What if you lived in a neighborhood community surrounded by a moat [1]???

Sounds far-fetched? This diagram shows a gated housing complex in Texas that is surrounded on three sides by a water detention basin system. How can we make moats work for us in NEO??
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Housing_complex_with_moat.jpg [2] | 34.28 KB |
Links:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moat
[2] http://66.228.45.157/sites/realneo.us/files/Housing_complex_with_moat.jpg