Esplanade at Starling buyer representation from McGreevy and Comisar, Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008 and the #1 team in Southwest Florida since 2012.
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By Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, McGreevy and Comisar of Domain Realty.
Updated October 2026
Buying a home in Esplanade at Starling means buying from one builder, Taylor Morrison, inside a gate, on a lot whose Starling district assessment depends on its class and on whether the builder prepaid the debt, under a FEMA flood map that shows Zone D on every lot. Charlotte County’s public sales files recorded 48 qualified sales in Esplanade at Starling in the latest 12 months, at a $540,850 median, and every one of them was a first sale of a new home. McGreevy and Comisar, Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, built this buyer guide for people weighing a home in Esplanade at Starling, the gated community on the east side of Burnt Store Road in unincorporated Charlotte County with a Punta Gorda mailing address. The plat history, the master plan and the full community picture sit in our community guide. What follows is the buyer’s side: the recorded sales, the Starling Community Development District’s first-year bill and the prepayment question behind it, the association estimate and the Declaration you should hold before you sign, the Taylor Morrison contract, the flood and evacuation file for the exact lot, and the deadlines that decide what you pay.
If you are still choosing who should represent you, our guide to the best real estate agents in Punta Gorda sets out the yardsticks we think a buyer should use, and we are comfortable being measured against them. Call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873, call or text Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072, see how we represent buyers, or book an Esplanade at Starling buyer consultation. We send you the recorded sales, the district class and the document list for any homesite you name.
Esplanade at Starling is a gated, single-builder Taylor Morrison community with 774 homesites planned, 407 platted and 42 homes on the county roll, a district that bills homesites for the first time in fiscal year 2027, an association estimate from a draft bond document and a Zone D flood map. These ten points shape every offer we write here.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public parcel and sales files, our analysis, sales recorded September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026, newest qualified home sale in the file September 4, 2026; Starling Community Development District fiscal year 2027 adopted budget, Final Supplemental Methodology and agenda packages; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried October 2, 2026; Taylor Morrison builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
This Esplanade at Starling buyer guide runs from the recorded market and the all-in cost of owning a home, through the Starling district, the association, flood and insurance, to schools, negotiation and financing. Use the list below to jump to the question you need first, and call Marc if you would rather talk it through.
McGreevy and Comisar are the Esplanade at Starling buyer’s agents who read the county’s recorded sales, the Starling district’s budget by homesite class and FEMA’s map for the exact lot before an offer is written. Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008 and lead the #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012.
In Esplanade at Starling the expensive mistakes are rarely cosmetic. They are signing a builder contract without knowing the district class of the exact homesite, assuming the Series 2025 debt was prepaid because a brochure or a neighbor said so, reading a base price as what the community sells for, treating a draft association estimate as a bill, counting on a pool or a clubhouse that the builder lists as coming soon, or reading Zone D as a statement that a lot cannot flood. With one builder selling every new home, the comparison a buyer needs is not between builders. It is between homesites, collections and contract terms inside the same gate, and against the recorded sales the county has already filed. Our job is to price those differences into the offer while you can still act on them.
If you are weighing us against other agents, the side-by-side look at the best real estate agents in Punta Gorda linked at the top of this page sets out the yardsticks: verified production, years in the market, reviews you can read yourself, and whether the agent who tours with you is the agent who negotiates. In a community this new, add two tests. Ask whether the agent can show you the district’s budget line for your homesite class and explain the prepayment intent in the methodology. And ask whether the agent prices from the county’s recorded sales or from a builder’s base price.
These are the locked credentials we publish on every page we operate, stated exactly as awarded:
Jesse and Marc handle their own buyers, and the person who walks the model row on Dove Drive and the homesite with you is the person who negotiates the contract. Marc leads buyer representation and negotiation; Jesse leads listing and seller strategy, which matters if you are selling one home to buy another. Marc’s line is (239) 287-5873, and you can call or text Jesse at (239) 898-6072. Our office is at 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134, and we meet Esplanade at Starling buyers at the property or at Taylor Morrison’s sales center at 26601 Dove Drive (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
Our Esplanade at Starling buyer track record rests on verified team production and on reading every recorded sale in the community. As leaders of Domain Realty Group, McGreevy and Comisar have sold over $2.5 Billion in real estate, with more than $900 million personally between Jesse and Marc. For this guide we read all 48 sales recorded in 12 months.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales and parcel files, our analysis, sales recorded September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026; Starling Community Development District budgets, agenda packages, Final Supplemental Methodology and bond disclosure).
RealTrends ranked Domain Realty Group the #5 real estate team in Florida for 2026, on 241 transactions and more than $157 million in volume, and the #1 team in Bonita Springs by sales volume and by transaction sides. Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar bring over 45 years of combined direct experience, and both have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008. Those are the only production figures we publish, and they are the same on every page we operate.
We read the Charlotte County Property Appraiser’s roll and recorded-sale files for the 457 parcels the county lists on the Starling plats and split the 48 recorded sales by price band, quarter, plat and year built. We read the Starling district’s ordinance, its fiscal year 2026 and 2027 budgets, its Master Engineer’s Report, its draft 2025 bond offering document, its Final Supplemental Methodology for the Series 2025 bonds and the closing documents for those bonds. We read the county’s 2021 zoning ordinance, its plat, site plan and amenity decision letters, FEMA’s flood layer at every Starling parcel, the county’s evacuation layer at every parcel, and the school district’s Boundary Locator at six addresses on six streets. In the last 12 months we tracked each of those 48 sales against its price band and street before we advised a buyer on a price.
We do not publish an Esplanade at Starling buyer-representation count, because no agent-side data pull we hold supports one, and we do not tell client stories we cannot document. We print no adopted association budget, no insurance premium, no impact fee, no capital contribution and no opening date beyond the builder’s own words, because no public primary source we could read states one. We also print no days on market and no sale-to-list ratio, because the multiple listing service figures for Esplanade at Starling were not available at the time of publishing. Where a fact is unsettled, we name the document that settles it.
Before the first showing we pull five things for each homesite: the district class and whether the Series 2025 debt on that lot will be prepaid at closing; the recorded Declaration and the association’s current budget; the FEMA zone for the lot and the county evacuation letter for the address, C or D; what Taylor Morrison is building or has scheduled on the neighboring homesites, and whether the lot faces a stormwater lake, a road tract or land held for a later phase; and the builder’s written list of every recurring charge. Those answers move price more than finishes do, and they take a day to assemble.
The Esplanade at Starling housing market in 2026 is a single-builder market with a wide price range. Charlotte County recorded 48 qualified sales on the Starling plats in the 12 months to September 26, 2026, at a $540,850 median, from $305,000 to $1,014,800. Calendar 2025 shows 14 sales at $595,300, and 2026 to date shows 38 at $537,350.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis, sales recorded September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026, newest qualified home sale in the file September 4, 2026; Taylor Morrison builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
| Window | Recorded sales | Median |
|---|---|---|
| September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026 (12 months) | 48 | $540,850 |
| Calendar year 2025 | 14 | $595,300 |
| January 1 to September 26, 2026 | 38 | $537,350 |
Source: Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis. The file counts qualified sales of improved properties over $1,000. Recorded sales run through the county file dated September 27, 2026, and the newest qualified home sale in it closed September 4, 2026, so the final weeks of the window are not in it yet (Charlotte County Property Appraiser).
Each row is its own window with its own count. The 12-month window spans parts of both calendar years: 10 of the 14 sales in calendar 2025 fall inside it and 4 fall before it. So the 48 overlap the 14 and the 38, and we never add, average or subtract them. The 48 is an even count, so the $540,850 median is the midpoint of the two middle sales, $538,700 and $543,000, and not the price of any one home. A gap between a $595,300 median on 14 sales in 2025 and a $537,350 median on 38 sales in 2026 compares two windows of very different size, and we would not read it as a trend in home values.
| Price band, 12 months | Recorded sales | Share of 48 |
|---|---|---|
| $300,000 to $399,999 | 13 | 27 percent |
| $400,000 to $499,999 | 3 | 6 percent |
| $500,000 to $599,999 | 13 | 27 percent |
| $600,000 to $799,999 (a $200,000-wide band) | 15 | 31 percent |
| $800,000 to $999,999 | 2 | 4 percent |
| $1,000,000 and up | 2 | 4 percent |
| Total | 48 | 100 percent |
Source: Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis, September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026. Shares are rounded, so they do not sum exactly. The $600,000 band is twice as wide as its neighbors, so read its count with that in mind.
The market has two clusters and a thin middle. Thirteen of the 48 sales, about one in four, closed between $300,000 and $399,999. Only three closed between $400,000 and $499,999. Then 28 of the 48, about 58 percent, closed between $500,000 and $799,999, and four closed at $800,000 or more. No sale in the window closed under $300,000. For a buyer, that means a budget in the $300,000s or from about $500,000 to $800,000 has recorded company here, a budget in the $400,000s is shopping a thin set of recorded sales, and a budget above $800,000 is shopping four.
| Sale period | Recorded sales |
|---|---|
| September 27 to December 31, 2025 | 10 |
| January 1 to March 31, 2026 | 16 |
| April 1 to June 30, 2026 | 10 |
| July 1 to September 26, 2026 | 12 |
| Total, 12 months | 48 |
Source: Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis, counted by the sale date in the county file.
The first quarter of 2026 carried the most recorded sales, 16 of the 48. The summer quarter is not short: 12 sales closed from July 1 to September 4, 2026, the newest date in the file, and recording lags closing, so late September is barely in it. In a single-builder community, sales record when the builder closes homes, in batches that follow construction schedules, so we do not read the rise or fall between quarters as a change in demand.
All but four of the 48 sales were on lots of the original 2024 Phase 1 plat, on the streets where the 42 built homes stand; the other four were on lots of the 2025 replat, on Argus Place, Brent Lane and Arbor Circle (our analysis). That is the build-out sequence showing up in the deeds: the builder finished the Phase 1 streets first, and the replat streets are where the newest closings are starting. A buyer looking at Arbor Circle, Blue Court, Argus Place, Adelie Way or Brent Lane is looking at the part of the community where the recorded file is thinnest.
Of the 48 recorded sales, 36 carry a year built of 2025 on the roll. The other 12 closed before the roll recorded a building on the lot. We print no size for those 12 and draw no other conclusion from them: they are qualified improved sales in the county file, not land sales, and the roll simply had not caught up when the file was cut. Across the community, the roll shows 42 single-family homes, all built in 2025, from 1,373 to 3,160 square feet of heated living area (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public parcel files, our analysis).
No Esplanade at Starling home has a second recorded sale yet, so the 12-month record is first sales of new homes from the builder (our analysis). For a buyer, that means every recorded price in the file is a builder’s closed price, set in a Taylor Morrison contract with that builder’s options, homesite premiums and incentives. No owner has yet resold an Esplanade at Starling home in a recorded, qualified sale, so there is no resale record to price a resale against. When the first resales record, we will separate them from builder closings, because the two are different markets inside the same gate.
The highest recorded sale in the window was $1,014,800 on Brent Lane on July 24, 2026. The two sales at $1,000,000 and up were on Brent Lane and Dove Drive, and the roll carries no size for either home yet, so we print none. We name the street and no house number. At the other end, the lowest recorded price in the window was $305,000, on Lark Court. The highest recorded prices are on Brent Lane, Dove Drive and Victoria Place; the lowest on Lark Court and Robin Avenue (our analysis). A single high or low sale is a data point, not a price range for the community, which is why we price each home against its own comparable sales and print no median for any single street.
Taylor Morrison sells in three collections, and the district assesses in three matching homesite classes, but no county sales field records which collection or class a home belongs to. We therefore publish no sales or medians by collection, and we do not claim the price bands follow the collections. A recorded sale tells us the street, the date and the price; the collection and the district class for a specific home come from the builder’s contract and the district’s assessment roll.
| Collection | Plan | Advertised from | Bedrooms | Square feet | Stories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42 | Alta | $313,999 | 2 | 1,483 | 1 |
| 42 | Rivera | $343,999 | 2 | 1,677 | 1 |
| 42 | Vento | $353,999 | 3 | 1,709 | 1 |
| 52 | Monte | $377,999 | 2 | 1,843 | 1 |
| 52 | Marino | $407,999 | 3 | 2,085 | 1 |
| 52 | Lavello | $434,999 | 3 to 4 | 2,306 | 1 |
| 52 | Florence | $505,999 | 3 to 4 | 2,628 | 2 |
| 52 | Genoa | $532,999 | 3 to 4 | 2,903 | 2 |
| 62 | Cresta | $457,999 | 3 | 2,475 | 1 |
| 62 | Cascata | $477,999 | 3 | 2,573 | 1 |
| 62 | Palermo | $514,999 | 3 to 4 | 2,833 | 1 |
| 62 | Colina | $541,999 | 3 | 2,861 | 1 |
| 62 | Argenta | $606,999 | 4 | 3,745 | 2 |
| 62 | Ravenna | $626,999 | 5 to 6 | 4,591 | 2 |
Source: Taylor Morrison, Esplanade at Starling community page, builder marketing seen October 2, 2026. We do not link to builder pages.
These are advertised base prices from the builder’s own page. They are not recorded sales, and they are not a floor or a ceiling for the community. A builder’s base price on a given day is a different number from what a deed records, and it leaves out homesite premiums, structural options, design studio selections and closing costs. We show them so you can see what the builder advertises, and we do not read them against the county’s price bands above. Compare recorded sales to recorded sales, and the builder’s contract price plus options plus closing costs to any other home’s total.
| Measure | Esplanade at Starling |
|---|---|
| Median days on market | Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). |
| Median sale-to-list ratio | Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). |
These are the two measures only the multiple listing service carries, and neither was available for Esplanade at Starling at the time of publishing. We do not borrow a figure from another community, because a different community’s days on market says nothing about a community where every recorded sale so far is a builder’s first sale. Our negotiation section below explains how we price an offer without them.
The county roll is the file that records a home’s year built, and it lags new construction. The roll shows 42 homes with a year built on 457 parcels, and we do not set that figure against the 48 sales, because the roll counts parcels on one date and the sales file counts transfers over a window. A home can sell before the roll shows it built, which is why 12 of the 48 sales carry no year built. The homesites the roll still codes as vacant are not a count of lots for sale either. A reader who divides one count by another gets a number that means nothing, so we print the counts side by side and label each.
What you can buy in Esplanade at Starling is a new single-family detached home from Taylor Morrison, in one of three collections named 42, 52 and 62, on a homesite the Starling district bills in the matching 42-foot, 52-foot or 62-foot class. The county roll counts 42 finished homes on 407 platted homesites, and no owner resale is recorded yet.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public roll and sales files, our analysis; Starling CDD fiscal year 2027 adopted budget and Final Supplemental Methodology; Charlotte County plat and site plan decision letters; Taylor Morrison builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
The district bills homesites by class, and the class is the vocabulary that decides your assessment. Its fiscal year 2027 adopted budget lists three (Starling CDD, FY2027 adopted budget).
| District class | What it describes |
|---|---|
| 42-foot homesite | A single-family homesite billed in the 42-foot class |
| 52-foot homesite | A single-family homesite billed in the 52-foot class |
| 62-foot homesite | A single-family homesite billed in the 62-foot class |
Source: Starling CDD, FY2027 adopted budget; Starling CDD, Final Supplemental Methodology, November 5, 2025 agenda. The class names are a billing vocabulary. The recorded plat gives a lot’s true dimensions, and we print no lot widths measured from county maps and no count of homesites per class.
Taylor Morrison sells three collections, named 42, 52 and 62, with 14 floor plans from 1,483 to 4,591 square feet, one and two stories, and 2 to 6 bedrooms (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). The collection names match the district’s class names, but a collection is what the builder sells and a class is how the district bills. The class of any one homesite comes from the district’s assessment roll or an estoppel letter, not from the plan name on a brochure. Ask the builder for the district class of your specific homesite, in writing.
Every homesite on the recorded plats is single-family detached (Charlotte County, FP-22-03-09 decision letter; Charlotte County, PFP-24-05 decision letter). The zoning would also allow attached homes, but no attached product appears on any Starling plat or site plan (Charlotte County, Ordinance 2021-036, PD-21-00010). A buyer looking for a villa, a townhome or a condominium is looking in the wrong community.
The streets are the closest thing Esplanade at Starling has to neighborhoods, and the roll shows where homes stand today (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public roll files, our analysis).
| Street on the roll | Single-family homes with a year built (all 2025) |
|---|---|
| Victoria Place | 16 |
| Lark Court | 9 |
| Dove Drive | 8 |
| Dunlin Avenue | 7 |
| Robin Avenue | 2 |
| Total | 42 |
Source: Charlotte County Property Appraiser public roll files, our analysis. Arbor Circle, Blue Court, Argus Place, Adelie Way and Brent Lane carry no home with a year built on this roll, though the county file records closed sales on Arbor Circle, Argus Place and Brent Lane.
Dove Drive also holds the model row and Taylor Morrison’s sales center at 26601 Dove Drive (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). A street is a place to know, not a separate neighborhood: every home sells inside the same gate, the same association and the same district, under the same planned development.
The county has recorded three Starling plats. Starling Phase 1 was recorded on August 2, 2024, in Plat Book 27, Page 15; Starling Phase 1 Replat 1 on April 11, 2025, in Plat Book 28, Page 4; and Starling Phase 1 Replat 2 on February 4, 2026, in Plat Book 28, Page 19, a small replat of nine lots at the model row on Dove Drive (Charlotte County, FP-22-03-09 decision letter; Charlotte County, PFP-24-05 decision letter; Charlotte County, PFP-25-12 decision letter). The appraiser’s roll still lists those nine lots under Replat 1. If you are buying on that row, the title commitment will cite the plat that now controls your lot; read it rather than the roll’s short legal description. After the replats, the roll shows 407 platted homesites, matching the county’s 407-lot Phase 1 (our count).
