The request came from the town of North Oaks, Minnesota in January. Basically, Google had no legal way out of this: the streets of the town are privately owned and ruled by strict trespassing ordinances. The web page of the North Oaks town reads the following:
“Because residents’ properties extend to halfway across the road, all residential roads in the City are private and for the use of North Oaks residents and their invited guests only.
The City owns no property. With residents owning the roads, the North Oaks Home Owners’ Association owns the park and recreation areas and trails throughout the City.”
Well, it seems that Street View was not considered an invited guest. Google’s service has been under some fire ever since its release. At first it was the US government forbidding the company to post images of its defense facilities. Later on, the service was sued by a Pittsburgh family displeased with the fact that their house was also shown on the service.