Ave Maria FL Town Organization & Fees

Ave Maria Fl is not technically a town, as there is no local government. Ave Maria is a Planned Unit Development (PUD). It's called a town as it looks, feels and has all the aspects of a town, and town sounds nicer than a PUD.

Ave Maria's governing body is Collier County - ordinances, zoning, planning, police, fire and safety. The same is true for all Collier County residents, except those living in Collier County's three small cities. These three cities make up just 15% of the county's residents. All residents living west of Ave Maria are in unincorporated Collier County and use Naples as their mailing address as it is their closest city.

The City of Naples, the largest city in Collier County, has a US Census population of 22,000 (could all fit in Madison Square Gardens). Ave Marie, with its existing approved plans, is projected to have a larger population than the City of Naples. 

Besides paying Collier County property taxes, each owner in Ave Maria also pays fees to at least three different entities: Ave Maria Stewardship Community District, Ave Maria Master Association and a Neighborhood Association. The Ave Maria Master Association has reported that many owners at Ave Maria had no idea they had these fees.

Ave Maria Stewardship  Community District

Ave Maria Master Association

Neigborhood Assocations

Known in Florida as Community Development Districts (CDD). A CDD structure was created by an Act of the Florida Legislature and approval for use by a county ordinance. A CDD is established to construct and maintain a community's infrastructure with funding from the issuance of low interest municipal bonds. These bonds get paid down over time through annual assessments on the homeowners' property tax statement.

Without a CDD, the builder must recoup the infrastructure costs through the price of the new homes. Communities with a CDD have lower new home prices.

The Ave Maria Stewardship District funded both the cost of the public infrastructure for the Town of Ave Maria, and for the infrastructure of the different builders' communities. Different homes and communities will have different annual CDD fees based on the cost of their neighborhood's infrastructure.

Each home in Ave Maria has debt allocated to it, representing their share of the infrastructure paid by the CDD on that home's behalf. A homeowner could elect to pay off the balance attached to their home, leaving only the annual CD maintenance on the tax bill.

Every owner in Ave Maria is a member of the Ave Maria Master Association. The master association has rules and regulations that must be followed by all owners and neighborhood associations.

The Master Association controls how the town gets built out, but its impact on residents is mostly related to the operations of the parks, the water park, tennis courts, fitness center, community rooms, golf cart registration, etc. From an owner's perspective, the Master is more along the lines of a Parks and Recreation Department.

The annual budget to operate the amenities and administration costs is determined in the fall each year and assessed equally to each owner through a quarterly fee the following year.

The responsibilities of the Master Association stops at the boundary of each Neighborhood Association.

Ave Maria home builders, Lennar and Pulte have been using CDDs in the Naples for decades. Five of the CDD communities listed on the map below were developed by Lennar, three by Pulte.

Some of the CDDs were originally established under a different name, than what they are known as today.