A Phase 2 site plan of 131 single-family lots was approved in 2025, and no Phase 2 plat was recorded as of October 2, 2026 (Charlotte County, DRC-24-224 decision letter). A third phase is planned. A site plan is an approval, not a recorded plat, and its layout can change before a plat records. For a buyer on a homesite that backs onto land held for a later phase, the practical meaning is construction next door for as long as those phases take to build, and that timing is not published.
The builder sells homes it has finished or nearly finished and homes it will build to order; its page sets out which it is offering on a given day. We print no individual home prices, inventory counts, homesite numbers or ready dates, because inventory changes weekly. A finished home lets you inspect what you are buying and read its permit file. A to-be-built home gives you the plan, the homesite and the options, and it puts the schedule, the finishes and the neighboring construction in the builder’s contract. We cover what to check in each in the contract and inspection sections below.
A resale is an Esplanade at Starling home that an owner sells after the builder has closed on it. None has been recorded as a qualified sale yet (our analysis of the county file), so there is no resale median, no resale pace and no resale-versus-builder comparison to print. When resales come, a resale buyer will read the same district budget, the same Declaration and the same flood map as a new-home buyer, and will receive an association estoppel certificate and, for the district, an estoppel letter showing whether the Series 2025 debt on that home was prepaid at the first closing.
Many homesites back onto stormwater lakes, and some face the preserved wetland areas protected by the zoning (Charlotte County, Ordinance 2021-036, PD-21-00010). The builder’s homesite map, not the county’s waterfront flag, shows which. A lake view is a feature of a homesite, not a separate section with separate rules, and rules on using the lakes were not available to us.
Esplanade at Starling is not marketed as a 55+ community: Taylor Morrison’s listing data marks its homes as not age-restricted, and the district’s 2025 draft bond document describes it as active-lifestyle and age-targeted (Starling CDD, August 15, 2025 agenda). No recorded age restriction was found; the Declaration controls. If a 55-and-over home is what you want, this is the wrong community unless the recorded Declaration says otherwise, and it was not available to us.
This guide is advice rather than a listing feed. When you want to scroll every active home, browse our team’s search on DomainRealtyGroup.com and send us the addresses that interest you. We come back with the district class, the prepayment question, the flood and evacuation file, the Declaration question and the recorded comparables for each.
A table of named listings in a guide refreshed quarterly goes stale within days, and a builder changes advertised prices and incentives without notice. We publish the recorded market above and set up a live saved search for you instead, which updates the day a listing appears.
Esplanade at Starling is not in the City of Punta Gorda. It is unincorporated Charlotte County with a Punta Gorda 33955 mailing address, in county tax district 121, so Charlotte County sets the taxes, issues the permits and administers the flood rules, and Charlotte County Public Schools serve the community. The appraiser’s record reads “In City of Punta Gorda: NO.”
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser parcel record and 2025 final rate chart; Charlotte County Ordinance 2021-036 and decision letters; Florida Division of Corporations; Starling Community Development District; Charlotte County GIS, read October 2, 2026).
The City of Punta Gorda and its canal neighborhoods sit to the north. Our Punta Gorda area guide covers the city itself, and our Punta Gorda buyer’s guide covers buying across it.
Several names sound like Esplanade at Starling or its neighbors, and a search that mixes them lands on the wrong community. Check the plat name and the association on any document before you rely on it.
| Name | What it is | Relation to Esplanade at Starling |
|---|---|---|
| Esplanade at Starling | Taylor Morrison’s marketing name | The subject of this guide |
| Starling | The recorded plat name, the district name and the association name | The same community, on paper |
| Other Esplanade communities | Taylor Morrison uses the Esplanade name on several Florida communities | Different communities, with their own fees, sizes and rules |
| Other places named Starling | Unrelated communities and businesses elsewhere in Florida | Not this community |
| Turnleaf | The community directly north, with its own Coral Creek CDD | Its own plats, association and amenities |
| Coral Lakes | A community to the north with its own Coral Lakes CDD | Its own plats and district |
| Heritage Landing | The golf community across Burnt Store Road | Its own district; its golf club is not a Starling amenity |
| Willow | A community to the northeast, east of US 41, with its own Tuckers Pointe CDD | Its own plats and district |
Sources: Charlotte County GIS, Subdivisions layer; Charlotte County GIS, petitions layer; Starling Community Development District; our guides to Turnleaf, Heritage Landing and Willow.
When you search for Esplanade fees, reviews or amenity photos, check that the page names Starling and Punta Gorda. Photos and fee figures labelled for another Esplanade community belong to that community alone, and none of their figures applies here. The district’s own name, Starling Community Development District, and the association’s name, Starling Homeowners Association, Inc., are the two that identify this community on paper. Use those names when you request a budget, an estoppel letter or a tax record.
Taylor Morrison bought the land from the prior owner, Burnt Store 2007 LLC, the applicant on the 2021 rezoning (Charlotte County, Ordinance 2021-036, PD-21-00010; Charlotte County, CDD-24-01 petition and ordinance file). From 2022 on, Taylor Morrison of Florida, Inc. is the applicant on every county petition for the land, and Taylor Morrison of Florida Inc still owns most of the parcels on the September 27, 2026 roll (Charlotte County GIS, ownership layer). When a deed, a district notice or a plat names Taylor Morrison of Florida, it is talking about the builder and landowner here.
Read the legal description. An Esplanade at Starling home’s county record reads Starling Phase 1 or Starling Phase 1 Replat 1, in tax district 121 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser, parcel record). Anything else is a different community, whatever a listing or a search result calls it.
Esplanade at Starling sits on the east side of Burnt Store Road, County Road 765, south of Turnleaf and north of Zemel Road (Charlotte County, PFP-24-05 decision letter). The zoning allows one main entrance, from Burnt Store Road at Starling Boulevard, and an emergency-only access to the east that the district’s engineer says will connect to Green Gulf Boulevard in the future (Starling CDD, May 1, 2024 agenda, Master Engineer’s Report). Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park lies along Burnt Store Road to the west, and Heritage Landing sits across Burnt Store Road. The community falls in County Commission District 2.
Esplanade at Starling suits a buyer who wants a gate, one builder’s consistent design, lawn care in the association estimate, a deeper recorded file above $500,000 and a first-year district bill under $1,500 by homesite class. Turnleaf suits a buyer who wants four builders to compare and lower recorded prices. Both share one 12-month sales window.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis, for Esplanade at Starling; Starling Community Development District documents; Charlotte County; FEMA; the figures and windows printed on our Turnleaf guide for Turnleaf, read October 2, 2026).
Both are master-planned new-construction communities on the east side of Burnt Store Road with a community development district, an amenity center approved by the county and most of their homes still to come. Esplanade at Starling’s figures come from county records, the Starling district’s documents, FEMA and builder marketing. Turnleaf’s figures are cited only to our Turnleaf guide, and our sibling buyer guide for that community is the Turnleaf buyer’s guide.
| Factor | Esplanade at Starling | Turnleaf (our guide) |
|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | East side of Burnt Store Road, south of Turnleaf, north of Zemel Road | East side of Burnt Store Road, directly north of Esplanade at Starling |
| Builders | One, Taylor Morrison | Four: Dream Finders Homes, Lennar, M/I Homes, Perry Homes |
| Size of the plan | 774 homesites planned (1,440 zoning ceiling); 407 platted | Up to 1,762 approved; 412 platted |
| Gate | Gated (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026); county site plan condition requires gate arms with an emergency EVAC system | Developer states it will not have restricted access |
| Recorded sales, same window | 48, median $540,850, September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026 | 79, median $350,000, same window |
| Recorded range | $305,000 to $1,014,800 | $239,500 to $887,400 |
| District | Starling CDD, FY2027 adopted $1,051.83 to $1,499.52 by homesite class; Phase 1 debt prepayment intended by the developer | Coral Creek CDD, FY2026 on-roll $1,946.81 to $3,015.02 per single-family home |
| District bonds | Series 2025, $12,530,000, repaid through May 1, 2056 | Series 2024, maturing through 2054 |
| Association | Estimate $4,459 to $4,699 a year including lawn maintenance (draft bond document); adopted budget not available to us | Not published |
| Amenities | County-approved clubhouse, Bahama bar, pool, a tennis court, pickleball and bocce courts, dog parks and community garden on about 6.8 acres; dog park, tennis and pickleball open per builder; clubhouse slated for early 2027 | 5,500 square foot building, pool area, four pickleball courts and bocce approved; not built |
| Flood map | Zone D on every lot; no map revision | May 2026 revision put every built home’s lot in Zone X |
| Evacuation zone | Split: all 42 built homes in Zone D; 218 of 457 parcels in Zone C | Split: of 73 built homes, 68 in Zone D and 5 in Zone C |
| Assigned schools | East Elementary, Punta Gorda Middle, Charlotte High | Same three |
Sources: Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis; DRC-24-171; PD-21-00010, Ordinance 2021-036; DRC-24-156; Starling CDD FY2027 adopted budget; Starling CDD, January 7, 2026 agenda; Starling CDD, August 15, 2025 agenda; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer; Charlotte County evacuation zones layer; Boundary Locator; builder marketing seen October 2, 2026, not linked; our Turnleaf guide. The two district rows are different fiscal years, 2027 for Starling and 2026 for Coral Creek, and they are read here as each district publishes them.
The first practical difference is how many builders you can compare without leaving the community. Taylor Morrison is the only builder in Esplanade at Starling, selling 14 plans across three collections (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). Our Turnleaf guide lists four builders. A buyer who wants to compare several builders’ products, warranties and contracts in one place has more of that next door. A buyer who has already settled on Taylor Morrison’s plans, or who values one builder’s design and one set of contract terms across every street, gets that here. Either way, a builder’s own price list is marketing, not a recorded sale.
The gate is the plainest difference. Esplanade at Starling is gated (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026), and the county’s site plan conditions require gate arms with an emergency EVAC system (DRC-24-156). Our Turnleaf guide reports that its developer states Turnleaf will not have restricted access. On amenities, Esplanade at Starling’s county approval covers a larger program, and part of it is in use: as of October 2, 2026, Taylor Morrison lists the dog park, tennis and pickleball as open, the resort-style pool as coming soon, the Bahama Bar as planned and The Venue clubhouse as slated to open in early 2027 (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). Our Turnleaf guide describes an approved amenity center that is not built. The two communities do not share amenities.
Esplanade at Starling is planned for 774 single-family homesites in three phases, with 407 platted, 42 homes on the roll and a 131-lot Phase 2 site plan approved but not platted (DRC-24-224). Our Turnleaf guide prints up to 1,762 homes approved with 412 platted. Both communities have most of their homes still to come, so a buyer in either should expect construction traffic and noise nearby for some time. In Esplanade at Starling, the 42 built homes sit on Victoria Place, Lark Court, Dove Drive, Dunlin Avenue and Robin Avenue, while Arbor Circle, Blue Court, Argus Place, Adelie Way and Brent Lane are platted streets with no home yet on the roll. Ask what is scheduled around your homesite before you choose it.
Esplanade at Starling and Turnleaf share a 12-month window, September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026, so their recorded-sale counts line up exactly: 48 for Esplanade at Starling, 79 for Turnleaf. Both records are first sales of new homes, by our analysis here and by the Turnleaf guide’s analysis there. Esplanade at Starling’s file sits higher: 28 of its 48 sales recorded between $500,000 and $799,999, four at $800,000 or more, and its top sale, $1,014,800 on Brent Lane, is above Turnleaf’s $887,400 high. Its lowest, $305,000, is above Turnleaf’s $239,500 low. Neither fact makes one community a better buy. It means Taylor Morrison’s collections reach a different part of the market from Turnleaf’s four builders, and a buyer above $500,000 has more recorded evidence to work with in Esplanade at Starling than its smaller count suggests.
The Starling CDD’s fiscal 2027 adopted budget, the first year it levies assessments on homesites, lists $1,051.83 a year for a 42-foot homesite, $1,275.68 for 52-foot and $1,499.52 for 62-foot, of which $111.70 is operations and the rest is Series 2025 debt service (FY2027 adopted budget). The district’s methodology says Taylor Morrison intends to prepay that debt on Phase 1 homes at closing, so some homes may carry only the operations assessment; only a district estoppel letter settles it for a specific home. Our Turnleaf guide prints Coral Creek CDD on-roll totals of $1,946.81 to $3,015.02 for fiscal 2026, a different year. On the association side, Esplanade at Starling has a draft estimate of $4,459 to $4,699 a year including lawn maintenance, and Turnleaf’s dues are not published. A draft estimate on one side and nothing on the other cannot be compared as totals. Ask for every recurring charge on a named homesite in each community, in writing, before you compare.
Every lot on the Starling plats is in FEMA flood zone D on the current map, panel 12015C0409G, effective December 15, 2022, with no Base Flood Elevation on that map (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer). Next door, Turnleaf’s May 2026 FEMA map revision moved former Zone D land to zones AE and X, and no comparable revision covers any Starling lot as of October 2, 2026. Evacuation zones split both communities: Esplanade at Starling’s 42 built homes are all in Zone D, while most of Arbor Circle and all of Adelie Way are Zone C. In either community, check the address on Know Your Zone, and rely on the lender’s flood determination for the exact structure.
Four names cause confusion on this corridor. Esplanade at Starling is Taylor Morrison’s name for the community the county records as Starling, and its district and association carry the Starling name. Taylor Morrison uses the Esplanade name on several Florida communities; this guide covers only Esplanade at Starling on Burnt Store Road. Turnleaf’s district is the Coral Creek CDD, and Coral Lakes, also to the north, is a separate community with its own Coral Lakes CDD (Charlotte County GIS, petitions layer). Check the legal description on any listing against the plat name, Starling, before you rely on it.
If budget is the deciding factor, do not use the medians. Ask both communities for the all-in recurring charges on a named home and compare those, with the Starling district’s prepayment status confirmed in writing. If timeline decides it, ask which streets are delivering homes when you need to move. If you cannot decide, tour both on the same day and bring us the paperwork for each. We represent buyers in both, and we would rather you choose on documents than on a table.
Esplanade at Starling recorded 48 county sales at a $540,850 median in the 12 months to September 26, 2026, a smaller count than Turnleaf’s 79, Willow’s 93 or Burnt Store Village’s 77 over the same window. This section sets Esplanade at Starling beside five live guides on this site, each figure tied to its own count, window and source.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis, for Esplanade at Starling; the figures and windows printed on our Turnleaf, Willow, Heritage Landing, Burnt Store Village and Babcock Ranch guides, read October 2, 2026).
| Community | Recorded sales and window | Median | Fees as each page states them | Cited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Esplanade at Starling | 48 recorded sales, September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026 | $540,850 | Starling CDD FY2027 $1,051.83 to $1,499.52 by homesite class; association estimate $4,459 to $4,699 a year (draft bond document) | This page; Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis |
| Turnleaf | 79 recorded sales, same window | $350,000 | Coral Creek CDD FY2026 on-roll $1,946.81 to $3,015.02 per single-family home; association dues not published | Our Turnleaf guide |
| Willow | 93 recorded sales, same window | Not stated for the 12 months; calendar 2025 $330,000 (86 sales); 2026 to September 26 $320,000 (53 sales) | Tuckers Pointe CDD FY2027 $1,113.20 to $2,246.57; master association estimate about $2,116 to $3,804 a year (offering statement) | Our Willow guide |
| Heritage Landing | 138 recorded sales, September 5, 2025 to August 31, 2026 (30 builder first sales at a $435,000 median; 108 resales at $330,000) | $352,500 | Tern Bay CDD operating assessment $1,356.09 per home for fiscal 2027 | Our Heritage Landing guide |
| Burnt Store Village | 77 recorded sales, same window | $325,000 | Street and drainage MSBU $50 per ERU (maximum $195); association dues not published; no CDD | Our Burnt Store Village guide |
| Babcock Ranch | 668 homes sold, SW Florida MLS, trailing 12 months ending July 2026 | $390,000 (MLS basis) | Master HOA $408 per quarter including fiber; $238 capital contribution at closing; FY2026 district assessment $1,196.75 to $6,117.54 per unit; solid waste $340.58 | Our Babcock Ranch guide |
Source: Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis, for Esplanade at Starling; every other row is the figure printed on the guide named, read October 2, 2026. Esplanade at Starling, Turnleaf, Willow and Burnt Store Village share the same 12-month county window. Heritage Landing’s window ends August 31, 2026. Babcock Ranch’s figures are MLS closings, a different basis and window from county recorded deeds, so its median is not comparable as a like-for-like figure. We print no per-square-foot figure for any row.
Start with the count column, not the median column. A count of recorded sales tells you how much evidence sits behind a number. Then read the window column: four rows share September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026, while Heritage Landing’s ends August 31, 2026 and Babcock Ranch’s comes from the MLS. Then read what each row counts. Esplanade at Starling’s 48 and Turnleaf’s 79 are all builder first sales; Heritage Landing’s guide splits its 138 into first sales and resales. A median moves when the mix of homes moves, so we never say one community is cheaper than another on a single median, and we never subtract one median from another.
Heritage Landing lies across Burnt Store Road, and it is the most different neighbor on this stretch of the corridor. Our guide describes a gated golf community of about 1,545 homes and condominiums that Lennar built almost entirely between 2019 and 2025, with an 18-hole course through the middle. Its record is now mostly resales of homes a few years old; Esplanade at Starling’s is entirely first sales of 2025 homes, and it has no golf course of its own. Both bill a district, but Heritage Landing’s guide prints an operating line and the Starling figure is an operations-plus-debt total, so compare full bills on named homes. If golf is the draw, read our Heritage Landing buyer’s guide next.
