The District Building Pelican Marsh's New Gate Also Hosts Tour Week at Tiburón

At its July 15 meeting, the Pelican Marsh Community Development District's board talked about what kind of body it is. According to the July 2026 minutes, the board said the district "operates much like a small city for the community." District counsel Tony Pires agreed that it is an independent special district and a political subdivision of the State of Florida.

Pelican Marsh has a busy stretch ahead, and the CDD is behind most of it. It is building the new US 41 gatehouse. It licenses its land along Livingston Road to the company that produces the tournaments at Tiburón. And its bill for all of this is one line on the Collier County property tax notice, which arrives at the start of November.

The front door is a district project

The new gatehouse at the Tamiami Trail entrance is a design-build job by Heatherwood Construction of Naples. The contract carries a guaranteed maximum price of $1,056,154. The district paid for it with a $1,200,000 non-revolving line of credit from Sunflower Bank. Payments are interest-only while the contractor draws down funds. Before the loan closed, the district had already spent $138,296 on engineering, surveying, design and permitting. It also budgeted $60,000 for a third-party project manager to inspect the work and review pay requests.

The board's minutes track the progress month by month:

• April 28: The district approved the loan and expected the project to finish in the first quarter of the fiscal year that began October 1.
• May 20: The chairman expected an October finish. The manager told residents to plan on November because rainy season could cause delays.
• July 15: The columns, footers, slab, masonry walls and tie beam were done. Trusses were due the next week, and the contractor was slightly ahead of schedule. The board chose a dry-stack stone trim over tumbled cobblestone because it was more contemporary.
• August 19: Work was moving to the south side, with pavers, roof shingles, paint and stone underway. Operations Manager John Vanover said the exit would need to close for about a week while curbing, grading and pavers went in.

The August minutes also show how emergency access was handled. During the exit closure, emergency vehicles were to come in through the normal entrance, loop in front of the gatehouse and pass through the site. The district had first planned to spend about $100,000 on a separate emergency route through the landscaping. Instead it kept the existing roadway, made small curb changes and did much of the gate-arm and electrical work with its own staff.

The last step is equipment. Even after the south side is finished, the minutes say it stays closed until the gate arms, cameras and wiring are installed. The fiscal 2027 budget includes $28,250 for gatehouse equipment such as upgraded cameras and license plate readers. Some of the existing gate-arm hardware will be reused, and Vanover told residents that recordings are kept for about 30 days. The October 21 agenda listed a "U.S. 41 Gatehouse Update." The next board meeting is November 18. The CDD's posted schedule puts its fiscal 2027 meetings at the Pelican Marsh Foundation Building, 1498 Pelican Marsh Blvd.

The same district rents out the tournament lot

Tiburón is inside the district, and so is part of the land the tournaments use. In August, the board approved its yearly license agreement with Properties with Purpose, the company that produces the tournaments at Tiburón. The agreement lets the company use the district's parking area along Livingston Road for TV and catering trucks, bleachers, storage and volunteer parking. It requires about $2 million in insurance per occurrence and $3 million in total. Supervisor Dean Sieperda asked that the agreement make clear the event organizer pays for any damage from tractor-trailers.

That concern came from experience. Vanover said the district spent about $1,000 the year before on a reinforced cellular base of stone, topsoil and grass where trucks had rutted the ground. In eight or nine months of truck traffic since then, he had seen no new rutting. He planned to photograph the area before this year's setup to record its condition.

Here are the two events that will use that lot:

The LPGA's season-ending event comes first. The CME Group Tour Championship set its 2026 dates in an October 15 release. Its Know Before You Go page says parking at the shuttle lots is cash only. It also lists a rideshare drop-off at the course, 2620 Tiburon Dr., and a St. Jude auction for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Family activities include a floating-green challenge, free 10-minute LPGA lessons and player autographs. Check gate hours on that page before you go.

The Grant Thornton Invitational's event week runs December 7–13. Its Monday and Tuesday practice days and the Wednesday and Thursday pro-ams are closed to the public. Its parking page places Lot C on Orange Blossom Drive between Airport-Pulling and Livingston roads and sends Lot C traffic in from Livingston Road. Saturday, December 12 is the busiest day. It starts with a free Burn Boot Camp at 8 a.m. and Fairway Yoga at 9 a.m. Later, Riley Green, Tyler Hubbard, Hannah McFarland and Rock Republic play Live Fest on the Tiburón driving range. The tournament's local beneficiaries include Warrior Homes of Collier, Golisano Children's Hospital, Florida Gulf Coast University and Palmetto Ridge High School.

Where the gate shows up on the tax bill

The Collier County Tax Collector mails property tax notices at the end of October. Each notice includes non-ad valorem assessments, which districts such as the CDD set and the Tax Collector collects. For fiscal 2027, the Pelican Marsh CDD set its assessment at $1,879 per equivalent residential unit. That is $153 more than last year. Of the increase, $115 goes to principal and interest on the gatehouse loan, and $38 covers higher operating and maintenance costs. Before the hearing, the district mailed notices of the increase to more than 2,900 property owners.

The assessment is spread across 2,949 equivalent residential units, and that number does not change because the community is built out. The three golf courses, the Ritz-Carlton hotel and the Galleria shops also pay. Each gets its own bill based on the number of units assigned to its property type.

Water is the other cost going up. The district is one of Collier County's largest buyers of irrigation water, which is treated effluent. The county's rate for it is rising 9.5% next year, after increases of about 7.5% a year and a 22% jump over the prior three years. Not counting the golf courses and clubhouses, the district's areas use about 60 million gallons a month. About 40 million of that goes to Pelican Marsh. The district manager, Neil Dorrill, said the district has no practical alternative, because permits for wells big enough to replace it are not available in the coastal zone.

The timing of payment changes the amount. Bills are due November 1. According to the Tax Collector's real estate page, paying in November earns a 4% discount, and the discount drops by 1% each month after that until March, when the full amount is due. Unpaid bills become delinquent April 1. This is general information only, not tax or financial advice. Please confirm your own bill and payment options with the Tax Collector or your tax professional.

What is still in front of the board

The loan has its own plan. Dorrill said the gatehouse should be finished before the loan's first anniversary. He plans to keep paying interest only until the first large round of assessment money arrives in November, then look at cash flow and possibly pay down the loan early, which the loan allows. The October 21 agenda also included renewal of the district's line of credit.

Paving is also under review. Rather than spend money on resurfacing now, the district put it into reserves until the District Engineer completes a pavement assessment in the first quarter of the fiscal year. That review could cover the Tiburón entrance from Airport-Pulling Road to the roundabout, plus more of Pelican Marsh Boulevard. If work is needed, the board could approve a budget amendment before Christmas and schedule paving after Easter.

One small change takes effect January 1, 2027. A new state law requires local governments to accept credit and debit cards. Dorrill said that for Pelican Marsh, the main effect is on resident transponder sales, which bring in about $20,000 a year. A convenience fee is allowed.

The October 21 agenda also listed two supervisor requests on everyday traffic. One is speed enforcement, coordinated with the Foundation. The other is a bicycle lane at Pelican Marsh Boulevard and Marsh Run. The district plans to meet again November 18. Its minutes will cover these items, along with the gatehouse update and the first round of tax payments.

If you're a Pelican Marsh owner thinking about how this year's district costs, the new gate and the season's traffic fit into your home's value, Chad Phipps can walk you through it. Get your instant home valuation and local market consultation, built on the same meeting-by-meeting detail.