Lakewood Ranch CDD fees, district by district

The districts behind Lakewood Ranch

Lakewood Ranch runs on five Community Development Districts — CDD 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, operated together through the Inter-District Authority — plus the Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District, a special-act district created in 2005 that covers the newer villages. The CDD assessments appear on the Manatee County tax bill; Stewardship District assessments appear on the Manatee or Sarasota County bill depending on where the village sits (Waterside, for example, is Sarasota).

The five CDDs — FY 2025/26 adopted schedules

Source: each district’s FY 2025/2026 budget-hearing notice and assessment schedule (Lakewood Ranch CDDs 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6; hearings August 19, 2025), published via Florida Public Notices; amounts appeared on the November 2025 Manatee County tax bill. Figures are per unit per year and vary by neighborhood within each district; annual bills carry up to a 4% early-payment discount. FY 2026/27 schedules were being adopted at hearings in August 2026 — expect the November 2026 numbers to shift.

Two patterns worth noticing. In CDDs 1 and 2 — the oldest parts of the Ranch — the debt-service line is zero: those construction bonds have been repaid, and what remains is the O&M that maintains the district forever. In CDD 6 the bonds are still very much alive, and debt service alone runs roughly $1,000–$3,100 a year. Same community, very different second tax bills — entirely a function of which district, which neighborhood, and where its bonds are in their life.

The Stewardship District — FY 2026 schedule

The Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District covers the newer villages, and its bonds are mostly young. Its published FY 2026 assessment schedule (fiscal year October 2025 – September 2026, posted September 2025 ahead of adoption) shows, for example — gross totals of debt plus O&M, per home per year:

• Sapphire Point: $1,151.90
• Del Webb: roughly $1,321 – $1,679 depending on lot width
• Waterside — Shoreview: $1,997.92 – $2,182.17; Kingfisher Estates single-family $2,999.19
• Lakewood National: O&M $423.35 plus debt from $1,245.29 (4-story condo) to $2,347.95 (estate lot)
• The Lake Club: up to $3,733.75 debt + $693.87 O&M on the largest product
• Country Club East: among the highest — up to $3,732.67 debt + $693.87 O&M on 90’ lots

Source: “FY26 LRSD Annual Assessments” schedule, Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District (lakewoodranchstewardship.com, posted September 2025); per-home, per-year gross amounts — paying by the discount deadlines yields the lower “net” figures the schedule also lists. Some villages (Lorraine Lakes, Azario, Star Farms, Cresswind) sit under two or more stacked bond series, so their lines add together — pull the schedule for the exact lot.

The district’s own guide is unusually plain about the terms: capital bonds are repaid over about 30 years, the assessment is fixed and cannot increase, and it may be paid off in full at closing (Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District FAQ guide, lakewoodranch.com, September 2025). That payoff option is a real negotiating and budgeting lever — more on that below.

Wellen Park: the West Villages Improvement District

Wellen Park, at the southern end of the county in North Port, isn’t a Chapter-190 CDD at all — it sits in the West Villages Improvement District, an independent district created by special act in 2004 (Chapter 2004-456, Laws of Florida, as amended). The mechanics are the same where it counts: O&M plus debt, collected as non-ad valorem lines on the Sarasota County tax bill each November.

The district’s adopted FY 2025/2026 budget publishes the assessment per home, by neighborhood and product type. Combined O&M + debt totals per year:

Source: West Villages Improvement District, Final Budget for Fiscal Year 2025/2026 (October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026), assessment schedules by neighborhood, westvillagesid.org. Ranges span product types (townhome to the widest single-family lots) within each neighborhood or Unit of Development; the district’s Unit Guide maps village names to units. Amounts include collection fees and assume no early-payment discount. Note: Grand Palm is not in the WVID — no district assessment applies there.

One more line worth knowing about: most of Wellen Park is inside North Port city limits, so homes there also pay the City of North Port’s ad valorem millage — 3.7667 mills on the 2025 certified roll (Sarasota County Tax Collector, certified October 3, 2025) — on top of county and school taxes. The district assessment and the city tax are separate answers to separate questions; budget for both.

The four numbers that price any CDD home

A district assessment turns from a surprise into a line item once you have four numbers for the specific lot:

• The total annual assessment — from the district’s current adopted schedule, not from a listing.
• The bond-vs-O&M split — debt service ends when the bonds do; O&M continues for the life of the district.
• The years left on the bond — a 2005-era district with retired bonds (CDD 1 or 2) and a 2024 bond series are entirely different carrying costs.
• The early-payoff option — the Stewardship District states assessments may be paid in full at closing, and West Villages bond documents provide for prepayment of the remaining balance. Whether paying it off makes sense is a math problem for you and your lender — but you can’t do the math without the payoff figure.

The district office or your title agent can produce all four. For any address you’re serious about, the current tax bill itself is public on the county tax collector’s website — the non-ad valorem section shows exactly what the current owner was billed.

And the HOA is still separate

None of the above replaces the homeowners’ association. HOAs run under Chapter 720 of the Florida Statutes (condominiums under Chapter 718), bill you directly, and answer to their members — not to voters. Many Lakewood Ranch and Wellen Park neighborhoods have both a district assessment and HOA dues. Before contract, ask the association for its budget, its rules, and an estoppel certificate — the binding statement of what’s owed on the property, with fees capped at $299 in the standard case (Florida DBPR; more if rushed or delinquent).

The honest monthly number for any home here is mortgage + taxes at your future assessment + insurance + HOA + district assessment. None of it is hidden — it’s just spread across four documents. Gather all four before you write the offer, not after.