Pelican Bay's beach tram is a familiar part of its story. Its open-air cars glide along a raised berm, with eight stations and boardwalks threading through mangrove preserve to nearly three miles of private sand. It is a good story, and it happens to be true. Oakmont, the 133-home lakeside enclave tucked into the north-central corner of Pelican Bay off Oakmont Parkway and Green Tree Drive, also has amenities closer to home.
Oakmont sits inland, buffered from Tamiami Trail by oversized lots and screened by mature plantings that have had nearly four decades to fill in since the first homes went up in 1987. The nearest tram stop is a genuine amenity. Closer to home are a shaded, pond-side walking network and a new anchor store nearby that has quietly rewritten the errand list for anyone north of the community's beach corridor.
Pelican Bay's Beach Tram
The tram numbers provide useful context for Pelican Bay's beach amenities. Pelican Bay's trams make more than 900,000 trips to the beach and back in a typical year, running an electric, open-air fleet along a berm that doubles as a conservation buffer for the Clam Bay mangrove system, which Collier County designated a natural resource protection area back in 1982.
For a high-rise resident three blocks from a boardwalk entrance, the tram is close at hand. For an Oakmont household on Shadow Lake Lane, reaching it means getting in the car and driving to a station, or walking a longer stretch to reach one. The tram serves the beach rather than the interior lake streets.
Oakmont's Walking Network
Oakmont's daily life is also shaped by a walking network through the neighborhood. It runs through Oakmont Park, a shared green space with a playground and a trail that follows the edge of the neighborhood's namesake pond. You can enter from Lynnmore Lane, and from there the paths continue along Shadow Lake Lane and Woodhaven Lane, tracing the lakes that give the community its lush, low-key character before connecting into the neighboring streets of Waterford and Barrington.
It is the accumulated result of a community built around water, planted with native vegetation from the start and left alone for nearly four decades to mature. The paths carry the ordinary rhythm of the place: dog clean-up stations at regular intervals, neighbors who recognize each other's dogs before they recognize each other's names, a playground that serves grandchildren visiting for the week as readily as it serves year-round residents. None of it requires a reservation. None of it requires proof of membership. On the beach side of Pelican Bay, access runs through Foundation-issued member cards and registered guests; Oakmont's walking network is available without a membership card or reservation.
If you have never walked it, the loop is easy to find:
- Enter Oakmont Park from Lynnmore Lane
- Follow the pond-side trail past the playground
- Continue onto Shadow Lake Lane and then Woodhaven Lane, where the path tracks the lake edge
- Keep going and the route feeds naturally into Waterford and Barrington, the neighboring enclaves that share the same interior geography
It is a loop built for a leash and a coffee, not a beach bag.
A New Nearby Store
The other piece of Oakmont's daily geography that has shifted in 2026 sits at Pelican Bay Marketplace, the retail strip anchored by Publix on the community's edge. Sunshine Ace Hardware held its grand opening there over two days on January 24 and 25, 2026, co-anchoring the center alongside the grocery store. It is the fourth Sunshine Ace location to open in Collier County in the past three years and the sixteenth hardware store owned by the Wynn family.
That sounds like a small retail footnote until you account for what it replaces. Before this opening, an Oakmont resident who needed a garden hose fitting on a Sunday afternoon was driving to the Airport-Pulling Road location, a trip that ate the better part of an hour once you count the drive, the parking, and the drive back. Pairing a hardware run with the existing Publix trip at the same Marketplace turns two separate errands into one stop, within walking or biking distance of the North Tram Station area near Oakmont Parkway. It is a small change in absolute terms and a real one in practical terms.
The Governance Detail That Explains the Feel
Oakmont's daily life reflects how the neighborhood is set up. Beyond the Pelican Bay master association fee, Oakmont carries no additional mandatory charges. Joining the neighborhood association is optional, and the fee for doing so is nominal. There is no private clubhouse gate on the way to the pond trail, and no separate amenity fee layered on top of the community-wide dues that fund the tram, the beaches, and the fitness center.
The walking loop through Oakmont Park is open and informal, and no sub-association manages access to it. The lakes, shade, and dog stations are part of Oakmont's everyday setting. For households comparing Oakmont with a high-rise or a golf villa, the walking network is one feature to consider.
The Point of All This
The tram and the boardwalk earn every mention they get. They are a real, well-run piece of infrastructure and they deserve the attention. Oakmont's day-to-day routines include beach amenities as well as features closer to home. Pelican Bay's tram cards, mangrove boardwalks, and beachfront dining at Marker 36 and Sandbar are part of that beach experience. The pond loop through Lynnmore, Shadow Lake, and Woodhaven, along with a nearby hardware store, are among the features close to Oakmont.
If you already live here, none of this is news to you in the way a new restaurant might be. It is simply part of the shape of your Tuesday.
If you are weighing a move within Pelican Bay, or into Oakmont specifically, and want a clearer read on how a particular street sits relative to that lake loop, the Marketplace, or the tram stations, Chad Phipps has spent two decades working these exact streets and can walk you through it. Get your instant home valuation and local market consultation whenever you are ready to talk specifics.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