Willow lies to the northeast, east of US 41, with its own district, the Tuckers Pointe CDD. Its guide prints 93 recorded sales over the same window as Esplanade at Starling’s 48 and lists two builders, Lennar and Toll Brothers. Both communities print an association figure that is an estimate from a bond document rather than an adopted budget, and the two estimates may not cover the same services, so ask for the adopted budget on a named home in each. Our Willow buyer’s guide sets out that side.
Burnt Store Village shares Esplanade at Starling’s exact window, with 77 recorded sales at $325,000. Our guide describes a deed-restricted 1970 plat built out lot by lot, with a mandatory association, a community park and no pool, a county street and drainage MSBU and no community development district. A buyer choosing between them is choosing between a plain lot with fewer layers and a gated planned community with more layers and a clubhouse plan. Our Burnt Store Village buyer’s guide covers that path. A difference between two medians says nothing about which home costs less to own.
Babcock Ranch is the scale reference for new construction in Charlotte County. Our guide describes 19,500 planned homes on 17,843 acres with about 2053 as its buildout and ten active builders, and it prints 668 homes sold at a $390,000 median from the SW Florida MLS over the trailing 12 months ending July 2026. Esplanade at Starling’s figures are county recorded deeds over a window ending in September, so the two medians are on different bases and we never set one against the other. From 26000 Starling Boulevard, the Babcock Ranch town center at 42880 Crescent Loop is about 39 minutes and 28.7 road miles (OSRM, our analysis, free-flow, no traffic).
Burnt Store Marina is in Lee County with a Punta Gorda address, and it holds what Esplanade at Starling does not: a full-service marina. Safe Harbor Burnt Store is about 7 road miles south of the community (Safe Harbor Marinas, Safe Harbor Burnt Store; OSRM, our analysis). It is not a direct alternative to Esplanade at Starling’s new homes; we name it so a boating buyer knows where the nearest slips are.
If a boat at the back door or a golf course inside your own gates is the priority, Esplanade at Starling is the wrong community, and we will say so. No golf course, marina, boat ramp or private club appears in the zoning, the amenity approval or the district records we read. If a new home inside a gate, a county-approved amenity program partly in use, a state park trailhead down the road and a drive of about 13 to 14 minutes to Punta Gorda Airport and downtown fit the way you live, Esplanade at Starling deserves the tour.
Esplanade at Starling gives a buyer a new home inside a gate, one builder’s 14 plans and a recorded market of 48 sales in a year at a $540,850 median, 28 of them between $500,000 and $799,999. The next step is a short consultation about your homesite class, the Starling district’s prepayment question and the paperwork you should hold before a contract. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, book your Esplanade at Starling buyer consultation, or see how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida. If you also own a home you need to sell first, our Esplanade at Starling home valuation lines the sale and the purchase up.
Owning in Esplanade at Starling means county property tax at 15.0855 mills for 2025, a Starling district assessment of $1,051.83 to $1,499.52 a year for fiscal 2027 by homesite class, an association fee the developer estimates at $4,459 to $4,699 a year including lawn care, and county fire rescue, solid waste and stormwater charges. Several one-time charges are unpublished.
Data updated: October 2026 (Starling Community Development District fiscal year 2027 adopted budget, fiscal year 2026 budget, Final Supplemental Methodology and agenda packages of August 15, 2025, November 5, 2025, January 7, 2026 and August 5, 2026; Charlotte County Property Appraiser 2025 final and 2026 proposed rates; Charlotte County MSBU records, MSBU year 2027; read October 2, 2026).
Every billed layer we could identify is in this table. Where a layer is unpublished, the table says so and does not estimate.
| Layer | Amount | Period | What it covers | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starling district, 42-foot homesite | $1,051.83 (operations $111.70 plus Series 2025 debt $940.13) | Annual, FY2027 | District administration; debt service on the Series 2025 bonds that built stormwater, water, sewer, walls, landscaping and mitigation | FY2027 budget |
| Starling district, 52-foot homesite | $1,275.68 (operations $111.70 plus debt $1,163.97) | Annual, FY2027 | Same | FY2027 budget |
| Starling district, 62-foot homesite | $1,499.52 (operations $111.70 plus debt $1,387.82) | Annual, FY2027 | Same | FY2027 budget |
| Phase 1 prepayment intent | The methodology says Taylor Morrison intends to prepay the Series 2025 debt on Phase 1 homes at closing; if so, the home pays the $111.70 operations charge only | Annual | Operations | Final Supplemental Methodology |
| District notice note | The mailed July 2026 notice states operations at $118.83 per home including collection costs and early payment discounts; the budget figures above are after those adjustments | Annual | Operations | August 5, 2026 agenda |
| District debt term | Series 2025 bonds repaid through May 1, 2056; prepayment allowed; a payoff amount comes from the district manager (Wrathell, Hunt and Associates) | Through 2056 | Debt service | January 7, 2026 agenda |
| Starling Homeowners Association | Estimated $4,459 to $4,699 a year including lawn maintenance, subject to change (the district’s 2025 draft bond offering document, figures furnished by the developer); adopted budget not available | Annual | Common areas, private roads, gate, amenities once conveyed, lawn maintenance | August 15, 2025 agenda; adopted budget: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). |
| Club or amenity dues | None found in any record | n/a | n/a | District and county records read for this guide |
| County ad valorem millage, tax district 121 | 15.0855 mills for 2025; 15.4046 mills proposed for 2026 (sum of the published proposed rates); final 2026 not posted | Annual | County, schools, law enforcement, lighting, water management, navigation, environmentally sensitive lands | 2025 final rates; 2026 proposed rates |
| Charlotte County Fire Rescue MSBU | $294.90 per home (MSBU year 2027) | Annual | Fire and emergency medical service | County MSBU records |
| Sanitation (solid waste) MSBU | $335.51 per home (MSBU year 2027) | Annual | Curbside collection and disposal | County MSBU records |
| South Charlotte Stormwater MSBU | $26.75 per acre of lot (MSBU year 2027) | Annual | County stormwater utility | County MSBU records |
| Impact fees | Unpublished | At permit | County impact categories | Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). |
| Capital contribution at closing | Unpublished | One time | Unpublished | Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). |
| Transfer, estoppel and resale certificate | Unpublished (estoppel fees are capped by section 720.30851, Florida Statutes) | At sale | Unpublished | Florida Statutes, section 720.30851 |
| Owner’s title policy | In Charlotte County the seller customarily pays; the contract controls | At sale | Title insurance | County custom |
| Homeowners and flood insurance | Unpublished (no quotes) | Annual | Wind, flood, liability | Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). |
Read three things before you use the table. First, fiscal year 2027, October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027, is the district’s adopted budget and the first year it levies assessments on homesites; earlier years were funded by the landowner (Starling CDD, FY2027 adopted budget; Starling CDD, FY2026 adopted budget). That is why a buyer who closed in 2025 may not have seen a district charge yet. It is not a sign the charge will stay at zero.
Second, the debt part may already be prepaid on some Phase 1 homes. The methodology’s intent is a plan, not a record of payment, and only a district estoppel letter settles it for a specific home (Starling CDD, Final Supplemental Methodology, November 5, 2025 agenda).
Third, the billing route. The 2027 budget expects to bill the assessment directly, and the district’s notice says some developed homes may see it on the county tax bill instead (Starling CDD, August 5, 2026 agenda). Check the tax bill and ask the district manager. Class labels follow the district’s assessment roll, not a builder’s plan name, and the class that applies to your homesite has to come from the district or from the builder’s disclosure, in writing.
Behind the debt service lines sits the district’s one bond issue: $12,530,000 Series 2025 Special Assessment Revenue Bonds, closed November 7, 2025, with coupons of 4.500 percent on the 2027 to 2035 maturities, 5.375 percent on 2036 to 2045 and 5.600 percent on 2046 to 2056, and a final principal payment on May 1, 2056 (Starling CDD, January 7, 2026 agenda). A Notice of Series 2025 Assessments is recorded in the Charlotte County Official Records. The next section explains what that debt means for one homesite.
The county’s 2025 final rates for tax district 121 total 15.0855 mills. A mill is $1 per $1,000 of taxable value, so 15.0855 mills is $1,508.55 per $100,000 of taxable value before any non-ad valorem lines. That is our arithmetic. Taxable value for a given home depends on its assessed value and on exemptions such as homestead, which we cannot know for your parcel. For 2026, the published proposed rates for district 121 sum to 15.4046 mills, and the final rate was not posted when we checked. We did not see a tax bill for a Starling home, so we show no bill illustration. Our property tax section below explains how the bill resets after a sale.
The sketch below is arithmetic on published figures, not an estimate for any home. It assumes a $540,000 price, a round figure near the 12-month recorded median of $540,850, used here only as an illustration, with taxable value equal to the price. The district line is the 52-foot class for fiscal year 2027, before any prepayment.
| Piece | Annual | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| County tax at 15.0855 mills on $540,000 | About $8,146 | About $679 |
| Starling district, 52-foot homesite, FY2027, debt not prepaid | $1,275.68 | About $106 |
| Starling district, operations only, if the debt was prepaid | $111.70 | About $9 |
| County fire rescue and solid waste MSBUs | $630.41 | About $53 |
| Association estimate (draft bond document) | $4,459 to $4,699 | Not divided; the figure is an annual estimate, not a bill |
Source: our arithmetic on the district’s fiscal year 2027 budget, the county’s 2025 final rate chart and the county’s MSBU records. Homeowners and flood insurance are not in the rows, because we obtained no quotes, and a homestead exemption or a different taxable value would change the tax line. Your lender’s rate sets the principal and interest. We build the full monthly number from the lender’s quote and the association’s adopted budget for each address.
The point of the sketch is its shape. Across the three classes, the district alone adds roughly $88 to $125 a month in fiscal year 2027 if the debt was not prepaid, and about $9 a month if it was. On the same home, that is the difference a single estoppel letter decides, which is why we read it before we tour.
The Starling CDD assessment is the annual charge the Starling Community Development District bills to every Esplanade at Starling homesite, split into operations and Series 2025 debt service. For fiscal year 2027 it runs $1,051.83 to $1,499.52 by class, and the developer intends to prepay the debt part on Phase 1 homes at closing, which only an estoppel letter confirms.
Data updated: October 2026 (Starling Community Development District Ordinance No. 2024-007, fiscal year 2027 adopted budget, Final Supplemental Methodology of November 5, 2025, agenda packages of May 1, 2024, August 15, 2025, January 7, 2026 and August 5, 2026, FAQ and About pages; read October 2, 2026).
A community development district is a local unit of special-purpose government under Chapter 190 of the Florida Statutes (Florida Statutes, Chapter 190). It borrows money with bonds to build infrastructure, repays those bonds through annual assessments on the lots it serves, and levies an operating assessment to run itself. Charlotte County established the Starling district by Ordinance No. 2024-007 in March 2024, after a public hearing on March 26, 2024, covering 296.63 acres, and Wrathell, Hunt and Associates manages it (Starling CDD, Ordinance 2024-007; Starling CDD, About). Its fiscal year runs October 1 to September 30.
The district finances stormwater, water and sewer, not the roads or the amenities (Starling CDD, May 1, 2024 agenda, Master Engineer’s Report). Its capital plan covers earthwork for stormwater, the stormwater system, potable water and sewer lines, perimeter walls, perimeter landscaping, environmental mitigation and off-site road work on Burnt Store Road. The district will own and maintain the stormwater system, and the water and sewer lines are dedicated to Charlotte County Utilities, which operates them. The district has the legal power to fund recreation and security, but its plan and budget do not include the amenity center.
| District class | FY2027 operations | FY2027 Series 2025 debt service | FY2027 total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 42-foot homesite | $111.70 | $940.13 | $1,051.83 |
| 52-foot homesite | $111.70 | $1,163.97 | $1,275.68 |
| 62-foot homesite | $111.70 | $1,387.82 | $1,499.52 |
Source: Starling CDD, FY2027 adopted budget. Totals as printed in the budget; the 52-foot total is one cent above the sum of its two parts because of rounding in the source.
In every class the operations charge is the same, and the debt service is what changes. On a 52-foot homesite, $1,163.97 of the $1,275.68 is debt service, about 91 percent (our arithmetic). That is why the prepayment question matters more here than in most districts: if the debt on a given home was prepaid at the first closing, almost all of the bill disappears for that home, and if it was not, the owner pays it every year until 2056 or until a payoff.
The fiscal 2026 budget was funded entirely by a landowner contribution, and the fiscal 2027 budget’s comparison column shows no per-unit assessment for the prior year (Starling CDD, FY2026 adopted budget). The board adopted the fiscal 2027 budget at a public hearing on August 5, 2026 (Starling CDD, August 5, 2026 agenda). The fiscal 2027 operating budget is administrative: management, legal, engineering, audit, trustee, insurance and similar lines. It has no amenity, pool or clubhouse line. As the district takes on more of the stormwater system and more homes close, the operating side can change from year to year.
The district’s final methodology says the developer “currently intends to fully prepay” the Series 2025 assessments on Phase 1 homes at closing with a retail buyer (Starling CDD, Final Supplemental Methodology, November 5, 2025 agenda). If that happens on a given home, the owner pays only the operations charge, $111.70 a year under the fiscal 2027 budget, and not the debt line. An intent is not a guarantee, and Phase 1 in the district’s sense is not the same as one street. In the county’s approval, Phase 1 is the 407-lot first phase, which takes in both the 2024 plat and the 2025 replat (Charlotte County, DRC-24-171 decision letter). Ask for the estoppel letter before you sign, and ask the builder to state in the contract whether the debt assessment on your homesite will be prepaid at closing.
The same methodology notes that the developer asked the district to cap annual debt assessments at predetermined levels “to facilitate the marketing of the residential units.” It is one reason the debt figures above are set by class rather than recalculated from scratch each year.
An owner may prepay the debt assessment on a homesite. Prepayment is allowed under the district’s methodology, and the payoff amount for a specific home comes from the district manager, Wrathell, Hunt and Associates, in a written letter. We print no payoff figure for any class, because only the district manager’s letter for your parcel is current. Once the debt assessment on a lot is paid in full, the annual debt charge no longer applies to that lot; the operating charge continues, because it pays for running the district every year. Whether prepaying makes sense depends on how long you expect to own the home, which is a question for your own adviser.
The 2027 budget books both the operations and debt levies as billed directly by the district. The district’s July 2026 notice says the Tax Collector will collect the operations assessment on “certain developed property” and the district will bill the rest directly (Starling CDD, August 5, 2026 agenda). So an owner may see the district on the county tax bill, on a district invoice, or both. This matters for two reasons. If your lender escrows taxes, a direct district bill is not in that escrow unless you add it. And if the district later moves your homesite to the tax bill, the charge does not go away; it moves.
The operations assessment is set each year in the district’s budget, so it can change. The district’s mailed notice set the operations rate at $118.83 per home including collection costs and early payment discounts, and under that notice the noticed amount becomes the maximum rate, so a new mailed notice is required if the district proposes to raise operations above it. The Series 2025 debt line follows the bond schedule set in the district’s methodology.
The district’s 2025 draft bond document says it intends to issue more bonds for later work (Starling CDD, August 15, 2025 agenda). No amount or date is set. A later series would be assessed on the land it benefits, and the methodology for any new series is adopted when it is sold. If you buy in a later phase, ask whether your homesite carries Series 2025 debt, a later series, or both. The bonds fund only the first part of the district’s plan; the developer agreed to complete the rest under a separate completion agreement approved in November 2025 (Starling CDD, minutes of November 5, 2025).
The district has five supervisors, and every one is a Taylor Morrison employee (Starling CDD, minutes of May 1, 2024). A landowners’ election for Seats 3, 4 and 5 is set for November 3, 2026, at 26601 Dove Drive, and in a landowners’ election votes are cast one per acre. The district’s FAQ explains when that changes: after the sixth year and once the district has 250 qualified electors, the seats whose terms are expiring are filled by qualified electors, meaning voters who live in the district (Starling CDD, FAQs). We do not name supervisors on this page.
District meetings are held at 26601 Dove Drive, the same address as Taylor Morrison’s sales center (Starling Community Development District). Any owner or buyer can attend and read the agenda package in advance; packages are where budgets, assessment notices, bond documents and maintenance agreements appear first. Minutes of the August 5, 2026 hearing had not been posted when we checked. The district states that audited financial reports are not yet required (Starling CDD, Required Reporting of Information).
Starling Homeowners Association, Inc. is the one association for every Esplanade at Starling homesite, filed in June 2024, active and still under developer control. Its fee is a developer-furnished estimate in a draft bond document, and the recorded Declaration, which controls the dues and the rules on rentals, pets, vehicles, age and resales, was not available to us.
Data updated: October 2026 (Florida Division of Corporations records read October 2, 2026; Starling Community Development District agenda packages of May 1, 2024 and August 15, 2025 and minutes of May 1, 2024; Florida Statutes 720.307 and 720.401).
The association is Starling Homeowners Association, Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation, document number N24000006543, filed in June 2024 and active on the state record as of October 2, 2026 (Florida Division of Corporations, Starling Homeowners Association, Inc.). We do not print its officers, the firm named to receive legal papers or its management company. Those change, and the state record is the place to read them on the day you need them.
The association’s officers on the state record also sit on the district board, whose members are Taylor Morrison employees; no turnover date was found. That is normal in a new Florida community. Chapter 720 of the Florida Statutes sets when members must be allowed to elect directors, and the recorded Declaration sets the details for a specific community (Florida Statutes, section 720.307). Until turnover, the developer’s appointees adopt the budget, set the dues and enforce the rules, so read the budget the association has adopted for the current year.
