Suppose you're comparing a resale home in Sandhills, in Lakewood Ranch Community Development District 5, with one in Solera or Lorraine Lakes in the newer Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District. New communities are still repaying the bonds that built their roads and pipes, so why does the older home have the bigger district bill? Under the fiscal year 2026/27 schedules, a Sandhills home's district charges total about $3,491, and $103.78 of that is bond debt. A Solera home's net district charges total $1,175.13, and about two-thirds of that is debt.
Both charges will show up on the Manatee County property tax bills that go out in November 2026. A listing usually reduces them to one "CDD" figure. That figure combines two different charges. One repays a bond and eventually ends. The other pays for running the community, and its board can reset it every year.
Two charges under one label
Each Lakewood Ranch district bill has two parts. Debt service repays the bonds that financed a neighborhood's infrastructure. Operations and maintenance, or O&M, funds the district's yearly budget. Older neighborhoods in Lakewood Ranch Community Development Districts 5 and 6 have the opposite mix from the newer villages in the Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District.
The FY2026/27 figures below are per home. CDD 5 and CDD 6 figures come from their August 2026 hearing notices. Stewardship figures are the net amounts on the district's FY2027 assessment schedule.
| Neighborhood | District | O&M | Debt service | Total | Debt share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandhills | CDD 5 | $3,387.14 | $103.78 | $3,490.92 | about 3% |
| Teal Creek | CDD 5 | $5,573.05 | $674.45 | $6,247.50 | about 11% |
| Wexford | CDD 6, proposed | $2,234.10 | $997.55 | $3,231.65 | about 31% |
| Highfield | CDD 6, proposed | $4,468.20 | $1,995.11 | $6,463.31 | about 31% |
| Solera | Stewardship | $408.39 | $766.74 | $1,175.13 | about 65% |
| Azario and Lorraine Lakes | Stewardship | $408.39 | $796.52 | $1,204.91 | about 66% |
Across CDD 5's residential categories, O&M runs from $3,243.95 in one Stone Ridge category to $5,628.32 in one LaCantera category. Debt service runs from $103.78 to $814.34. In the Stewardship District, O&M is a flat $408.39 net across many Northeast Sector communities, $504.60 in Central Park and $649.01 in Country Club East. Lot-size debt is added on top. A 45-foot lot in Central Park, for example, carries $574.32 to $904.56 in Series 2023 debt service.
The CDD 6 amounts are labeled preliminary in the district's own notice. CDD 5's notice used the same label. Multiply CDD 5's proposed O&M rates by the unit counts in that notice and you get $3,784,709. The district's FY2027 adopted budget summary shows $3,784,710 in special benefit assessments. The adopted total matches the proposed per-home rates almost to the dollar, though the summary doesn't list rates by neighborhood.
What a district with little debt is still paying for
A district bill in an older village stays high because the district is running the community. CDD 5's adopted FY2027 budget totals $3,792,740. Here are its largest uses of funds:
- Community landscaping: $786,500
- Reserves: $750,000
- Other operations and maintenance: $444,600
- Shared maintenance staff: $427,080
- Utilities: $377,070
- Shared administration: $190,160
- Gatehouse expenses: $183,570
- Environmental and conservation: $146,700
- Master landscaping: $101,200
Reserves take about a fifth of the budget. That is money set aside for repairs and replacements the community hasn't needed yet. Landscaping and the staff to maintain it take another third or so. None of that goes away when a bond is paid off. A district with gates, staffed security and mature common areas has more to run than one still being built.
The bill can also go up as a community ages. In its 2025 investigation, Suncoast Searchlight found that the costs continue after the bonds are paid off. Owners in older districts are often left paying again to repair or replace the infrastructure they just finished financing. The same investigation found that the district fees in parts of Lakewood Ranch's CDD 6 reached a median of nearly $4,000 in the prior year. Across the region, two-thirds of the district properties it studied paid more in district assessments than in the property taxes that fund their city and county services.
