Whereas metro investments are anticipated to increase public accessibilities, the development of residential areas near metro stations can lead to the internalization and external impermeability of some of the publicly generated advantages. This paper investigates the limited residential footprints in Nanchang, China, using the concept of station catchment to analyze the losses of public routings. The research question seeks to know whether the accessible station catchment area operates as a public-access space or whether there is a measureable portion of the area being internalized into the morphology of gated residential areas. Whether such an absorption is done through the presence of above-control stock, intensive construction, cohort transition in compound sizes, or persistence after peaking is also investigated. The investigation makes use of five calculations: station catchment conversion, control referenced forfeiture account, footprint intensity gradient estimation, morphological transition in cohorts analysis, and effect mass retention analysis. The 27-row ledger contains the station category stock, five-year event window value, treatment estimator, construction cohorts effects, and calendar year treatment effects. The treated catchments have 14.08 gated communities with 754801.87 m2 of gated footprint that equates to 1.75 gated communities per square kilometer and 9.39% of the 1600 m catchment. In relation to the composite control, there are 7.62 gated communities and 363285.72 m2 of gated footprint which amount to 54.12% of the gated community count effect and 48.13% of the gated footprint effect. The five-year construction window exhibits the strongest land absorption with the footprint intensity gradient of 5.98 percentage points of catchment land per additional gated community per square kilometer. While the cohort values reveal the 2017 cohort retains only 45.83% of the 2009 count effect, it retains 101.79% of the footprint effect, resulting in the implied unit footprint ratio of 222.09%. The calendar values reveal the 2023 footprint effect retains 54.12% of the 2016 peak effect compared to the 44.42% of the count retention. The findings provide an answer to the research question that the Nanchang station catchment is not only characterized by more gated communities but also a persistent and land intensive and shifting restricted footprint effect.