The district’s draft 2025 bond offering document, using figures furnished by the developer, estimates association fees of $4,459 to $4,699 a year including lawn maintenance, subject to change, and applies the estimate “for all product types” (Starling CDD, August 15, 2025 agenda). The association’s adopted budget was not available to us. Treat the range as an estimate from an offering document, not a bill. Other figures for association dues appear in marketing tools, and we do not print them, because only figures that trace to an adopted budget, a district record or a county record appear on this page. Ask the builder or the title agent for the association’s current adopted budget and the fee for your homesite before you sign.
The only published description is the draft bond document’s, which says the estimate includes lawn maintenance. The association owns the private internal roads, and the district’s records say the amenities will be conveyed to it, so its budget will carry their upkeep once that happens (Starling CDD, May 1, 2024 agenda, Master Engineer’s Report). Private roads behind a gate mean repaving, signs and gate equipment are association costs, paid through dues. When you read the adopted budget, look for a road reserve, the lawn service line and the amenity operating lines.
The recorded Declaration for Starling was not available to us; it controls rentals, pets, vehicles, age rules and resale. We could not retrieve it, the bylaws or the rules from the public record, so we cannot tell you what they say about leasing minimums, short-term rentals, pet limits, boats and trailers, commercial vehicles, golf carts, signs, fences, architectural review or any approval needed to sell. Where a reader would expect a rule, we use this line: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). The Declaration is recorded in the Charlotte County Official Records, and a disclosure summary about the association belongs in your hands before you sign (Florida Statutes, section 720.401).
Yes. Esplanade at Starling is gated (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026), and the county’s site plan conditions require gate arms with an emergency EVAC system (Charlotte County, DRC-24-156 decision letter). The district’s engineer notes that “certain roadways will be gated” and that landscaping behind gated roads is privately installed and maintained. Gate hours, staffing and guest procedures are association rules. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02).
| Layer | Who it is | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| County | Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners | Zoning, plats, permits, county taxes and service assessments |
| District | Starling Community Development District, five supervisors, managed by Wrathell, Hunt and Associates | Stormwater system, district debt, the district assessment by homesite class |
| Association | Starling Homeowners Association, Inc., developer-appointed directors | Private roads, common areas, gate, amenities once conveyed, lawn care, rules under the Declaration |
Sources: Ordinance 2021-036; Starling Community Development District; Florida Division of Corporations.
For an owner, a lake, a road or a streetlight may belong to the district, the association or the county, depending on the tract. The title commitment and the recorded plat for your homesite answer it.
No. Esplanade at Starling has no sub-community with its own association, plat family or rules: it is one set of Starling plats, one homeowners association and one Starling district. Taylor Morrison’s 42, 52 and 62 Collections, the streets and the phases are places to know inside it, and crossing between them does not change who governs you.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County GIS subdivision and ownership layers; Florida Division of Corporations; Starling Community Development District Final Supplemental Methodology; Charlotte County Property Appraiser public roll files, our analysis; builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
Every Esplanade at Starling homesite we found sits on one of the Starling plats, inside one planned development, one homeowners association and one community development district. The property appraiser does not split Starling into smaller neighborhoods either; every parcel carries the same market area and neighborhood code. We searched the state’s corporate records for any other association tied to this community and found none (Florida Division of Corporations, name search for Esplanade at Starling). A later filing could change that, so confirm with the builder which association governs a specific homesite.
A 42 Collection home on Lark Court and a 62 Collection home on Brent Lane belong to the same association, pay the same district operations charge and share the same gate and amenity center. What differs is the plan, the homesite and the district debt class. Collection names describe homes, not places with their own rules, and Taylor Morrison does not market named villages or enclaves here.
Phase 1, Replat 1 and Replat 2 are plats recorded in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and Phase 2 is an approved site plan. They share the association, the district, the gate and the amenity center. Phase does matter in one way: the district’s methodology ties the developer’s prepayment intent to Phase 1, so ask which phase your homesite is in for the district’s purposes, and get the estoppel letter.
The 42-foot, 52-foot and 62-foot classes describe how a homesite is billed, not where it is. Two neighbors on the same street could sit in different classes, and two neighbors in the same class could carry different debt if one home’s debt was prepaid and the other’s was not. That is why the class and the prepayment status for your homesite have to come in writing.
Turnleaf, directly north, is a separate master plan with its own district, the Coral Creek CDD, its own association and its own planned amenity center (our Turnleaf guide). Esplanade at Starling’s clubhouse is not part of it, and Turnleaf’s amenities are not part of Esplanade at Starling. Heritage Landing Golf and Country Club across Burnt Store Road, Willow to the northeast and Coral Lakes to the north each have their own district, and none shares Esplanade at Starling’s association, gate, amenities or fees.
An Esplanade at Starling buyer should receive the association’s statutory disclosure summary before signing the contract, because Starling Homeowners Association, Inc. governs every homesite. Florida’s property tax disclosure belongs in the contract too, a seller’s flood disclosure is due at or before the contract on a resale, and the estoppel certificate follows once a resale contract is signed.
Data updated: October 2026 (Florida Statutes 720.401, 720.30851, 689.261, 689.302 and Chapter 190; Florida Division of Corporations record N24000006543; read October 2, 2026).
Section 720.401 of the Florida Statutes requires a prospective owner in a mandatory homeowners association community to receive a disclosure summary before signing the contract (Florida Statutes, s. 720.401). On the terms as we read them:
The section does not reach condominium or cooperative associations under other chapters. Ask the closing agent to confirm which disclosures apply to your specific purchase.
Because Esplanade at Starling sits inside the Starling Community Development District, section 190.048 of the Florida Statutes requires each contract for the initial sale of a parcel or residential unit in the district to carry, immediately before the buyer’s signature and in bold type larger than the rest of the contract, a statement that the district may impose and levy taxes or assessments on the property (Florida Statutes, section 190.048). A Taylor Morrison contract is an initial sale, so look for that statement above your signature line; on a resale the statutory wording does not have to carry over. Either way, ask the title or closing agent to confirm the district notice for your contract, and read the district’s own assessment figure for your homesite class, and its prepayment status, before you sign.
On a resale, order the association’s estoppel certificate the day the contract is signed. Under Fla. Stat. 720.30851 the association must deliver it within 10 business days of the request, it is effective for 30 days (35 days if mailed), and a buyer or lender who relies on it in good faith is protected. The statutory form asks about any capital contribution, any resale or transfer fees, open violations, whether the board must approve a transfer and any right of first refusal. The statute caps what an association may charge for the certificate. The Starling association’s own certificate fee, transfer fee and any capital contribution: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). Separately, ask the district manager for a district estoppel letter on every purchase, new or resale, because it is the only document that shows whether the Series 2025 debt on that home was prepaid.
Florida also requires a property tax disclosure summary before you sign, warning you not to rely on the seller’s current taxes (Fla. Stat. 689.261). Separately, Fla. Stat. 689.302 requires a seller of residential real property to complete a flood disclosure and give it to the buyer at or before the time the contract is signed. On a first sale of a home nobody has lived in, the flood disclosure has little history to report, and the lot’s map and elevation file matter more.
In Esplanade at Starling the choice today is mostly between Taylor Morrison homes, because every recorded sale in the last 12 months was a builder’s first sale. Choose new construction for a current-code house, a builder warranty and a plan you pick; a resale, when one comes, offers a finished home you can inspect.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public roll and sales files, our analysis, sales recorded September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026; builder marketing seen October 2, 2026; Florida Statutes 501.1375 and 553.837; Citizens Property Insurance guidance).
All 36 of the 48 recorded sales that carry a year built are 2025 homes, and every home on the roll with a year built is dated 2025. No Esplanade at Starling home has a second recorded sale yet, so the record is the builder closing new homes, not owners reselling them (our analysis). We therefore print no resale-versus-builder comparison, and we do not connect the 13 recorded sales between $300,000 and $399,999 to any plan’s advertised base price, because no county field records which plan or collection a sale was.
A new home is permitted under a recent building code and today’s floodplain rules, carries new systems and comes with a builder warranty. Florida law requires a builder to warrant a newly constructed home for one year against construction defects that result in a material violation of the Florida Building Code, and the builder must honor that full one-year period even if the home is sold (Florida Statutes, s. 553.837). A builder’s express written warranty can take its place if it meets the statute’s terms, including automatic transfer during at least the first year. Taylor Morrison’s warranty document for Esplanade at Starling: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). Citizens Property Insurance says a home may qualify for roof credits due to the year built, though opening protection credits need a completed wind mitigation inspection form (Citizens Property Insurance, FAQ answer 3534). A new build may also sit beside homesites that will be built on for years.
A resale, when one comes to market, gives you a home you can inspect as it stands, a seller’s disclosures, an association estoppel certificate that states what is owed, a district estoppel letter that shows whether the debt was prepaid, and sometimes upgrades the builder charges for, such as a screened lanai, window treatments and landscaping that has grown in. It also gives you something no new contract can: a year or more of real association and district bills to read. The trade-off is that you buy the existing house with whatever the first owner chose, and the builder’s warranty may have started running from the first closing. Ask the seller for the warranty paperwork and the date it began.
A resale buyer and a new-home buyer join the same association under the same recorded Declaration, pay the same district operations charge, sit behind the same gate and read the same flood map. The tax bill resets for both, because a sale ends the previous owner’s assessed value. What can differ is the district debt line, if the first owner’s closing prepaid it, and who holds the contract and what you can negotiate.
Florida protects a new-construction deposit in escrow only up to 10 percent of the price under Fla. Stat. 501.1375, and the buyer can waive even that in writing. Read the builder’s contract for who holds the deposit, when it is released to the builder and what it can be spent on, and never sign a builder’s contract that waives the escrow without reading what the deposit pays for. Have an independent inspector look at the house before the closing.
Yes. An Esplanade at Starling buyer can work with their own agent when buying from Taylor Morrison, and the time to bring the agent in is before the first visit to the sales center on Dove Drive. Taylor Morrison’s sales team represents Taylor Morrison, and the builder handles buyer representation under its own terms, which we did not read.
Data updated: October 2026 (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026; National Association of Realtors practice changes; Fla. Stat. 475.278).
In a single-builder community, a buyer can easily meet the builder before meeting an agent: a website sign-up, a call from a sales counselor or a walk through the model row. Some builders tie buyer-agent compensation to putting the agent on record at the buyer’s first contact. We did not read Taylor Morrison’s buyer-agent terms, so we state no builder’s rule. What we tell every Esplanade at Starling buyer is simple: tell the sales center at your first visit that you are working with a realtor, and ask for its policy on buyer representation in writing.
The sales counselor at the model works for Taylor Morrison. That person can explain the plans, the homesites, the options and the schedule. The counselor is not there to compare the builder’s price with a recorded sale two streets away, to tell you the district estoppel letter is a question worth asking, or to read the Declaration with you. A buyer’s agent works for you, and in a Florida transaction the relationship you sign decides what duties the agent owes, which the compensation section below explains.
Whether a builder pays a buyer’s agent, and on what terms, is set by the builder and by your written agreement with your agent. Since August 17, 2024, an agent who is an MLS participant must have a buyer sign a written agreement before they tour a home together, and that agreement must state compensation that is specific and fully negotiable. Read our compensation section below, then read how we represent buyers or call Marc at (239) 287-5873 before you walk the model row.
Our guide to new construction in Punta Gorda walks through builder contracts, homesite contracts and what to inspect across the city, and the principles in it apply in Esplanade at Starling as they do anywhere.
An Esplanade at Starling builder contract should state the price and what it includes, the Starling district class for your homesite and whether its Series 2025 debt will be prepaid at closing, the deposit terms, the schedule, the warranty and what is promised about the amenities and neighboring construction. Read it against the Declaration before you sign.
Data updated: October 2026 (Starling CDD fiscal year 2027 adopted budget and Final Supplemental Methodology; Charlotte County DRC-24-156 decision letter; Fla. Stat. 501.1375 and 553.837; read October 2, 2026).
This is a checklist of questions, not legal advice. A builder’s contract is the builder’s form, and a real estate attorney can tell you what its clauses mean in Florida. We do not state what Taylor Morrison’s contract contains, because we did not read it.
Florida limits how much of a new-construction deposit the law protects in escrow, as covered above under Fla. Stat. 501.1375, and a buyer can waive it in writing. Ask who holds the deposit, when it is released to the builder, what it can be spent on, and what you recover if the builder cannot deliver or you terminate under a contract right.
The contract should attach the plan set and a specification sheet that names the roof covering, the windows, the exterior doors and the garage door. We found no builder specification sheet that lists the roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connections, secondary water barrier or opening protection for Esplanade at Starling homes. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). Ask for the product approval numbers, the impact ratings and the signed plan set for your homesite, because the design wind speed and the opening protection are printed there. If gas matters to you, ask which appliances are plumbed for it; Taylor Morrison markets the community as served by natural gas (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
The county approved the Starling Amenity Center on about 6.8 acres: “a clubhouse, Bahama bar, pool, tennis court, pickle ball courts, bocce ball courts, mail kiosk, community garden, large dog park, and small dog park” (Charlotte County, DRC-24-156 decision letter). As of October 2, 2026, Taylor Morrison lists the pool as coming soon, the Bahama Bar as planned and The Venue clubhouse as slated to open in early 2027 (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). A contract that mentions amenities should say what is promised, by whom and by when, and if the clubhouse matters to your decision, ask for its status in writing.
Ask for the builder’s written warranty before you sign. Ask what it covers, for how long, when the clock starts, how you submit a claim and what the builder’s process is for fixing defects. Ask whether it transfers to a later owner, and how it relates to the one-year statutory warranty under section 553.837. If a third party insures the warranty, ask for the insurer’s name and the policy terms.
Look for any clause that sends disputes to arbitration, limits what you can recover, requires you to waive rights or lets the builder substitute materials. A real estate attorney can tell you what each means in Florida.
We read your builder’s contract with you against this checklist, mark every blank that the district budget, the estoppel letter, the Declaration or the flood file should fill, and tell you which points we would negotiate. We cannot tell you what a contract’s legal effect is, and we say when a question belongs to your attorney.
You should inspect a new Esplanade at Starling home at three points: before the walls close, at the final walk-through, and before your warranty’s first coverage period ends. A new house still has defects, and an independent inspector who works for you finds what a builder may miss.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County elevation certificate guidance; Florida Office of Insurance Regulation wind mitigation resources; Citizens Property Insurance Wind Loss Mitigation Guide, Rev. 04/26; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer; Charlotte County GIS; read October 2, 2026).
A builder’s own quality checks and the county’s permit inspections are not a substitute for an inspector who reports to you. A county inspection confirms a house meets code at a stage. It does not tell you whether the caulk is finished, the garage floor slopes to the door or the air handler is accessible. An independent inspection is paid for by you and works for you.
If the builder allows it, an inspection before the walls close lets an inspector see framing, wiring, plumbing and the connections that hold the roof to the walls. Ask the builder whether you may schedule one and what access rules apply inside the gate, and put the answer in writing. On a finished home the walls are already closed, so ask for the permit file and any photos the builder took at framing.
Walk the house with the builder’s representative and your inspector before you close. Check every window and door, every outlet and switch, the garage door, the air conditioning and the water heater, and any gas appliances. Test the plumbing, run the appliances and look at the lot grading, the swales and the lake edge. Write every defect on a list the builder signs, and ask how and when each will be fixed. Do not close on a promise you cannot enforce.
A wind mitigation inspection documents the roof covering, roof deck attachment, roof to wall connection, roof shape, secondary water resistance and opening protection on a state form. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation says a completed form is valid for up to five years and that a new version takes effect April 1, 2026 (Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, wind mitigation resources). Citizens’ Wind Loss Mitigation Guide says the form may not be required for a structure built to the Florida Building Code on or after January 1, 2002 with no extra mitigation features, and that it is required when built features exceed the code and credits are requested (Citizens, Wind Loss Mitigation Guide, Rev. 04/26). If a builder says a home earns a credit, ask for the form that documents it.
Charlotte County says an under-construction elevation certificate is due before the lintel pour and a final certificate before the final inspection (Charlotte County, elevation certificates). The county’s elevation certificate layer returned no records inside the Starling plats when we checked, and we found no elevation certificate for a Starling address in the public records we searched (Charlotte County GIS, elevation certificate layer). Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). The county’s flood portal holds certificates as they are filed (Charlotte County, Forerunner flood portal). Ask the builder for the certificate for your home, and ask when it will be available.
Walk the homesite after a heavy rain if you can. Look at where water goes from the roof and the driveway, how the lot sits against its neighbors and what is at the rear edge. Many homesites back onto stormwater lakes the district owns and maintains, and the district’s engineer notes that the capital plan includes no private earthwork, so grading each lot is the builder’s work, not the district’s (Starling Community Development District, Master Engineer’s Report, May 1, 2024 agenda). Ask who manages the lake behind your homesite and what the grading plan shows.
A home inspection is a visual review. It does not tell you your flood zone, your insurance premium, your district class, whether the debt was prepaid or the Declaration’s rules, and it cannot see inside walls that are closed. Use it with the documents in this guide, not in place of them.
Keep a written list of anything that shows up in the first months, and submit warranty claims in the way the warranty says to. Ask the builder when the warranty clock starts and whether there is a follow-up inspection before it ends. Book a final inspection before the first coverage period runs out, and report any defect in writing before the deadline.
Esplanade at Starling’s amenity program, as Charlotte County approved it in 2025, is a clubhouse, Bahama bar, pool, a tennis court, pickleball and bocce courts, a garden and two dog parks on about 6.8 acres. As of October 2, 2026, the builder lists the dog park, tennis and pickleball as open and The Venue clubhouse as slated for early 2027.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County DRC-24-156 decision letter of March 3, 2025; Charlotte County Ordinance 2021-036; Starling Community Development District Master Engineer’s Report, FY2027 budget and 2025 draft bond document; Taylor Morrison builder marketing seen October 2, 2026; Safe Harbor Marinas; Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission).
