Here's some pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gates

Thanks adichristi. I saw those, they just don't seem to fit with our design and I was really hoping for more than a 6-inch square hole ;-)

I probably should have mentioned, the idea is to be friendly with our neighbors and keep our dogs inside. Right now, we open the gate and put up a baby gate at the threshold. The problem with this is you have to climb over the baby gate to get inside, rather than opening and shutting a door.

It would also need to have a wood closure (from the inside) over the iron bars for privacy.

How about having a door-within-a-door type opening in the top half? The latches for both could be at the right height & you could leave the top half open when you wanted.

Have you checked to see if there is hardware that would somehow allow you to have the dutch door gate and the latch being high enough? You never know what's out there if you don't check. In fact a metal artist could possible make one for you. I love dutch doors and understand why you'd like on here. But ofcourse who's to say you can't make the lower half high enough to keep the latch up (wink) to code?
~Becky

I didn't see Marti's reply. I guess I took too long to answer. Just put baby to bed and stopped often to listen to him.
Anyway just reading what Marti wrote jogged something in my brain to think of how it could work. You'd need a hollow part in the lower door where a part attached to the upper door would fit into that had to be there to unlock the lower door. Kind of like a key going into a lock and turning. Gosh I don't know how to make this make sense. I hope maybe you understand what I'm saying without pictures. I don't have time enough to draw one on Paint before our son gets home and I leave. I'll have to do so after I get home this evening.
~Becky

Marti, that's brilliant! I can see that working. I'll do a few mockups this weekend.

Becky, nope I'm not seeing your idea from your description. Whenever you have time, no rush, and crude is good as long as I can understand it (no need to get as fancy as you were on those booths - that was great work).

Thanks, y'all!

This is called a "speakeasy door" ==

And if you want one with bars -- this is called a "speakeasy grill" --

If you Google either of these phrases you'll find more ideas.

Well I decided I could do a quick mock up that might give you an idea of what I was trying to put into words. Pretend these doors are sliced in half so you can see inside them when facing them head on.

The only thing is I'm not sure how to discribe how the lower lock works except that there's a wire attached to the kind of male like thingy (whatever you call it) that pokes into the female like hole thingy in the fence post to hold the door closed. When the rod that goes through both upper and lower doors is pulled up it leaves the wire thingy in place as in pix two. This allows the upper door to be opened while the lower door is still latched. The upper door will also have to have a separate latch because, well I can't think of a way right now to make another latch attach to the ones in the drawings.

Now in pix three is down but turned. That pulls the male thingy out of the female thingy unlocking the lower door. If you have the upper gate unlocked you'll be able to open both doors. Or the whole gate in this case. Once I get home I'll do some more thinking and see if I can come up with more drawings and/or ideas to make this all work together. If not you can always take my sorta idea to a lock smith and see if they can make any sense of it.

~Becky {{!gwi}}

I already have another idea in my head, but my son will be home any minute so I'll wait to do a drawing when I get home. B

Hey Becky, that's a cool idea and I can see that working as my dutch door! Can't wait to see your other idea!

mclarke, thanks so much for the verbiage! I knew I wasn't on target there. Thanks for the pics too.

I knew I came to the right place for ideas!

Thanks everyone!

Thanks greenthumbfish. I do better with visual but couldn't find any pics online like I was thinking, so I drew one on paint. It's crude, but the green part is all one piece, and then the brown part is a separate piece hinged within it. I thought your object was to be able to step over it without the dog getting out, but if not, you could always switch it around.

{{!gwi}}

I missed Becky's posts while I was typing mine, but I like that idea.

Yep, there are some logistic problems working here as the gate currently opens out to the carport. I honestly don't mind paying for a whole new door to get it right. I wanted more options than the contractor gave me, and y'all are a wealth of options as usual! Thanks and keep the ideas rolling in!

Any value to a fixed framed lattice panel for the top of the gate? Lattice comes in many sizes and configurations. Check out Walpole Woodworkers online for some interesting gate, pergola and fence ideas too.

I would help if we knew exactly why you wanted a dutch door. Is there a practical reason? To see out without opening the door? To keep a dog in? Just cuz?

My idea was in how to draw the part with the wire, but now that I see Marti's I'm thinking that is so much easier to do and even work with your current gate with very little alteration.
~Becky

mclark, see my second post above, sorry, I should have included that info first off.

Still unsure how this will play out, but at least I have some ideas to throw out there. I also want to check out the code language myself to see if there may be some wiggle room.

Thanks everyone. The rest of the story will be forthcoming. Any other ideas are more than welcome!