Only 22 of the 59 ballots cast—approximately 37 percent—were "yes" votes. There are 74 registered voters living in the homes on Oleander Avenue and Lilac Lane.

Annexation opponent and Lilac Lane resident Cindy Steele was so thrilled with the vote, she had a "little gathering" complete with champagne the night she found out the results.

"Until the county or town realize it's not their decision ... and talk to us about what we really want, annexation is not going to pass," Steele said. "Nobody has asked us."

County officials are actively pursuing the annexation of unincorporated pockets to neighboring cities because they say it is costly and difficult to provide services to such areas.

Though the town took no official stance on this vote, it does have a policy—required by state law—of annexing properties undergoing complete renovations within 300 feet of the town border. A few individual homes are annexed each year because of the policy.

But whenever the issue has come to a vote in recent years, it has failed to pass. Two Blossom Hill Manor neighborhoods and several others voted against annexation in 2000. A group of homes in the North 40 section of town, located off Los Gatos Boulevard between Lark Avenue and Highway 85, was the only one to be annexed without even enough protest to require a vote.

The latest failure was disappointing to Oleander resident Ron Vega.

The assistant fire chief for the Saratoga Fire District, Vega said one of his main concerns was that the area may not be getting as good police protection from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department as it would from the Los Gatos­Monte Sereno Police Department. He said more patrols would be desirable in the area.

"Last year [county Sheriff] Laurie Smith announced that they were going to have to downgrade services as a result of the budget," he said. "This particular area is hard to serve. It's an area that doesn't have a lot of need requests, so you can provide services on an as-needed basis."

Police Capt. Dave Gravel told the Los Gatos-Weekly Times that because of its proximity to both the center of town and the police station, officers would probably arrive to calls in the neighborhood slightly faster than their average response time. Response data was not available from the county sheriff's department.

Still, many residents are perfectly happy with the services they currently receive. Lilac Lane resident Carol Schmitt said she has had to call the county sheriff's department several times for pet-related issues, and has been pleased with the department's response. She said she voted "no" because she did not see a compelling reason to be in the town's jurisdiction, and did not want to be subject to what she said are the town's more expensive building and permit fees.

"Based on what I heard, there wasn't anything that was a big crisis," she said. "All it came down to was a dollar sign at the end of it all. And it was a big dollar sign."