Exactly... a gated community owns and maintains their streets. Once they are annexed by the city, no more gate allowed. If passes are issued to anyone, then why even have the gate? If you live on a city street, then you cannot expect to be allowed to gather data on who uses those streets...
Our realtor explains it this way: the streets were given to the city for maintenance purposes. Once the streets aren't private, you can't restrict who uses them. I guess it was a two year court battle. That's how gated communities are in the US. Why should we expect it to be different?