Article Courtesy of The Tampa Tribune

By JULIA FERRANTE

Published April 1, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - For nearly 12 years, Lennar Homes has billed its Grand Oaks development in central Pasco as a gated community.

Builders secured approval from the county commission in 1994 and 1995 to place gates and a guardhouse at the Grand Oaks Boulevard entrance off County Road 54, with the expectation that residents overwhelmingly would support making roads through the community private.

They were wrong.

Gates were erected last year, but they have never been closed. A guardhouse was built but never manned.

State law allows counties to make public roads private if 80 percent of homeowners agree to it. A survey of Grand Oaks' residents garnered support from just 42 percent of the 698 households, despite a deadline extension, Chief Assistant County Attorney Barbara Wilhite said.

"We have not come to the point where those roads could be privatized," Wilhite told the commission at a meeting Tuesday in New Port Richey. "I was really hopeful we could make this the first [community to convert its roads from public to private], because they really seemed to want it."

The county commission this week reluctantly gave up on making Grand Oaks gated. The board unanimously agreed to order Lennar to remove the gates and guardhouse within 30 days of getting a permit. The builder also must restore the entrance to its previous state.

An attorney for Lennar told commissioners the builder would remove the guardhouse but wanted to find a way to keep the gate.

Absolutely not, board members said.

"No, no, no," said Commissioner Pat Mulieri, who represents Wesley Chapel, adding that the community needs to "heal" from this divisive issue.

Grand Oaks is not the first to promote itself as a gated community, only to find out its streets must remain open to the public. Residents of Westbrook Estates, also off C.R. 54, and Northwood off County Line Road, have discussed privatizing their streets in recent months, without success.

Other communities have considered making their streets private but have been discouraged by costs of maintenance and responsibility for accidents and injuries. Most gated communities are private from the beginning.

Even if Lennar had been able to keep the guardhouse at Grand Oaks, it would have had to modify it. County engineers determined the overhang on the roof was too low and stuck out too much, presenting a hazard for passing trucks.

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