The county’s decision letter of March 3, 2025 approved the Starling Amenity Center on about 6.8 acres: “a clubhouse, Bahama bar, pool, tennis court, pickle ball courts, bocce ball courts, mail kiosk, community garden, large dog park, and small dog park” (Charlotte County, DRC-24-156 decision letter). Its conditions require hydrants within reach of each building, clear fire access roads, adherence to the Native Habitat Management Plan, and gate arms with an emergency EVAC system. The letter names one tennis court and gives no number of pickleball or bocce courts and no clubhouse size, so we print none.
| Amenity | In the county approval | Builder status, seen October 2, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Dog park (large and small) | Yes | Open |
| Tennis | Yes, one tennis court | Open |
| Pickleball courts | Yes | Open |
| Bocce courts | Yes | Listed among planned amenities |
| Resort-style pool | Yes | Coming soon |
| Bahama Bar | Yes, “Bahama bar” | Planned |
| Clubhouse (The Venue) | Yes, “a clubhouse” | Slated to open in early 2027 |
| Spa treatment room | Inside The Venue (builder) | Part of The Venue, slated to open in early 2027 |
| Mail kiosk | Yes | No status given |
| Community garden | Yes | No status given |
Sources: Charlotte County, DRC-24-156 decision letter; Taylor Morrison, builder marketing seen October 2, 2026.
“Open” and “coming soon” are the builder’s badges, not county certificates. We found no county record of completion or an opening date for any of these items, and the builder gives a target date only for The Venue. Before you rely on an amenity, ask Taylor Morrison in writing what is finished, what residents can use today and when the rest will open.
The county calls the project the Starling Amenity Center, and Taylor Morrison calls the clubhouse building The Venue. They are the same amenity site. The builder describes The Venue with a lifestyle room, catering kitchen, fitness center, spa treatment room and outdoor terrace, and adds poolside cabanas, signature spa services and fire-side seating to its planned list (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). We print these as builder marketing. If a feature matters to your decision, ask for it to be shown on an approved site plan or building permit.
Taylor Morrison markets its Esplanade lifestyle programs here, including an on-site lifestyle manager (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). Those programs are brand-wide, and their schedule, cost and continuation after the association takes over are not in any record we read. Who employs the lifestyle manager: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02).
The developer is funding the amenities, and the district’s records say they will be conveyed to the association; no deed has been recorded (Starling CDD, August 15, 2025 agenda). The engineer’s report says the amenity facilities are not part of the district’s capital plan, and the district’s fiscal 2027 budget has no amenity line. No separate club membership or club dues appear in any record we read. Once the amenities are conveyed, their running costs will sit inside the association’s budget, which is why the adopted association budget is the most important document for any buyer weighing the amenity program.
The zoning requires the clubhouse to be built to the county’s highest wind loads and to serve as a post-storm refuge for residents, though not for all of them at once (Charlotte County, Ordinance 2021-036, PD-21-00010). A refuge after a storm is not a public storm shelter, and the building is slated to open in early 2027, so it is not available for the 2026 season. Charlotte County Emergency Management issues the shelter list for each storm.
The concept plan approval describes a “private amenity center” (Charlotte County, DRC-21-00059 decision letter). Hours, guest policy, renter access, reservations and any use fee are association rules under the Declaration. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02).
Esplanade at Starling has no golf course, marina or boat ramp of its own, and its lakes are stormwater lakes the district will own and maintain. The nearest golf is Heritage Landing Golf and Country Club across Burnt Store Road, inside the Heritage Landing community; we did not confirm access terms for non-members. The nearest full-service marina is Safe Harbor Burnt Store, in Lee County with a Punta Gorda address, about 7 road miles south; the operator lists wet slips for boats of 30 to 100 feet and dry storage for boats of 20 to 40 feet (Safe Harbor Marinas, Safe Harbor Burnt Store). For trailered boats, the state’s boating guide lists Laishley Park and Ponce de Leon Park in Punta Gorda as public ramps with no fee (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Charlotte Harbor boat ramps).
The lakes in Esplanade at Starling are stormwater lakes, part of a system the district finances, owns, operates and maintains. Rules on their use, including fishing, paddling or swimming, were not available. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). Lake views are a feature of some homesites, not a boating amenity.
Every lot on the Esplanade at Starling plats is in FEMA flood zone D on the current map, panel 12015C0409G, effective December 15, 2022. Zone D is not a Special Flood Hazard Area on that map, and the map gives no Base Flood Elevation. All 457 parcel centers test Zone D, and no FEMA revision covers any Starling lot.
Data updated: October 2026 (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer flood hazard zone, FIRM panel, LOMR and LOMA layers; Charlotte County GIS flood map layers; Charlotte County flood information page; FEMA FloodSmart; all queried or read October 2, 2026).
A flood map is a set of polygons, and the right test of a lot is the lot against the map. We queried FEMA’s current layer at the center of every one of the 457 parcels on the Starling plats, and we queried FEMA directly at twelve points spread across both plats, one per street plus the two edges. All counts are our analysis of the FEMA layer. These are map overlays, not flood determinations: a lender’s flood determination or an elevation certificate governs any individual property.
One FEMA flood insurance rate map panel covers the whole community: 12015C0409G, dated December 15, 2022, for Charlotte County unincorporated areas, FEMA community number 120061 (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, FIRM panels layer). Every parcel center returned Zone D. 456 fall in one large Zone D area that covers a wide stretch of land east of Burnt Store Road, well beyond the community, and one common tract on the north edge falls in a separate Zone D area inside the footprint of Turnleaf’s 2026 map revision (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, flood hazard zones; our analysis). On FEMA’s own attributes the Zone D area is flagged as not a Special Flood Hazard Area, and its Base Flood Elevation field is empty.
| Location | Parcel type | FEMA zone | Base Flood Elevation | FIRM panel and effective date | FEMA map revision at the point | County evacuation zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunlin Avenue | Built home | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | D |
| Dove Drive | Home with a 2026 recorded sale | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | D |
| Victoria Place | Built home | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | D |
| Lark Court | Built home | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | D |
| Robin Avenue | Built home | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | D |
| Brent Lane | Home with a 2026 recorded sale | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | D |
| Argus Place | Homesite with a 2026 recorded sale | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | D |
| Blue Court | Homesite, no year built on the roll | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | C |
| Arbor Circle | Homesite, no year built on the roll | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | C |
| Adelie Way | Homesite, no year built on the roll | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | C |
| Burnt Store Road frontage | Stormwater lake tract | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | None | C |
| North edge | Common tract | D | None | 12015C0409G, Dec 15, 2022 | 25-04-4878P (Turnleaf), zone unchanged at the point | C |
Sources: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, flood hazard zones, FIRM panels and LOMRs; Charlotte County GIS, layer 34; one point query per location, October 2, 2026, our analysis.
Across both plats, from the built east side to the replat streets on the west side and the Burnt Store Road frontage, the FEMA answer is the same. The evacuation letter is the column that changes, and the hurricane section explains it.
The Zone D answer is not new. Charlotte County keeps copies of earlier FEMA maps in its GIS, and every one we checked shows the same land as Zone D: the older D-series panels, the 0409F panel in force before December 2022, the county’s 2019 layer, the 2022 layer and the county’s copy of the preliminary FEMA layer (Charlotte County GIS, FEMA map layers). So any flyer, appraisal or quote printed for an Esplanade at Starling home in the last several years should show Zone D. If a document shows a different letter for a Starling lot, ask where it came from.
Zone D on this panel settles two things and leaves a third open. It settles that the land is not mapped as a Special Flood Hazard Area, the high-risk category whose zones start with A or V. And it settles that the map gives no Base Flood Elevation, the flood height that drives building elevation rules and flood rating in mapped high-risk zones. What it leaves open is the hazard itself. Charlotte County’s flood page describes the high-risk category as areas with a 1 percent annual chance of flooding where “Flood insurance is mandatory for federally backed mortgages,” zones that “start with the letter A or the letter V” (Charlotte County, Flood Information). Zone D is outside that category on this map, but the map gives no flood elevation for it, so a buyer should not read Zone D as a statement about how much water a lot could see. FEMA’s legend wording for Zone D on panel 12015C0409G: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02).
FEMA’s map tells you what zone a piece of ground is in. A lender’s decision rests on a Standard Flood Hazard Determination for the building’s location, and for flood rating the house’s own elevation matters. The elevation certificate records the lowest floor against the relevant flood reference. FEMA notes that “Elevation certificates aren’t required to get flood insurance, but they can help you pay less” (FEMA FloodSmart, flood insurance cost). FEMA’s letter-of-map-amendment layer returned no case anywhere inside the Starling plats (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, LOMA layer).
The county’s 2022 FEMA layer reads “Outside of CBRA Zone” at the Starling sample points, so the community is not in a mapped Coastal Barrier Resources System unit on that layer (Charlotte County GIS, FEMA 2022 layer). That matters because federal flood insurance is restricted for new construction inside those units.
FEMA states the federal rule plainly: “If you own a property in a high-risk zone and have a government-backed mortgage, you must purchase flood insurance” (FEMA FloodSmart, What Is My Flood Risk). Esplanade at Starling’s lots are Zone D, so the federal mandate does not apply by zone alone. A lender can still require flood coverage: FEMA says “Some banks require flood insurance even if you don’t live in a high-risk area” (FEMA FloodSmart, eligibility). FEMA also reports that from 2014 to 2024, “nearly one-third of NFIP claims came from outside high-risk flood areas.” Citizens Property Insurance has its own flood rule, covered in the insurance section.
The Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS contract advises the buyer to verify the flood zone by elevation certificate, and gives the buyer a termination right tied to a property in a Special Flood Hazard Area whose lowest floor is below the minimum elevation or that is ineligible for flood coverage. Zone D is not a Special Flood Hazard Area on the current map, so read that clause with your closing agent. A builder’s own contract may not carry the clause at all, which is one more reason to read it. On a resale, the seller’s written flood disclosure under Fla. Stat. 689.302 is due at or before the contract.
Turnleaf’s 2026 flood map revision does not change any Esplanade at Starling lot. FEMA’s Letter of Map Revision 25-04-4878P, “Turnleaf Phase 1 As-Built,” effective May 27, 2026, re-mapped the community next door from Zone D, and its footprint touches only one common tract on Starling’s north edge, which stays Zone D.
Data updated: October 2026 (FEMA Letter of Map Revision 25-04-4878P determination document; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer LOMR and LOMA layers; Starling Community Development District Master Engineer’s Report; our Turnleaf guide; read October 2, 2026).
FEMA issued the revision on January 7, 2026, and it took effect on May 27, 2026, following an earlier conditional case, 24-04-5164R. It rests on a culvert, excavation and a retention basin, with a one-dimensional hydraulic analysis, a hydrologic analysis and updated topographic data, and it annotated panels 12015C0409G and 12015C0407G (FEMA, LOMR 25-04-4878P determination). In plain terms, Turnleaf’s developer built its lakes and drainage, surveyed the result, modeled how water moves through it, and FEMA re-mapped that land from the as-built record. Next door, that moved former Zone D land to zones AE and X; our Turnleaf guide explains what it did there, lot by lot.
The revision’s footprint touches only the northern edge of the Starling plat, a common tract that stays Zone D. FEMA’s letter-of-map-amendment layer returned no case anywhere inside the Starling plats, and the Starling district’s engineer’s report lists a county stormwater permit and a water management district permit but no FEMA map revision (Starling Community Development District, Master Engineer’s Report, May 1, 2024 agenda). Whether anyone will seek a revision for Starling is not stated in any record we read, and we make no prediction. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02).
If a revision were ever issued for Starling, it would not simply erase the Zone D label in a buyer’s favor. At Turnleaf, the same revision put most land in Zone X and other land, including lake areas and some homesites, in Zone AE with Base Flood Elevations. A re-map assigns zones from the modeled water; it does not promise a better or worse letter in advance. Until FEMA issues something for Starling, Zone D on panel 12015C0409G is the flood zone for every lot.
A lender determines the zone of the building that secures your loan on the map in effect, and for every Starling lot that map is panel 12015C0409G with Zone D. If a quote or a lender document for a Starling home shows Zone X or Zone AE, ask which map it used, because it may have borrowed Turnleaf’s revised zones. Ask your lender for a copy of the determination, and ask the builder for the elevation certificate.
In Esplanade at Starling, stormwater is a district system. The Starling Community Development District finances, owns, operates and maintains the lakes, pipes, inlets and control structures, under a county stormwater permit and a Southwest Florida Water Management District permit. Lot grading is the builder’s work, and lake use rules sit in the Declaration.
Data updated: October 2026 (Starling Community Development District Master Engineer’s Report, January 2024, revised April 2024, in the May 1, 2024 agenda; fiscal year 2027 adopted budget; read October 2, 2026).
The district’s engineer describes the system in these words: “The stormwater collection and outfall system are a combination of roadway curbs, curb inlets, pipe, control structures, and open lakes designed to treat and attenuate stormwater runoff from District lands.” The report adds that “The District will finance, own, operate, and maintain the stormwater system, with the exception of the inlets and storm sewer systems that may be part of dedicated rights-of-way” (Starling CDD, May 1, 2024 agenda, Master Engineer’s Report).
The system is permitted under Charlotte County stormwater permit SWP-23-00007 and Southwest Florida Water Management District Environmental Resource Permit 43030937.004 (same report). The district’s plan also includes on-site conservation areas to offset wetland impacts, and the zoning protects on-site wetlands and upland buffers under a Native Habitat Management Plan.
The report says “No private earthwork is included in the CIP,” so the district does not pay for grading individual lots or hauling fill to them; lot grading is the builder’s work. The county’s separate South Charlotte Stormwater MSBU, $26.75 per acre for MSBU year 2027, is a county utility charge on the tax bill, not the district’s (Charlotte County MSBU records). On a 0.18-acre homesite, that works out to about $4.82 a year (our arithmetic).
The design storm, the lake control elevations, the minimum finished floor and road elevations and the receiving water for the outfall are not in any record we read. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). The water management district permit file and the county permit plans are the documents that hold them. Rules on using the lakes, such as fishing, boats or docks, would sit in the recorded Declaration, which was not available to us.
Esplanade at Starling is so new that none of its homes existed when Charley, Ian, Helene or Milton struck; every built home on the county roll dates from 2025. Charlotte County’s evacuation zones split the community two ways: all 42 built homes sit in Zone D, while most of Arbor Circle and all of Adelie Way are Zone C.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Emergency Management Know Your Zone and Storm Recovery pages; Charlotte County GIS storm surge evacuation zone and wind layers; National Hurricane Center tropical cyclone reports for Charley, Ian, Helene and Milton; Charlotte County Property Appraiser roll dated September 27, 2026; Starling Community Development District records; all read October 2, 2026).
Charlotte County sorts its land into five evacuation zones, lettered A through E and colored red, orange, yellow, green and purple (Charlotte County, Know Your Zone). Evacuation orders are issued by zone letter, so the letter for your address is the one to know. The county says “Evacuation Zones are not based solely on the elevation of your residence,” and that “Storm surge does not correlate with the category of the storm,” so residents should follow the Office of Emergency Management’s orders. An evacuation zone and a flood zone are different things: a Starling lot can carry flood zone D and evacuation zone C at the same time, and many do.
We checked the center of all 457 parcels on the Starling plats against the county’s evacuation zone layer: 239 are in Zone D and 218 in Zone C (Charlotte County GIS, storm surge evacuation zones layer; our analysis). Those parcels include homesites with no year built on the roll and common tracts, so they are not 457 homes. No parcel center falls in Zone B.
| Street | Zone C parcels | Zone D parcels |
|---|---|---|
| Arbor Circle | 144 | 8 |
| Blue Court | 32 | 35 |
| Argus Place | 14 | 22 |
| Adelie Way | 14 | 0 |
| Starling Boulevard | 1 | 2 |
| Victoria Place | 0 | 39 |
| Dove Drive | 0 | 34 |
| Dunlin Avenue | 0 | 19 |
| Lark Court | 0 | 18 |
| Robin Avenue | 0 | 15 |
| Brent Lane | 0 | 14 |
| Lake, lift station and other common tracts | 13 | 33 |
| Total parcels | 218 | 239 |
Source: Charlotte County GIS, layer 34, every parcel center tested and sample points confirmed by direct query on October 2, 2026, our analysis. Parcels are counted by the street the county roll gives them.
The split runs by side of the community. The west and northwest side, closest to Burnt Store Road, carries the Zone C parcels: most of Arbor Circle, all of Adelie Way, part of Blue Court and part of Argus Place, plus the lake tract on the Burnt Store Road frontage. The east side, where Taylor Morrison built first, is Zone D: Victoria Place, Dove Drive, Dunlin Avenue, Lark Court, Robin Avenue and Brent Lane.
The 42 homes that carry a year built on the county roll are all in Zone D. That will change as building moves west. The Replat 1 streets carry most of the Zone C parcels, and a home built on Arbor Circle or Adelie Way will usually carry a different evacuation letter from a home on Victoria Place, so two buyers inside the same gate can receive different instructions in the same storm. Blue Court alone splits 32 to 35 between the two letters. A buyer comparing two homesites should check both on the county’s Know Your Zone page.
| Storm | Date of order | What the county ordered |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane Ian | September 26, 2022 | Zone A |
| Hurricane Ian | September 27, 2022 | Zones A and B |
| Hurricane Helene | September 24, 2024 | Evacuations ordered; the county page lists no zone letters |
| Hurricane Milton | October 7, 2024 | Zones A and B |
| Hurricane Milton | October 8, 2024 | Zones A, B and C |
Source: Charlotte County, Storm Recovery. That is a county record of past orders, not a promise about the next storm. For Esplanade at Starling, it means the Zone C homesites on the west side would have been inside the second Milton order, and Zone D was not named in these orders. The county also warns that “it may not be possible to open any shelters in the County so make plans to evacuate to another area,” so plan where you would go. Charlotte County Emergency Management issues the shelter list for each storm.
