When Wilhelm Boye bought a house in Lakewood Ranch's Edgewater Village six years ago, he assumed the security gate would keep non-residents out.

Boye pays a special neighborhood tax to maintain the gate, which he thought stopped potential vandals and thieves from entering the neighborhood.

Then he noticed that non-residents passed through the gate just to fish in the lakes.

It turns out that the security gate Boye pays to maintain blocks a public road, and by law should be open for anyone at any time.

Edgewater Village is part of a community development district, a special taxing district that builds and maintains infrastructure like roads.

The laws governing the manned security gates are clear, but are not always followed by the CDDs and the gate attendants.

Guards can ask people for identification, but even if they refuse to provide it, the guard legally must let visitors in, according to Manatee County Attorney Tedd Williams Jr.

But that doesn't always happen. A survey by the Manatee County Transportation Department -- which sent employees to the communities to see if they were following the law -- found that half of the county's 14 gated CDDs had gates that were not accessible to the public. Each CDD has multiple gates; in all, 12 of 27 gates tested did not follow the law, either because a guard would not allow access or the gate could only be opened with a remote control device.

Unlike a private subdivision, a CDD is a public entity, said County Commissioner Ron Getman.

"If it is a tax-based road, it is public," he said.

Heritage Harbour property manager Diana Lara said people who buy houses in gated CDDs expect the guard to keep strangers out, even if it isn't the law.

"Our rules are, they are supposed to give the name and address of a person they are visiting. We say if they don't have an ID don't let them through, because why don't they have an ID?" she said.

Heritage Harbour is one of two CDDs where the guard illegally denied the entrant access. In most cases, the inaccessible gates were unmanned and opened only with a remote.

While the county attorney's office is of the opinion that the unmanned gates should open for anyone, the commissioners have never taken an official stance.

County officials hope to clear up the confusion surrounding the gates and set standards for the unmanned gates during a meeting at 5:30 p.m. today at Manatee Technical Institute, 5520 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.

"I think we are going to have some differences of opinion on the unmanned gates," Getman predicted. "Do all roads have to be open or just one road have to be open?"

The meeting should streamline the CDDs' approach to gates and grant all drivers access.

"If we have to give access, then what's the point?" Lara asked. "I'm confused, the whole community's confused."

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