CROSS CREEK - It just wasn't fair, said Tara Hall, vice president of the Cross Creek II Master Association.

Why should the 1,065 homeowners in the association pay for street lights on a road that's used daily by more than 24,000 motorists, many of whom don't live in Cross Creek?

"Other people are taking advantage of the lights," Hall said. "People from Arbor Greene, Hunter's Green, Pasco County. It's not fair to us that we pay for them to use our facilities."

So on Tuesday night, three weeks after the association let its contract with Tampa Electric Co. expire, the utility shut off the power to 53 street lights along more than a mile of Cross Creek Boulevard, surprising many Hillsborough County and Tampa officials.

"I never thought they would actually turn off the lights," said Tampa City Council member Shawn Harrison.

Tampa Electric had left the power on three weeks after the contract expired.

"We could have turned off the lights on July 8, but we didn't," said Ross Bannister, a Tampa Electric spokesman. "What's reasonable? Three weeks? A year? When a customer notifies us that they won't renew a contract, there's nothing we can do. It's really between the county and the homeowners association."

The association wants the county and Tampa to work out a solution so that more than just Cross Creek homeowners pay. Jo-Ann Pilawski, manager of the association, said the results of a June poll were clear: 235 Cross Creek homeowners said shut off the lights; 37 said leave them on. The 790 who didn't respond were counted as votes for turning off the power, Pilawski said.

In June, the board voted not to renew its five-year contract with Tampa Electric. The decision saves each homeowner $1.50 a month, or about $18 a year.

When the board notified Hillsborough County of its decision, the county said it would take more than a year to study the issue. That's when the board knew it had to go all the way, Hall said.

"We discussed it at length," Hall said. " "What if we kill somebody by accident?' It would be very disheartening to think I had some responsibility in that, but we felt we needed to make a statement."

The association wants somebody other than just Cross Creek to pay. That might include several developments inside the city limits, Hall said.

Harrison, the City Council member, isn't sure the city can intervene.

"I'm not really sure what obligation we should have," he said. "If anything, it's a county road. There has always been talk about annexing into the city, but Cross Creek and Pebble Creek decided not to. They have chosen their government."

County officials, however, say they're not sure how to pay for the street lights.

Cross Creek is considered a main arterial or collector street, not a local street that's used by only a small number of residents. So homeowners do have a beef in that a few of them are paying for something that many others use, said Michael McCarthy, acting director for traffic services in Hillsborough County.

But there are 595 miles of arterial streets like Cross Creek in the county, McCarthy said. If the county picked up the tab for Cross Creek street lights, it might be trapped into paying for many more miles of street lights it can't afford.

"This is a much larger issue than just Cross Creek," McCarthy said.

County Commissioner Jan Platt said paying for the lights could set a costly precedent.

"If we did it for this neighborhood, we would have to do it for everyone," Platt said.

Tampa requires a developer to install the lighting and to pay for the cost of the lights over 20 years for public roads. In exchange, the city pays the monthly electricity bills.

But the county has no requirements. In the 1990s, Cross Creek developer Ed Andrews tried to get the county to agree to a special taxing district to pay for the electricity. But Tampa annexed several developments south of Cross Creek, so Hillsborough County said Andrews couldn't create a special taxing district along Cross Creek because it included another municipality.

The county told Andrews in 1995 that the only way to pay for street lights was to have the Cross Creek homeowners pay with association fees.

McCarthy said the county is reviewing its policy.

The county is facing an unlit street that runs in front of Benito Middle School, which opens in two weeks, and the New Tampa Regional Library.