The zoning allows one main entrance, from Burnt Store Road at Starling Boulevard, and an emergency-only access to the east that the district’s engineer says will connect to Green Gulf Boulevard “at a future time.” For an evacuation, that means every resident leaves by Burnt Store Road unless and until the eastern connection opens. Burnt Store Road in front of the community is four lanes, and from the Starling Boulevard end it reaches US 41 in about 4.7 road miles and I-75 at Jones Loop Road (exit 161) in about 7.8 road miles (Charlotte County, 2026 Roadway Level of Service report; OSRM, our analysis). The gate arms carry an emergency EVAC system under the county’s site plan conditions.
The National Hurricane Center’s reports describe storms at the scale of Punta Gorda and Charlotte County, not individual subdivisions.
Milton’s figure is above ground level, a depth of water on land. Ian’s Pirate Harbor reading is above mean higher high water, a tide reference. The two should not be compared number for number, and the Pirate Harbor reading is at the harbor’s edge, not on the community’s lots.
The county approved the preliminary plat for Starling on October 11, 2022, about two weeks after Ian, and the first plat recorded in August 2024 (Charlotte County, PP-22-03-09 decision letter). So no Esplanade at Starling home was standing in those storms. That cuts both ways: you are not buying a house that stood through them, and there is no storm record for these houses to point to. We found no county assessment, association notice or federal record describing conditions on the Starling land in any of the four storms, and we make no claim, positive or negative. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02).
A Florida house is designed for a wind speed set by the building code, and that speed is printed on the home’s permitted plans. Charlotte County’s public wind construction layer was compiled in April 2012 and has not been edited since, so it is not a reliable guide to the code edition that applied to a 2025 permit (Charlotte County GIS, wind construction layer). We print no design wind speed and no wind-borne debris status for Esplanade at Starling. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). The builder or the county building department can show the figures on the plan set for your home.
Ask three things in writing. Ask for the product approvals and impact ratings on the windows, doors and garage door. Ask for the permit plan set with its design wind speed. And on a resale, ask for the wind mitigation report and whether the home has ever had a storm or water claim.
Insurance on an Esplanade at Starling home is priced house by house, and no public source publishes a typical premium. The drivers are the new roof, documented wind mitigation features, the Zone D map at the building, and two Florida rules: the roof-age law and Citizens’ flood requirement, which reaches all of its personal residential policies with wind coverage from January 1, 2027.
Data updated: October 2026 (Florida Statutes 627.7011, 627.0629, 627.711, 627.351 and 215.5586; Citizens Property Insurance wind mitigation page; FEMA FloodSmart; Charlotte County Property Appraiser roll dated September 27, 2026; all read October 2, 2026).
Nobody can tell you what an Esplanade at Starling home costs to insure from the community’s name. A premium depends on the house, its construction features, its flood zone and elevation, the carrier, the year, the deductibles and your own claims history. We obtained no quotes, and no public record gives a figure for a Starling home. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). What the record shows is the structure: every home with a year built on the roll is dated 2025, so every roof is new, each home’s wind design is printed on its permit, and every lot is outside the Special Flood Hazard Area on the current map.
Florida law protects owners of newer roofs. An insurer “may not refuse to issue or refuse to renew a homeowner’s policy insuring a residential structure with a roof that is less than 15 years old solely because of the age of the roof” (Florida Statutes, section 627.7011). For Esplanade at Starling, where every roof on the roll dates from 2025 or later, that protection runs to about 2040 for the earliest roofs. The statute protects against refusal based on age alone; it does not set a price.
Residential rate filings “must include actuarially reasonable discounts, credits, or other rate differentials, or appropriate reductions in deductibles,” for construction shown to reduce windstorm loss, including roof strength, roof covering performance, roof-to-wall strength, opening protection, and window, door and skylight strength (Florida Statutes, section 627.0629). Insurers must tell policyholders about available mitigation discounts at issuance and renewal, on a uniform inspection form set by state rule (Florida Statutes, section 627.711). Citizens says documenting those features “may save you money by helping you qualify for mitigation discounts” (Citizens Property Insurance, Wind Mitigation Inspections). On a new home, schedule the inspection before you bind the policy, give the inspector the plan set and product approvals, and keep a copy.
Citizens Property Insurance now requires flood coverage on homes with a dwelling replacement cost of $400,000 or more, and from 2027 on all of its personal residential policies. The statute phases it in for homes outside the Special Flood Hazard Area by dwelling replacement cost: $600,000 or more from January 1, 2024, $500,000 or more from January 1, 2025, $400,000 or more from January 1, 2026, and “all other personal lines residential property insured by the corporation” from January 1, 2027 (Florida Statutes, section 627.351). The rule turns on replacement cost, not sale price, but the recorded prices show how many homes sit in that range: of the 48 recorded sales in the past 12 months, 32 were at $500,000 or more and 3 more were between $400,000 and $499,999 (our analysis). Ask your insurance agent for the dwelling replacement cost on any quote.
A personal residential structure in the wind-borne debris region with an insured structure value of $750,000 or more is not eligible for Citizens coverage unless it has opening protection as required under the Florida Building Code (Florida Statutes, section 627.351). Four of the 48 recorded sales were at $800,000 or more, so the rule is relevant at the top of the Esplanade at Starling market. Whether a given home was permitted inside that region is on its plan set, so a buyer of a higher-value home who may need Citizens should confirm the opening protection in writing before closing.
FEMA is direct about it: “Most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage” (FEMA FloodSmart). A National Flood Insurance Program policy for a home covers the building up to $250,000 and contents up to $100,000, and FEMA says “Three things determine your flood insurance rate: where your property is built, how it’s built and what it would cost to replace it” (FEMA FloodSmart, Buy a Policy). Private flood carriers may offer other limits.
A National Flood Insurance Program policy usually starts 30 days after purchase. FEMA says “There is no wait if you buy flood insurance while making, increasing, extending or renewing a mortgage.” For a buyer financing an Esplanade at Starling home at a builder closing, the mortgage exception usually removes the wait. For an owner who adds flood coverage later, the 30-day wait matters in hurricane season, because a policy bought when a storm is already on the map will not start in time.
The state’s My Safe Florida Home grants require a home built before January 1, 2008, so homes here do not meet that test (Florida Statutes, section 215.5586; My Safe Florida Home). The mitigation credits under section 627.0629 still apply, because they come from the insurer’s rate filing, not from a grant.
Charlotte County takes part in the National Flood Insurance Program as community 120061. The county’s current Community Rating System class and the discount it carries: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). FEMA’s community rating list is the document that states it, and the discount on any one policy depends on the policy.
We ask for binding homeowners and flood quotes before any inspection or financing contingency expires on every Esplanade at Starling home. On the Florida AS IS contract the inspection period is 15 days if the blank is left empty, and a feature an insurer will not credit is a negotiating point inside that period and a lost deposit after it. On a builder’s contract the timing is the builder’s, so ask for the quote contingency in writing. Insurance, tax and legal points in this guide are information, not advice; confirm them with your closing agent, attorney or insurance agent before you rely on them.
Esplanade at Starling is zoned to East Elementary, Punta Gorda Middle and Charlotte High, all in Charlotte County Public Schools. Six addresses on six streets, run through the district’s Boundary Locator, all returned that trio on October 2, 2026. The state’s 2026 grades are B, A and B, and the district earned an A.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Public Schools Boundary Locator and Bus Stop Locator; Florida Department of Education 2026 school grades, report card data and results packet; Florida Department of Education five-year district facilities work plan; OSRM routing estimates; all queried or read October 2, 2026).
We ran six Esplanade at Starling addresses through the lookup service behind the district’s public Boundary Locator (Charlotte County Public Schools, Boundary Locator service). The addresses came from the county’s address point layer and cover the built east side and the newer west side of the plats. We do not print house numbers.
| Street | Addresses checked | Elementary | Middle | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victoria Place | 1 | East Elementary | Punta Gorda Middle | Charlotte High |
| Lark Court | 1 | East Elementary | Punta Gorda Middle | Charlotte High |
| Dunlin Avenue | 1 | East Elementary | Punta Gorda Middle | Charlotte High |
| Dove Drive | 1 | East Elementary | Punta Gorda Middle | Charlotte High |
| Arbor Circle | 1 | East Elementary | Punta Gorda Middle | Charlotte High |
| Brent Lane | 1 | East Elementary | Punta Gorda Middle | Charlotte High |
We found no split inside the community. Two controls run the same day show the result is specific to the address, not a default: a made-up address in ZIP 33955 returned no schools at all, and the district office’s own Port Charlotte address returned a different set. The district itself says the locator “is only a guide, please call the school indicated to confirm that your child will attend that school.”
| School | Level | Address | Drive from 26000 Starling Boulevard |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Elementary | Elementary | 27050 Fairway Drive, Punta Gorda | 10.6 road miles, about 17 minutes |
| Punta Gorda Middle | Middle | 1001 Education Avenue, Punta Gorda | 8.3 road miles, about 16 minutes |
| Charlotte High | High | 1250 Cooper Street, Punta Gorda | 8.1 road miles, about 14 minutes |
Source: Charlotte County Public Schools, Boundary Locator service; drive times by OSRM, free-flow, no traffic, October 2, 2026 (our analysis). From homes on Victoria Place, add about 2 to 3 minutes. The state’s report card base file lists 742 students at East Elementary, 1,166 at Punta Gorda Middle and 1,905 at Charlotte High for the 2025-26 school year, and marks East Elementary as a Title I school; none of the three is a charter school (Florida Department of Education, school report cards).
| School | 2026 grade | Percent of total possible points, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| East Elementary | B | 56 |
| Punta Gorda Middle | A | 64 |
| Charlotte High | B | 63 |
| Charlotte County School District | A | n/a |
Sources: Florida Department of Education, 2026 School Grades Results Packet; Florida Department of Education, school report card data.
The Florida Department of Education released its 2026 grades on September 8, 2026, and the results packet shows the district with 10 A schools, 8 B schools and 2 C schools. The state changed its grading scale in 2026 and published an overview of the changes alongside the grades (Florida Department of Education, School Grades), so a 2026 letter should not be compared with an earlier year’s letter as if the scale were the same. Read the component scores below.
| Component (percent) | East Elementary | Punta Gorda Middle | Charlotte High |
|---|---|---|---|
| English language arts achievement | 61 | 61 | 56 |
| English language arts learning gains | 55 | 64 | 55 |
| English language arts gains, lowest 25 percent | 38 | 58 | 56 |
| Math achievement | 66 | 67 | 46 |
| Math learning gains | 60 | 62 | 51 |
| Math gains, lowest 25 percent | 55 | 64 | 50 |
| Science achievement | 48 | 55 | 76 |
| Social studies achievement | n/a | 71 | 79 |
| Middle school acceleration | n/a | 75 | n/a |
| College and career acceleration | n/a | n/a | 69 |
| Graduation rate | n/a | n/a | 95 |
Source: Florida Department of Education, school report card components.
Charlotte High’s graduation rate component of 95 and its science and social studies scores stand out, and its math achievement is its lowest component. At East Elementary, math achievement at 66 leads, while English language arts gains among the lowest-performing quarter of students, at 38, trail the other components. Punta Gorda Middle posts its strongest numbers in middle school acceleration and social studies. A single year is a snapshot, so ask each school about the components that matter to your child, and visit before you decide.
School bus stops and eligibility for Esplanade at Starling addresses: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). The district’s transportation portal did not return a public result for a Starling address when we checked (Charlotte County Public Schools, Bus Stop Locator). Stops change each school year, so run the address through the portal every summer, and ask the district’s transportation office if a new street does not appear.
The district runs controlled open enrollment, its school choice program, alongside the attendance zones. Admission to a school outside your zone runs through the district’s application process, so treat the zoned trio as the default and choice as a separate decision with its own rules and transportation terms.
The district’s five-year facilities work plan, adopted in 2025, lists no new school (Florida Department of Education, Charlotte County Five-Year District Facilities Work Plan). We also found no public school site within about two miles of the community in the county’s institutional and petition layers (Charlotte County GIS, institutional layer). With thousands of homes entitled along the Burnt Store Road corridor, the district’s later work plans are the documents to watch.
We ran six addresses on six streets, not every homesite, and attendance zones can change between school years. The locator answers only for addresses already in the district’s file, so a home under construction on a newer street may not show up until its address is assigned. Before you write an offer that depends on a school, run the exact address through the district’s Boundary Locator yourself and call the school. Marc can run your target addresses through the locator with you before you tour.
Daily life in Esplanade at Starling runs inside a gate and on Burnt Store Road. It is still being built, with tennis, pickleball and a dog park open per the builder, a clubhouse slated for early 2027, no golf course or marina, a state park trailhead about 6 minutes away and downtown Punta Gorda about 14 minutes away.
Data updated: October 2026 (estimated drive times, OSRM free-flow routing, no traffic, computed October 2, 2026; hospital, store, park and county pages read October 2, 2026; Charlotte County Property Appraiser roll, our analysis; builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
An Esplanade at Starling street can hold finished homes, homes under construction and empty homesites at the same time. Victoria Place, Lark Court, Dove Drive, Dunlin Avenue and Robin Avenue hold the homes the roll recognizes, while Arbor Circle, Blue Court, Argus Place, Adelie Way and Brent Lane carry no year built on the 2026 roll. Living here in the early years means living beside active construction for as long as later phases take to build, and that timing is not published. The community is marketed as age-targeted, not age-restricted, and the Declaration that would set occupancy rules was not available to us.
Punta Gorda has no open hospital, so the nearest hospitals to Esplanade at Starling are in Port Charlotte (Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, FloridaHealthFinder).
| Facility | What it is | Drive (minutes) | Road miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital, Port Charlotte | Hospital, 24/7 emergency department | 23 | 13.0 |
| AdventHealth Port Charlotte | Hospital, open 24/7 with emergency care | 23 | 13.1 |
| Lee Health Cape Coral Hospital | Hospital | 31 | 19.7 |
| Lee Health Lee Memorial Hospital, Fort Myers | Hospital | 33 | 22.5 |
| TGH Urgent Care Powered by Fast Track, Babcock Ranch | Urgent care, open daily 8 am to 8 pm | 37 | 27.3 |
| Lee Health Gulf Coast Medical Center, Fort Myers | Hospital | 45 | 28.8 |
| Lee Health HealthPark Medical Center campus, Fort Myers | Hospital campus that includes Golisano Children’s Hospital | 50 | 32.5 |
Sources: HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital; AdventHealth Port Charlotte; Lee Health, locations; Tampa General Hospital, TGH Urgent Care Babcock Ranch. Drive times from 26000 Starling Boulevard, OSRM free-flow, no traffic (our analysis, October 2, 2026).
AdventHealth announced a freestanding emergency department at Jones Loop Road and Mac Ever Street in September 2025; no opening date has been published (AdventHealth newsroom, September 5, 2025). No closer urgent care than the Babcock Ranch clinic was confirmed in the records we read. Starling is in the response zone of Charlotte County Fire Rescue Station 5 on Burnt Store Road; which station is dispatched to a given call is set by the county’s dispatch system. In an emergency, call 911. If anyone in your household sees specialists often, map the doctors and your insurance network in both directions, Port Charlotte and Fort Myers, before you choose a homesite.
Esplanade at Starling has no restaurant or store of its own yet; the Bahama Bar is planned, and the builder describes it as a full-service bar and restaurant (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). The nearest full grocery is Publix at Burnt Store Marketplace, 3941 Tamiami Trail, about 5.0 road miles and 11 minutes from the community’s map pin, open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily with a pharmacy and a liquor store (Publix, Burnt Store Marketplace; OSRM, our analysis). We found no grocery on Burnt Store Road between the community and US 41 in the sources we read. The nearest restaurants we found from a primary source are at Safe Harbor Burnt Store, about 7 road miles south, where the operator lists Cass Cay, open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and The Trading Post (Safe Harbor Marinas, Safe Harbor Burnt Store). Port Charlotte Town Center, the nearest enclosed mall, is about 32 minutes away.
Downtown Punta Gorda (City Hall) is 14 minutes and 8.2 road miles from 26000 Starling Boulevard. The Harborwalk runs about three miles along the Peace River from Laishley Park to Fishermen’s Village, according to the county tourism bureau (Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor and Convention Bureau, Harborwalk). The bureau’s downtown guide names restaurants from John Ski’s House of Breakfast and Lunch to Laishley Crab House and Perch 360 (Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor and Convention Bureau, Downtown Punta Gorda). Fishermen’s Village, the waterfront shopping and dining center at the end of the Harborwalk, sold in July 2026 for $43 million; its marina has not yet returned to full operation (Gulfshore Business, Fishermen’s Village sold to local investors for $43 million).
The Downtown Punta Gorda Farmers Market meets Saturdays at 227 Taylor Street, year-round, with more than 80 vendors, and the History Park Market on Shreve Street meets Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor and Convention Bureau, farmers and artisan markets). Both are about 16 minutes from the community’s map pin. The Punta Gorda Charlotte Library on Shreve Street is open Monday and Tuesday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Wednesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Charlotte County Libraries, hours).
