diff --git a/smartgears/smartgears-nginx-frontend/defaults/main.yml b/smartgears/smartgears-nginx-frontend/defaults/main.yml
index 56d03969..bd513750 100644
--- a/smartgears/smartgears-nginx-frontend/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/smartgears/smartgears-nginx-frontend/defaults/main.yml
@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@ smartgears_tomcat_manager_access_acls:
   - { policy: 'allow', address: '0.0.0.0/0' }
 
 smartgears_nginx_expose_tomcat_logs: False
+smartgears_nginx_rw_html_root: False
diff --git a/smartgears/smartgears-nginx-frontend/tasks/main.yml b/smartgears/smartgears-nginx-frontend/tasks/main.yml
index faed2dd2..e67ffab5 100644
--- a/smartgears/smartgears-nginx-frontend/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/smartgears/smartgears-nginx-frontend/tasks/main.yml
@@ -32,3 +32,10 @@
   notify: Reload nginx
   tags: [ 'nginx', 'virtualhost' ]
 
+- name: Give the smartgears user access to the document root, and create it if needed
+  file: dest={{ item.web_document_root}} state=directory owner={{ item.user }} group={{ item.user }} mode=0755
+  with_items: '{{ tomcat_m_instances }}'
+  when: smartgears_nginx_rw_html_root
+  notify: Reload nginx
+  tags: [ 'nginx', 'virtualhost', 'web_root' ]
+