WESLEY CHAPEL -- In their effort to privatize their streets, Grand Oaks residents have built a new gatehouse and installed black metal gates at the subdivision's entrance on County Road 54.

But, according to Pasco County, Grand Oaks' streets remain public and can't be gated.

"They can put up the structures. They can't close the gates," said Richard Sliz, real estate manager for Pasco County, which officially owns Grand Oaks' streets.

Grand Oaks is one of a handful of Pasco communities trying to remove their streets from the public domain. Residents of at least two other Wesley Chapel communities -- Westbrook Estates, also off C.R. 54, and Northwood off County Line Road have discussed privatizing their streets in recent months. So far, neither has taken steps to take over their roads.

Other communities that have considered taking their streets private have been put off by the costs of maintenance and by the prospect of being liable for accidents or injuries that happen on those streets, Sliz said.

Private streets and gated communities aren't uncommon across Pasco County, but they're typically part of a community from its first days. No one has succeeded in reclaiming streets once they've been given to the county for maintenance, Sliz said.

County rules require 80 percent of a community's property owners -- measured as one vote per residential lot -- to approve of the change for it to take place. So far, no community has met that threshold, Sliz said.

Privatization supporters at Grand Oaks have spent more than a year collecting signatures from homeowners in favor of gating the community.

Resident Michael Audino is one who signed in favor of privatization but remains unclear about what it will mean to him ultimately. Supporters have told him privatization will increase security and raise property values.

"I'm so lukewarm on the issue," said Audino. "If those are both true, that's great for me."

County commissioners cleared the way in January for Grand Oaks developer Lennar Corp. to build a gatehouse and gates at the subdivision's entrance, even though Lennar hadn't lined up the required support within the community.

Without that support, state law says the gates must remain open.

Representatives of the Grand Oaks Master Association could not be reached for comment on this story. Lennar president Larry Peebles did not return calls seeking comment.

Security is frequently the No. 1 reason developers offer gated communities. It's one reason the developers of Wiregrass Ranch in Wesley Chapel have spent months fighting county planners over providing public access through two of their exclusive projects.

Wiregrass attorney Joel Tew has said repeatedly the gates will protect the communities' residents from criminals, hot-rodding teenagers and other nuisances.

But the security residents feel behind a gate may be an illusion, said F.J. Collura, manager of the Crime Prevention Unit of the Pasco Sheriff's Office.

Collura's unit hasn't directly compared crime in gated communities to their ungated counterparts. But a review of the overall crime statistics shows little difference across the landscape, Collura said.

Yes, gates do keep strangers out -- if they're used "religiously" and not left open during the day, as some communities do, Collura said.

"I'm just not sure it does what the community thinks it does," Collura said of a gate. "I think they overrate what the gate does. I don't know that it prevents anything from occurring."

He cited a string of car break-ins last year that happened in a gated section of Meadow Pointe as proof that gates and private streets don't necessarily make people safer.

And, by privatizing their streets, the residents of Grand Oaks take away the sheriff's authority to patrol there. That leaves speed limits and other traffic nuisances virtually unenforceable since private security guards can't arrest or ticket violators, Collura said.

"The annoying crimes that most people call about, we have to say 'I'm sorry; there's nothing we can do,' " Collura said.