Esplanade at Starling’s strongest outdoor fact is its neighborhood of preserves. Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park covers 45,507 acres with more than 100 miles of shoreline across Charlotte and Lee counties and no entrance fee, and its Old Datsun Trail, 1.75 miles through oak and sabal palm hammock, pine flatwoods and wetlands, starts at the 12301 Burnt Store Road trailhead, about 2.3 road miles and 6 minutes from the community’s map pin (Florida State Parks, Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park; park brochure). The Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center at 10941 Burnt Store Road opens its trails dawn to dusk and is about 8 minutes away (Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, About). To the east, the Fred C. Babcock/Cecil M. Webb Wildlife Management Area covers “over 80,700 acres,” and its Tucker Grade entrance is about 15 minutes away (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Babcock/Webb WMA history).
Gulf beaches are about an hour from Esplanade at Starling by road, and the community has no beach or boat access of its own.
| Destination | Minutes | Road miles | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Port Charlotte Beach Park | 26 | 13.3 | Harbor beach on Charlotte Harbor |
| Englewood Beach (Chadwick Park) | 55 | 33.9 | Gulf beach |
| Fort Myers Beach (Lynn Hall Park) | 57 | 34.5 | Gulf beach |
Estimated drive times from 26000 Starling Boulevard, OSRM free-flow routing, no traffic (our analysis, October 2, 2026). The county lists parking at 75 cents an hour at Port Charlotte Beach Park and Englewood Beach at Chadwick Park, with hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Charlotte County, Beaches). Part of Port Charlotte Beach Park is closed for a replacement pool and pool house, with a forecast completion of December 2026 (Charlotte County, Port Charlotte Beach Pool project). Measured from the community’s map pin, Stump Pass Beach State Park and Gasparilla Island State Park in Boca Grande are each about 62 minutes away and charge $3 per vehicle, and Sanibel is about 72 minutes plus a causeway toll we did not price. A buyer who wants a beach close by should look at Gulf-side communities.
Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte is the spring training home of the Tampa Bay Rays, according to the county tourism bureau, and is about 36 minutes from the community’s map pin (Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor and Convention Bureau, annual events). The Florida International Air Show is set for November 7 and 8, 2026, at Punta Gorda Airport (Florida Festivals and Events Association, 2026 Florida International Air Show). Esplanade at Starling’s own resident calendar: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02); the builder says its lifestyle manager organizes resident events.
Water and sewer are Charlotte County Utilities, solid waste collection is a county service billed on the tax bill, and Taylor Morrison markets the community as served by natural gas (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). The electric provider, internet providers and speeds, the gas provider and rates, the trash hauler and collection days are not confirmed in any public record we read. Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). The county’s amenity approval includes a mail kiosk, which suggests central mail collection at the amenity site rather than a box at each house; whether it is open today, and whether there are package lockers, is not stated. Ask the builder which providers serve the homesite and what is pre-wired, and check each internet provider’s address-level map before you rely on a speed.
Taylor Morrison’s sales center and models are on Dove Drive, and the builder owns most of the parcels on the roll. On moving day, expect construction vehicles on Starling Boulevard and the Replat 1 streets, and plan large deliveries with the gate in mind: tell the gate who is coming and when. Gate access rules for guests, contractors and deliveries sit in the association’s rules, which were not available to us.
From Esplanade at Starling, Punta Gorda Airport is about 13 minutes and downtown Punta Gorda about 14 minutes in free-flow driving. Cape Coral City Hall is about 29 minutes, Fort Myers City Hall 31 and Southwest Florida International Airport 47. The nearest Gulf beach, Englewood Beach at Chadwick Park, is about 55 minutes, and Babcock Ranch’s town center 39.
Data updated: October 2026 (OSRM routing engine on OpenStreetMap data, free-flow, origin 26000 Starling Boulevard from the Charlotte County address point layer; computed October 2, 2026).
| Destination | Minutes | Road miles |
|---|---|---|
| Punta Gorda Airport (PGD) | 13 | 7.8 |
| Downtown Punta Gorda (City Hall) | 14 | 8.2 |
| Charlotte High School | 14 | 8.1 |
| Punta Gorda Middle School | 16 | 8.3 |
| East Elementary School | 17 | 10.6 |
| HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital | 23 | 13.0 |
| AdventHealth Port Charlotte | 23 | 13.1 |
| Port Charlotte Beach Park (harbor beach) | 26 | 13.3 |
| Cape Coral (City Hall) | 29 | 18.7 |
| Fort Myers (City Hall) | 31 | 21.7 |
| Cape Coral Hospital | 31 | 19.7 |
| Port Charlotte Town Center | 32 | 16.9 |
| TGH Urgent Care, Babcock Ranch | 37 | 27.3 |
| Babcock Ranch (town center, 42880 Crescent Loop) | 39 | 28.7 |
| Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) | 47 | 37.2 |
| Englewood Beach (Chadwick Park, Gulf beach) | 55 | 33.9 |
| Fort Myers Beach (Lynn Hall Park) | 57 | 34.5 |
| Sarasota (City Hall) | 74 | 61.4 |
Estimated drive times from 26000 Starling Boulevard (county address point at the Burnt Store Road end), OSRM free-flow routing, no traffic (our analysis, October 2, 2026). From homes on Victoria Place, add about 2 to 3 minutes. Source: OSRM routing engine; origin from the Charlotte County GIS address point layer.
Free-flow means an empty road: no season traffic, no waits at signals, no crashes and no time at the gate. Treat every figure as the best case. Traffic-adjusted times: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). Each city row uses its city hall as the destination, so “Fort Myers” means Fort Myers City Hall downtown, and “Babcock Ranch” means the town center at 42880 Crescent Loop. Homes deeper in the community add a few minutes of driving inside the gate.
From the same origin, Burnt Store Road meets US 41 in about 4.7 road miles (7 minutes); I-75 at Jones Loop Road (exit 161) is about 7.8 road miles (13 minutes); and the Lee County line on Burnt Store Road is about 5.6 road miles (7 minutes) (our analysis). The county line matters more than it sounds: the marina, Cape Coral and much of the shopping south of the community sit in Lee County.
Every trip out of Esplanade at Starling starts on Burnt Store Road, County Road 765, because the community has one main entrance. The county’s 2026 level of service report puts the segment in front of the community, Zemel Road to Notre Dame Boulevard, at four lanes with a 2026 average annual daily traffic count of 20,346, operating at level of service C and 53 percent of capacity (Charlotte County, 2026 Roadway Level of Service Data). For Southwest Florida International Airport and Babcock Ranch, the router sends you north about 2.3 miles on Burnt Store Road, east on Notre Dame Boulevard, a short stretch of US 41 and then County Road 762 to reach I-75.
Punta Gorda Airport is 7.8 road miles and about 13 minutes away, the shortest trip in the table, by way of Burnt Store Road, County Road 768 and Piper Road. Downtown Punta Gorda’s City Hall is 8.2 miles and about 14 minutes. Port Charlotte Town Center is 16.9 miles and about 32 minutes, across the Peace River, and the two Port Charlotte hospitals are closer than the mall. We print only measured times, whatever a marketing page says.
Cape Coral City Hall is 18.7 miles and about 29 minutes south, most of it on Burnt Store Road into Lee County. Fort Myers City Hall is 21.7 miles and about 31 minutes, and Southwest Florida International Airport is 37.2 miles and about 47 minutes by way of I-75. Babcock Ranch’s town center is 28.7 road miles and about 39 minutes, because no road crosses directly east. The Florida Department of Transportation has finished the study phase for widening Burnt Store Road in Lee County to the Charlotte County line; a construction date was not available (Florida Department of Transportation District One, Burnt Store Road PD&E, 436928-1).
Esplanade at Starling works well for Punta Gorda errands and air travel from Punta Gorda Airport, both inside about 14 minutes, and for Cape Coral and Fort Myers to the south, both around half an hour. It asks for longer drives to the Gulf beaches, Sarasota and Southwest Florida International Airport. Every trip depends on Burnt Store Road, so a buyer who commutes at peak hours should drive the route at the time they would use it before committing.
Near Esplanade at Starling, the biggest builder is the community itself, with a 131-lot Phase 2 site plan approved. Directly south, a planned development of up to 999 homes and 195,000 square feet of commercial space awaits a County Commission decision, and the Tuckers Grade Extension depends on the November 3, 2026 sales tax vote.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Planning and Zoning Board agenda of April 13, 2026; Charlotte County GIS petitions and subdivisions layers; Charlotte County Burnt Store Area Plan presentation of June 11, 2024; Charlotte County 2026 Roadway Level of Service Data; Charlotte County project pages and 2026 sales tax project sheets; Charlotte County Utilities updates; all read October 2, 2026).
Most of what will be built next to an Esplanade at Starling home over the next several years is more Esplanade at Starling. The county’s January 2025 approval plans 774 single-family homesites in three phases, 407 are platted today, a Phase 2 site plan of 131 single-family lots was approved in 2025 with no plat recorded as of October 2, 2026, and a third phase is planned (Charlotte County, DRC-24-224 decision letter). Further density transfers would be needed before later phases, and none was found in the county’s petition files as of October 2, 2026. In practice that means construction traffic, new streets and model activity inside the gate for years, and an amenity center still being finished.
| Community | Direction from Esplanade at Starling | What the county records show |
|---|---|---|
| Turnleaf | North, directly adjoining | Its own plats, later phases in review, and its own Coral Creek Community Development District |
| Coral Lakes | North, east side of Burnt Store Road | Its own plats and its own Coral Lakes Community Development District |
| Cassia Bay (formerly Crosswinds) | North, east side of Burnt Store Road | A plat recorded in 2026 |
| Heritage Landing | West, across Burnt Store Road | The former Tern Bay development, with golf; plat and condominium records from 2019 to 2025 and a Phase III plat |
| Heritage Station | South, west side of Burnt Store Road | Plats recorded in 2023 and 2026 |
| Firelight (formerly Eagle Creek) | South | A preliminary plat approved for Firelight, Phase I, and a renamed district |
| Residences at Burnt Store East | South | A preliminary plat approved by the County Commission and its own district petition |
| Willow | Northeast, east of US 41 | Its own plats and its own Tuckers Pointe Community Development District |
Sources: Charlotte County GIS, petitions layer; Charlotte County GIS, subdivisions layer, read October 2, 2026.
Directly south, a planned development of up to 999 homes and 195,000 square feet of commercial space won a 3-0 recommendation from the county’s Planning and Zoning Board on April 13, 2026; a County Commission decision was not found in the record as of October 2, 2026 (Charlotte County Planning and Zoning Board agenda, April 13, 2026). The property is 11 parcels on Burnt Store Road and Zemel Road, about 277.55 acres, within the Burnt Store Area Plan. A recommendation is not a building permit, and a commercial entitlement is not a store. For an Esplanade at Starling owner, this is the single nearest change to watch.
The county’s June 2024 presentation counted 10,599 entitled homes in the Burnt Store Area Plan and projects corridor housing growing from 2,872 units in 2023 to 11,758 in 2045, and it projects that “By 2045, the projected population along Burnt Store Ro[a]d area will support a new Neighborhood Shopping Center, which includes grocery store, restaurants” (Charlotte County, Burnt Store Area Plan presentation, June 11, 2024). These are county projections, not counts. For a buyer, the projection says the corridor is expected to roughly quadruple its housing by 2045, which means more neighbors, more traffic on Burnt Store Road and, eventually, the population a grocery-anchored center needs.
| Road segment | Lanes | 2026 average daily traffic | Level of service | Share of capacity used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnt Store Road, Lee County line to Zemel Road | 4 | 16,308 | C | 43 percent |
| Burnt Store Road, Zemel Road to Notre Dame Boulevard (in front of Esplanade at Starling) | 4 | 20,346 | C | 53 percent |
| Burnt Store Road, Notre Dame Boulevard to Acline Road | 4 | 17,568 | C | 46 percent |
| Burnt Store Road, Acline Road to US 41 | 4 | 23,220 | C | 61 percent |
| Jones Loop Road, Burnt Store Road to Taylor Road | 4 | 17,085 | C | 45 percent |
| Tucker’s Grade, US 41 to I-75 | 4 | 15,606 | C | 41 percent |
Source: Charlotte County, 2026 Roadway Level of Service Data. The county’s adopted standard for each segment is level of service D.
Every segment runs at level of service C, better than the county’s adopted standard, with the busiest stretch the northern end of Burnt Store Road near US 41. The report applies a 5 percent growth rate to the Burnt Store Road segments, which reflects how fast the corridor is filling.
The Tuckers Grade Extension, an east-west connector from Burnt Store Road to US 41 north of the community, was adopted as the preferred route on September 24, 2024; final design, right-of-way and construction are not funded (Charlotte County, Burnt Store Road East-West Connector). The county’s 2026 sales tax project sheet describes a two-lane road at a total of $46,176,000 (Charlotte County, 2026 infrastructure project sheet). On November 3, 2026, Charlotte County voters decide whether to extend the county’s 1 percent local option sales tax for 20 years (Charlotte County, 2026 Sales Tax Extension). Projects on the list that serve the corridor include the connector, Bissett Park Phases 2 and 3, a Burnt Store Regional Park with a site not yet chosen and a Sheriff’s Office district office in the Burnt Store area. Each depends on the referendum, and none is funded today.
Charlotte County is building Fire and EMS Station 17 at 11711 Tamiami Trail, with a forecast completion of March 2027 and a total budget of $11,352,588 funded by the 2020 sales tax (Charlotte County, Fire Station 17). When it opens, it will add a second county station on this side of Punta Gorda, alongside Station 5 on Burnt Store Road, whose response zone includes Esplanade at Starling.
The county is expanding its Burnt Store wastewater plant; design and permitting began in November 2025 (Charlotte County, Burnt Store Water Reclamation Facility expansion). That is utility capacity for corridor growth, the kind of work that has to happen before the projected homes can connect.
The facts sort into three groups. Esplanade at Starling’s own later phases, the neighboring plats already recorded and Fire Station 17 are real and underway: expect construction traffic and new neighbors for years. The planned development to the south and the Tuckers Grade Extension are decisions still to be made, by the County Commission and by voters on November 3, 2026. The commercial space on nearby approvals is entitlement without a tenant we could find. Weigh the first group, watch the second and set the third aside until a permit appears.
We find the right Esplanade at Starling home by screening each homesite for what a listing hides before you tour it: the district class and whether its Series 2025 debt was or will be prepaid, the association budget and the Declaration, the flood and evacuation file and the neighboring construction. Then we tour the few that survive.
We start with the full monthly carrying cost you are comfortable with: the mortgage at the lender’s rate, the county tax bill at the post-sale value, the district assessment for the class with or without the debt line, the association fee, the county fire and solid waste charges, and homeowners and any flood insurance. In Esplanade at Starling the association’s figure is a draft estimate and the insurance figure has to be quoted, so we price the address only after the adopted budget and the quotes are in hand, and we tell you which number is still open.
Three collections and 14 plans mean the product decision comes before the street. A 42 Collection home, a 52 Collection home and a 62 Collection home carry different district debt lines and different plan sizes, from 1,483 to 4,591 square feet (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). The recorded sales show where each part of the market has traded; the builder’s contract shows what you are actually buying.
For every homesite that survives we pull the district class and prepayment status, the FEMA zone and panel, the evacuation zone for the address, the plat showing the lake and road tracts, whether the lot backs onto land held for a later phase, and the recorded sales nearby. Listings we hear about before they reach the market go through the same screen. For a homesite on one of the Replat 1 streets, we add what we can learn about the schedule on the streets around it.
An Esplanade at Starling tour looks at the roof and the garage, the grading and swales around the homesite, the lake edge, what is built and what is vacant on the neighboring lots, and the state of construction nearby. We also ask the sales team about the pool and The Venue’s status, because a model home is not the community you will live in.
If you want us to start the file, call Marc at (239) 287-5873 or book an Esplanade at Starling buyer consultation.
We negotiate Esplanade at Starling purchases from county evidence. Charlotte County recorded 48 sales on the Starling plats in 12 months, at a $540,850 median, and the builder’s own inventory and the first resales, when they come, are a buyer’s alternatives. The multiple listing service measures days on market and sale-to-list: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02).
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis, sales recorded September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026; builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
We price from recorded sales of comparable homes, matched by plan size, street and homesite where the record allows, including sales that never reached the multiple listing service. A builder’s advertised price gets our comparables in writing, and we say which sales we excluded and why. We do not read a builder’s marketing price against a recorded sale, and we do not claim a negotiation discount, because we have no days-on-market or sale-to-list figure for Esplanade at Starling and will not borrow one.
Builder sales are not one-price, and the contract has more to negotiate than the number on the front. Depending on the builder’s terms, which we did not read, we look at the homesite premium, options, closing-cost credits, rate offers, completion dates, who pays the title policy, whether the Series 2025 debt on the homesite is prepaid at closing and how the year’s district and association charges are prorated, and what the builder will put in writing about neighboring construction and the amenity center. We do not tell you what Taylor Morrison will accept.
When Esplanade at Starling resales come, price will be only one term. We will look at the inspection period, repairs or credits, the estoppel and its cost, who pays the association’s transfer fee, any warranty transfer, the district debt status, the closing date and the personal property that stays. A buyer who has read the district budget, the estoppel letter and the Declaration can ask for the right credits. A resale home whose debt was prepaid and a resale home whose debt was not are different purchases even at the same price.
On the Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS contract, the initial deposit is due within 3 days of the effective date, the additional deposit within 10 days, the inspection period is 15 days unless the parties change it, the loan application is due within 5 days and the loan approval period defaults to 30 days. We set those dates to fit the association estoppel, the district estoppel letter, the flood file, the elevation certificate and the insurance quotes, and we calendar every deadline in writing on day one. A builder’s own contract may use different dates, which is why the contract section above matters.
A feature an insurer will not credit, an estoppel letter that shows the debt was not prepaid when the contract assumed it was, an association budget higher than the draft estimate or a lender requiring flood coverage you had not priced are all negotiating points. They carry more weight inside the contract’s review periods than after them.