The part that ends, and when
In the newer villages, debt is most of the bill, and debt has an end date. Lorraine Lakes is assessed under two bonds, including the Stewardship District's Northeast Sector Phase 1B Series 2018. That bond's offering memorandum lists term-bond maturities through May 1, 2048. The Series 2020 Northeast Sector Phase 2B offering runs through May 1, 2050.
Those are long timelines. But the debt line repays a specific bond on a stated schedule. The O&M line works differently. CDD 5's notice calls its O&M charges "annually recurring" and describes the amounts as "subject to change at the hearing and in any future year." The O&M line is a budget the board votes on every August, and its starting point is whatever the community costs to run that year.
Most of Solera's $1,175 bill is a scheduled repayment that ends when its bond does. Almost all of Sandhills' $3,491 is the yearly cost of running a district that has a gatehouse budget and mature common areas.
Why the newer O&M figure is low today
The Stewardship District's flat $408.39 also reflects where the larger district is in its build-out. Its adopted O&M budget for October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 is $15,477,791, up $160,700 from FY2026. Maintenance alone rises $486,733 to $11,744,794. That increase includes $308,000 more for general and parks maintenance and $170,033 more for contracted landscape and irrigation work.
Look at where the money comes from. Platted lots are assessed $14,013,543. A landowner contribution adds another $872,979, down $42,954 from the year before. The same budget estimates $17,877,775 a year at build-out, funded entirely by assessments on platted land, with no landowner contribution. The current per-home O&M is being set while the community is still filling in and part of the cost comes from a source that disappears at build-out. Nothing in the budget sets a future per-home rate. It does show that the operating budget is growing and that, at build-out, it will be funded from homeowner assessments alone.
Neither bill is the whole cost. Lakewood Ranch Town Hall manages the CDDs. It also manages the Country Club/Edgewater, Summerfield/Riverwalk and Greenbrook village HOAs, which bill their HOA assessments separately. Those association dues are separate from the CDD figures above. Newer villages have their own association dues, which also don't appear in the district schedule.
Reading the November bill before you make an offer
The tax bill already splits the two charges, so the comparison only takes a few minutes. For any home on your shortlist, check the following:
- Find both lines. Get the debt service and the O&M amounts from the district's FY2026/27 schedule. A single figure from a listing won't give you the split.
- Find out which bond the debt repays. In the Stewardship District, the schedule names the series, such as the Northeast Sector 2018 bond or Central Park Series 2023, and the offering documents give its final maturity.
- Read the district's budget, not just the per-home rate. The reserves line and the year-over-year change tell you more about where O&M is heading than this year's figure does.
- Add the HOA separately. CDD charges and association dues are billed by different entities.
- Note the payment terms. The CDD notices say owners can get up to a 4% discount for paying early. Unpaid assessments lead to a tax certificate against the property, which can eventually cost the owner the title.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Before you rely on any assessment figure, confirm it for your specific parcel with the district, the Manatee County tax collector, and your own attorney or tax professional.
Questions buyers ask about these bills
Are CDD charges and HOA dues the same bill?
No. CDD charges come on the property tax bill. Village associations such as Country Club/Edgewater bill their HOA assessments separately through Lakewood Ranch Town Hall.
Why does one neighborhood show more than one rate?
Some neighborhoods are split into separate assessment categories. In CDD 5, LaCantera has three categories, with totals from $4,737.89 to $6,442.66. In CDD 6, Greystone has two, at $5,529.71 and $6,905.73 as proposed. In the Stewardship District, debt service also varies by lot size.
What are the "Private Club" and "Golf Course" lines?
They're non-residential entries on the assessment rolls. CDD 5 lists a Private Club line at $6,027.23 per unit across 20 units. CDD 6 lists one Golf Course unit at $33,859. They don't apply to a home purchase.
If you have a shortlist of Lakewood Ranch homes in different districts, Ranch Realty can split each one's district bill into debt service and O&M, match the debt to its bond, and pull the district's budget before you make an offer. Let's Connect.
