said. “This would be pretty classy to say the least – an upscale, gated condominium complex. It is something we don’t have in this city now.”

Brown said the style of homes would be similar to Beach Landing, a series of Cape Cod-style town homes he recently built on Willow Street near Willard Beach.

“These will be the same plans, only modified slightly, with three or four other models put in there as well,” he said.