I've been having trouble scaling a gate. when I scale along the x axis to fit the length of the gate, the height of the gate in the z axis is too much. Is it possible to independently scale the z axis independently to fix the height of my gate? 

Is this a 2D or 3D drawing?Creating a block then inserting it allows the user to apply different scale factors to the X, Y and Z axis.

Its a 3D drawing. I turned it into a block and checked properties but when I try to change the values of the z axis all i get is the calculator but the scale of my drawing doesn't change. what am i doing wrong? 

What you did wrong was fail to follow my instructions.  I tested the procedure before posting and it does work.  Try again.  Create a block.  Insert block.  In the dialogue box uncheck the Uniform Scale option then enter the X, Y and Z scale.
John Connor2017-12-01 00:15:19

Example: White color cube is a block 1 unit x 1 unit by 1 unit high.  Magenta colored version of cube was INSERTED with a non-uniform scale of 1 unit x 1 unit by 3 units in height.  BTW...the cube is a 3D solid model.

[QUOTE=John Connor]....  Create a block.  Insert block.  In the dialogue box uncheck the Uniform Scale option then enter the X, Y and Z scale.
[/QUOTE]
To add a little:  First, uncheck the Scale uniformly option in the dialog box during creation of the Block definition, or else you won't get the choice to uncheck the Uniform Scale option when Inserting, so you can give it unequal X, Y & Z scale factors.If you have a Block already defined with Scale uniformly chosen, you can "un-choose" that feature in BEDITing the Block definition.