Buyers of new homes on the Suncoast have little choice but to pay taxes to developer-controlled neighborhoods.
By Derek Gilliam/Suncoast Searchlight
Original Air Date: August 1, 2025
Host: An analysis by Suncoast Searchlight reveals that buyers in this region have little choice but to live in neighborhoods controlled and taxed by real estate developers. Derek Gilliam reports.
Derek Gilliam: When Suncoast Searchlight first revealed how real estate developers were using special-purpose governments to shift the cost of building communities onto future homeowners—while keeping control over how the money was spent—elected officials downplayed the risks. No one was forcing people to move into these neighborhoods, where developer-run boards can impose long-term tax burdens with little resident oversight. If homeowners didn’t like the arrangement, officials argued, they could simply buy elsewhere.
But a first-of-its-kind analysis by Suncoast Searchlight reveals that buyers increasingly have little choice.
Nearly three out of every five new single-family homes and condos built in Sarasota and Manatee counties were located within special taxing districts governed by developers in 2023. That’s the latest full year for which data was available. That’s up from less than 1% in the early 1990s—a sign of the control developers now wield over tens of thousands of residents along Florida’s Suncoast.
In Manatee County, the region’s biggest driver of recent growth, more than three-quarters of all single-family homes and condos built in 2023 were within a developer-controlled district.
For three of Manatee’s ZIP codes, where more than 65,000 people now live, more than 90% of the new homes and condos to come out of the ground that year were inside such a district.
The Isles is a luxury community built on 340 acres in Manatee County and is part of Lakewood Ranch. Photo by Emily Le Coz via Suncoast Searchlight
Patrick Johansen is founder of the volunteer-based HOA Reform Leaders National Group.
He said, “You can go an entire area—entire ZIP codes—in states like Florida and Texas, where nearly every home is in one of these. These are governments in the U.S. that don’t run like any other governments in the U.S. They can raise fees, take that money and spend it almost any way they want.
Reporters reviewed hundreds of thousands of tax collector assessments and property appraiser records in Sarasota and Manatee counties to determine how much new construction now falls under these quasi-governmental entities. That includes the more commonly-known community development districts, or CDDs.
These districts are fueling the fastest-growing communities in the region, allowing developers to issue tax-free municipal bonds to finance construction, while passing long-term costs to homeowners, often at a scale that dwarfs their property taxes. The special assessments often add thousands of dollars to annual homeowner tax bills for decades.
Aqua by the Bay is a new gated, single-family neighborhood in West Bradenton developed by Medallion Homes. Photo by Emily Le Coz via Suncoast Searchlight
Homeowners last year paid anywhere from about $500 at Heritage Harbour South in East Manatee County to more than $6,300 in total district fees for certain phases of Lakewood Ranch. That’s often on top of separate neighborhood HOA dues, a Suncoast Searchlight investigation found.
With little oversight and no resident input, developers can maintain control over spending decisions and district governance for decades.
An ongoing Suncoast Searchlight investigation revealed developer-led governments in the region have floated nearly $10 billion in municipal bonds between Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Nearly a third of them were authorized during the past five years.
Coldwell Banker agent Tom Palazzo said few, if any, of his clients are deterred by the prospect of living in a CDD. Many are cash buyers from the Northeast, where property taxes are higher, and they view the additional fees as a fair tradeoff for the perks CDDs provide—like pools, parks and pristine landscaping.
North River Ranch is a new community in Parrish. Photo by Josh Salman via Suncoast Searchlight
But he worries about younger or first-time homebuyers trying to break into the market.
Tom Palazzo said, “For a lot of people, especially those financing their purchase, it can be difficult—like, ‘I have a house payment and an HOA payment and now CDD payment, too?’ It’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Special districts date back to the early 1980s. For decades, they were used to beautify luxury neighborhoods that wanted more amenities—sidewalks, parks, street-lighting and other enhancements—than local governments could provide.
Now, it’s becoming the only option for new homebuyers in a growing segment of the Suncoast.
Even after a wave of defaults during the Great Recession, the model has gained steam. As available land shrinks, developer-governed communities are becoming not just common but nearly unavoidable for buyers looking to build a new home on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Windward, a new community of attached villas and single-family homes, is part of Lakewood Ranch, just south of the Sarasota-Manatee county line. Photo by Emily Le Coz via Suncoast Searchlight
Terry Henley is a lecturer at the University of Central Florida’s School of Public Administration. He has published research on special purpose governments, and he believes that there needs to be more oversight.
Terry Henley said, “The future property owners are really the ones that bear the burden. It can be a lot more expensive to live in one of these districts. If you’re going to have this many CDDs, you need more oversight. The optics are that the fox is guarding the hen house.”
This has been Derek Gilliam for Suncoast Searchlight. To read the full story I produced with Kara Newhouse and Josh Salman, go to suncoastsearchlight.org/cdd-suncoast-sarasota-manatee-developer-district-debt.
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