Your deposit is held in escrow by a title company, attorney or broker, and on the AS IS form it is returned if you terminate in time under the inspection, financing or flood provisions. New-construction deposits follow a different rule, covered in the new-construction section above. We never let a deadline pass on a deposit without a written extension in hand.
An Esplanade at Starling buyer who finances pays Florida’s documentary stamp tax on the mortgage at 35 cents per $100, the 2-mill intangible tax on the loan, recording, lender, title and inspection charges, and any association or district charges the contract assigns. In Charlotte County the seller customarily pays the owner’s title policy, and the contract controls.
Data updated: October 2026 (Florida Statutes 201.08, 199.133 and 201.02; Florida Administrative Code Rule 69O-186.003; retrieved October 2, 2026).
Under Fla. Stat. 201.08 the documentary stamp tax on a recorded mortgage is $0.35 per $100 of the amount secured, and Fla. Stat. 199.133 adds a nonrecurring intangible tax of 2 mills on the loan. The deed stamp of $0.70 per $100 under Fla. Stat. 201.02 is customarily a seller cost, but the contract decides.
We use $540,000 here because it is a round figure near the 12-month recorded median of $540,850, not because it is a price you will pay. With 20 percent down, the loan is $432,000. Mortgage stamps are $1,512 and the intangible tax is $864, which is $2,376 in state taxes on the loan. The deed stamps on a $540,000 sale would be $3,780, which the AS IS form treats as a seller cost. This is our arithmetic from the statutory rates, not a closing estimate; your lender’s Loan Estimate is the document that binds.
| Item at a $540,000 price, 20 percent down | Amount | Who customarily pays |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage documentary stamps on a $432,000 loan | $1,512 | Buyer |
| Intangible tax on a $432,000 loan | $864 | Buyer |
| Deed documentary stamps on $540,000 | $3,780 | Seller |
| Association estoppel fee (resale) | Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). | Seller on the AS IS form, by default |
| Association application, transfer or capital fees | Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). | Buyer on the AS IS form, by default; a builder’s contract may differ |
| District debt payoff, if the debt was not prepaid and you choose to pay it | From the district manager’s letter | Set by the contract or by you |
| Impact fees | Unpublished | Set by the builder’s contract |
Source: Fla. Stat. 201.08, 199.133 and 201.02, our arithmetic on a round $540,000 price.
In Charlotte County the seller customarily pays for the owner’s title insurance policy, and the contract controls. The AS IS contract has the parties choose who pays, and a builder’s contract may assign it its own way, so read the clause before you sign. Florida sets title insurance premiums by rule, so the premium for the same coverage is the same at every title company (Rule 69O-186.003); the settlement and search fees are what vary. A buyer who is paying for a lender’s policy pays that premium separately. The title company’s search will find the recorded Notice of Series 2025 Assessments on every Starling homesite, which tells the world the debt runs with the land until it is paid.
Florida property taxes are paid in arrears, so on a resale the seller credits you at closing for the part of the year the seller owned the home. On a new home from the builder, the homesite may have been assessed as land for part of the year, and the district assessment and the association fee are prorated as the contract says. Budget separately for an independent inspection, a wind mitigation report, an elevation certificate if none is on file, and a survey.
Esplanade at Starling property taxes reset after a sale: the seller’s capped assessment does not transfer, so your first full bill reflects market value and your own exemptions. The bill has two halves, ad valorem tax at 15.0855 mills for 2025 in tax district 121 and flat non-ad valorem lines.
The ad valorem half multiplies each taxing authority’s millage by your taxable value after exemptions.
| Taxing authority, tax district 121 | 2025 mills | 2026 proposed mills |
|---|---|---|
| County general fund | 6.0394 | 6.1576 |
| County law enforcement | 2.1449 | 2.3618 |
| County lighting | 0.1907 | 0.1907 |
| Environmentally sensitive lands (voter approved) | 0.2000 | 0.2000 |
| West Coast Inland Navigation District | 0.0394 | 0.0394 |
| Southwest Florida Water Management District | 0.1831 | 0.1831 |
| School, required by state law | 3.0400 | 3.0240 |
| School, local board | 3.2480 | 3.2480 |
| Total | 15.0855 | 15.4046 |
Sources: Charlotte County Property Appraiser, 2025 final rates by tax district; 2026 proposed rates. The 2026 total is our sum of the proposed line items, and the final adopted 2026 rate was not posted when we checked.
The non-ad valorem half carries the county’s Fire Rescue MSBU of $294.90 per home, the sanitation MSBU of $335.51 per home and the South Charlotte Stormwater MSBU of $26.75 per acre, MSBU year 2027 (Charlotte County MSBU records). The Starling district’s 2027 budget expects to bill directly, and its notice says some developed homes may see the operations charge on the tax bill instead. The association fee is not on the county bill, because the association bills it directly. A full 2026 tax bill for a built Starling home: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). The tax collector’s property tax page is where to look once a parcel is assessed.
To claim homestead in Charlotte County you must hold title, be a Florida resident living in the home as your permanent residence on January 1, and file between January 1 and March 1 after the deed is recorded (Charlotte County Property Appraiser, Exemptions). The exemption is $25,000 on all levies plus an inflation-indexed additional exemption of about $25,000 on non-school levies under Fla. Stat. 196.031. A buyer who closes late in the year should plan the filing, because the first January 1 after closing sets the first exemption year.
A non-homestead home’s 10 percent assessment cap resets on sale, and a homestead’s Save Our Homes value resets to just value in the year after the change of ownership. The Florida property tax disclosure summary in Fla. Stat. 689.261 tells you not to rely on the seller’s current taxes. On a first sale of a new Esplanade at Starling home, the previous bill may have been on vacant land, which is why a builder’s estimate is a poor guide. Budget from your purchase price and current millage.
If you are leaving another Florida homestead, you may be able to transfer, or port, all or part of its Save Our Homes assessment difference to an Esplanade at Starling homestead (Florida Department of Revenue, property tax exemptions). Under the statute, the owner must have received a homestead exemption on the prior home as of January 1 of any of the 3 immediately preceding years, and the amount ported is capped at $500,000 (Fla. Stat. 193.155). Apply through the Charlotte County Property Appraiser with Form DR-501T (Form DR-501T). Selling a Florida homestead to buy here is a timing question we plan with you before either contract is signed.
Amendment 3 is on the November 3, 2026 ballot and needs 60 percent to pass. It is not law until the voters act. The Charlotte County Property Appraiser explains the proposal on its Property Tax Amendment 3 page.
Since August 17, 2024, an MLS participant must have an Esplanade at Starling buyer sign a written agreement before they tour a home together, and that agreement must state compensation that is specific and fully negotiable. Offers of compensation no longer appear on the MLS, and a builder or seller may still agree to pay some or all of it.
The National Association of Realtors’ practice changes require MLS participants working with a buyer to sign a written agreement prior to touring a home, stating compensation that is objectively ascertainable and not open-ended, barring payment above the agreed amount from any source, and stating conspicuously that broker fees are not set by law and are fully negotiable (NAR, Summary of 2024 MLS Changes; NAR Settlement FAQs).
Fla. Stat. 475.278 presumes that all licensees are operating as transaction brokers unless a single agent or no brokerage relationship is established, in writing. A transaction broker owes limited confidentiality and no duty of loyalty. If you want an agent who represents only you, say so and sign a single agent agreement; the national settlement did not change Florida brokerage relationship law.
With one builder selling every new home inside the gate, a buyer can easily meet Taylor Morrison before meeting an agent. Bring us in before the first model visit or sales call and we put you on record with the builder on its published terms, which we ask the builder to state in writing. Read how we represent buyers or call Marc at (239) 287-5873 before you walk the model row.
We explain the agreement’s terms in writing before you sign it: the compensation, what it is for, how a payment from a builder or seller is treated, and how long the agreement runs. If a term does not fit how you want to work, we talk it through before any tour.
Your lender’s rate and loan program set the principal and interest on an Esplanade at Starling purchase, so we build the full monthly number from the lender’s quote for each address. In the 12 months to September 26, 2026, the county recorded 48 sales from $305,000 to $1,014,800, and four closed at $800,000 or more.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis; Federal Housing Finance Agency; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development).
We print no loan-limit figure here. The Federal Housing Finance Agency publishes the conforming loan limit (FHFA, conforming loan limit), and HUD publishes FHA limits by area (HUD, FHA 2026 areas above the floor). The limit that applies to your loan: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). With 32 of the 48 recorded sales at $500,000 or more, ask your lender early if your price sits near the top of the recorded range.
Your lender’s rate sets the principal and interest. We build the full monthly number from the lender’s quote for each address, with the county tax bill, the Starling district assessment, the association fee and insurance added to it. An actual loan quote depends on your credit, down payment and lender.
Esplanade at Starling’s record is small and new: 48 recorded sales in a year, every one a builder’s first sale, and none older than the 2025 build year on the roll. An appraiser has fewer comparable sales to use than in an established community, and a builder’s contract price, with its homesite premium and options, may sit above or below what the appraiser finds. Ask your lender early how it handles an appraisal on a new-construction sale, and ask the builder what happens to your deposit if the appraisal comes in under the contract price.
Lenders count the housing payment, which for most programs includes the district assessment and the association dues along with principal, interest, taxes and insurance. Ask your lender how it will treat your homesite’s assessment with and without the debt line, bring the district’s budget page and the estoppel letter to the conversation, and ask how it will handle the association fee while only a draft estimate is published. If the district bills you directly, remind the lender that the bill is outside a tax escrow unless you add it.
A builder may pair a closing-cost credit or a rate offer with its own lender or title company. Ask your lender how any builder credit fits the loan before you sign, and compare the total cost of the builder’s package with an outside quote. We make no claim about what Taylor Morrison is offering on a given day, because offers change and are not part of the public record.
The pros of Esplanade at Starling are a gate, an amenity program partly open, lawn care in the association estimate and a first-year district bill under $1,500 by class. The cons are an unpublished Declaration and association budget, a clubhouse due in early 2027, Zone D without a revision and district debt through 2056.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files and roll, our analysis; Starling Community Development District; FEMA; Charlotte County; Charlotte County Public Schools; Florida Department of Education; builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
The pros are mostly about the setting: a gate, an amenity program you can already partly use, lawn care in the estimated fee, new homes and a district bill that starts modestly. The cons are mostly about the documents: a Declaration and an association budget you have not yet seen, a district with bond debt and a prepayment you have to confirm, a clubhouse still under way and a flood zone with no Base Flood Elevation on the current map. None of the cons is a reason to walk away. Each is a reason to ask for a document before you sign, and we will help you gather them.
If you are also selling a Florida home to buy in Esplanade at Starling, the two transactions need one plan: the sale funds the purchase, the closing dates must line up with Taylor Morrison’s schedule, and a Florida homestead may carry portable Save Our Homes savings into the new home. We run both sides so neither date surprises you.
If you are moving within the community, start with a free Esplanade at Starling home valuation built on the county’s recorded sales and your homesite’s district class. When you are ready to list, our guide to selling your home in Esplanade at Starling explains how we price one of the first resales against the builder’s homes on the next street. Call or text Jesse at (239) 898-6072.
A to-be-built home has a schedule the builder controls, and a sale you must close first has a date you control. We map both before you sign, and we ask the builder for the completion estimate and the remedy if it slips, as covered in the contract section above.
For a home in the city or another Punta Gorda neighborhood, start with a free home valuation or read how we sell homes in Punta Gorda. Our Punta Gorda area guide sets the city picture beside Esplanade at Starling, and if you are also weighing the community to the north, read our Turnleaf buyer’s guide. Call or text Jesse at (239) 898-6072 about the sale side.
A custom Esplanade at Starling listing alert tells you about the right home the day it reaches the market. With the builder advertising its own homes and the first owner resales still to come, the buyers who see a correctly priced home first are the ones who get to tour it and write the first offer.
Price and bedrooms are the least useful filters in Esplanade at Starling. The ones that matter are the collection, because the district class follows the homesite; whether the home is a builder’s finished home or an owner resale, because a resale may or may not carry prepaid debt; and the street, because the evacuation letter, the lake edge and the neighboring construction change street by street. If you want a homesite in evacuation Zone D, a lake view or a street away from land held for later phases, say so.
To see every active home, browse our team’s search on DomainRealtyGroup.com, or tell us your criteria and we will build the saved search and send you the link. The alerts route to Jesse and Marc as well, so when something matches you hear from a person. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or use the Esplanade at Starling buyer consultation form.
The Esplanade at Starling buyer consultation is a working session, not a sales meeting: we take your monthly carrying number, compare the three collections, flag the homesites that need a closer look at the district debt or the evacuation letter, and give you the document list for the addresses you like. There is no charge and no obligation.
A carrying-cost model with the Starling district assessment separated from the mortgage and shown with and without the debt line; the recorded comparables for the homes you are considering; the FEMA zone and evacuation letter for any address you name; a read of the builder contract against the checklist in this guide; and an estimate of your cash to close from the state figures in this guide.
Your timing, whether you are financing, whether you intend to homestead, whether you are selling a Florida home and might have portability to carry, which collections and plans interest you, and whether the gate, the amenity center, the school assignment or the drive to Punta Gorda Airport decides it for you.
Use the Esplanade at Starling buyer consultation form, see how we represent buyers across Southwest Florida, call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873, or call or text Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072. You are working with Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.
McGreevy and Comisar are a top-reviewed Southwest Florida buyer team on Google, and the quotes below are five-star Google reviews from clients we represented, reproduced word for word. They are not Esplanade at Starling transactions unless the client says so, and we do not display an aggregate rating.
★★★★★ “Jesse is the best Realtor I have used. He found us our dream home even though it took months as we were not the easiest to please.” Verified Google review
★★★★★ “Marc was great! He helped us find a place that matched our needs, without trying to upsell us into something too big. And he’s helped us settle into the area. 100% recommendation!” Verified Google review
★★★★★ “We have purchased many properties over the years and Jesse is without a doubt the most knowledgeable, personable and efficient real estate broker we have ever worked with!” Verified Google review
These are the Esplanade at Starling questions a buyer will ask that no public primary source we could read on October 2, 2026 answered. We would rather name the gap and the document that closes it than print a number from a listing sheet or a blog post, and each item below names who settles it.
The questions below are the ones Esplanade at Starling buyers ask us most, from what the community is and who builds there to what the Starling district, the association, flood and insurance look like. Each answer draws on a source, and where a fact is not public the answer says so and names the document that holds it.
Data updated: October 2026 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public parcel and sales files, our analysis, sales recorded September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026; Starling Community Development District documents; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer; Charlotte County Public Schools Boundary Locator; builder marketing seen October 2, 2026; read October 2, 2026).
Esplanade at Starling is Taylor Morrison’s name for the gated community of new single-family homes that Charlotte County records as Starling, on the east side of Burnt Store Road with a Punta Gorda mailing address, ZIP 33955, in tax district 121 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser, parcel record). Taylor Morrison is the only builder. Our Esplanade at Starling community guide covers the whole community.
Esplanade at Starling sits on the east side of Burnt Store Road, south of Turnleaf and north of Zemel Road (Charlotte County, PFP-24-05 decision letter). The one main entrance is from Burnt Store Road at Starling Boulevard, with an emergency-only access to the east. From 26000 Starling Boulevard, Punta Gorda Airport is about 13 minutes and downtown Punta Gorda about 14 minutes by estimated free-flow drive (OSRM, our analysis).
No. Esplanade at Starling is in unincorporated Charlotte County with a Punta Gorda mailing address, and the appraiser’s record card reads “In City of Punta Gorda: NO” (Charlotte County Property Appraiser, parcel record). County government, not the city, handles zoning, permits and services, the rate chart for tax district 121 shows no city levy, and FEMA lists the area under Charlotte County unincorporated, community number 120061.
No. Taylor Morrison uses the Esplanade name on several Florida communities, and their fees, sizes, amenities and rules belong to those communities alone. This guide covers only Esplanade at Starling on Burnt Store Road, recorded by the county as Starling, with Starling Homeowners Association, Inc. as its one association. When you read reviews, fee figures or amenity photos online, check that they name Esplanade at Starling in Punta Gorda.
The county’s January 2025 approval plans 774 single-family homesites in three phases, and the zoning, Ordinance 2021-036, allows up to 1,440 homes on about 297 acres (Charlotte County, DRC-24-171 decision letter; Charlotte County, PD-21-00010). The 774 is the plan and the 1,440 is the ceiling. No published source gives a build-out date.
The September 27, 2026 roll lists 457 parcels on the Starling plats, of which 407 are platted homesites by our count, and 42 single-family homes carry a year built, all 2025: 16 on Victoria Place, 9 on Lark Court, 8 on Dove Drive, 7 on Dunlin Avenue and 2 on Robin Avenue, from 1,373 to 3,160 square feet of heated living area (Charlotte County Property Appraiser, our analysis). The roll lags construction, so more homes may be finished than it shows.
Taylor Morrison is the only builder, and Taylor Morrison of Florida Inc still owns most of the parcels on the September 27, 2026 roll (Charlotte County GIS, ownership layer). The sales center and models are at 26601 Dove Drive (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). We do not link builder sites, and we do not rate builders; judge the product by touring finished homes, reading the warranty and ordering an independent inspection at each stage your contract allows.
What the builder advertises (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026): 14 plans in three collections, from the Alta at $313,999 in the 42 Collection to the Ravenna at $626,999 in the 62 Collection, from 1,483 to 4,591 square feet. These are base prices on a marketing page before homesite premiums and options, not recorded sales and not a floor. The full plan table sits in the market section above.
The county recorded 48 qualified sales of improved properties from September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026, at a $540,850 median, from $305,000 to $1,014,800. Thirteen fell between $300,000 and $399,999, and 28 between $500,000 and $799,999 (Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis). No home has a second recorded sale yet, so the record is first sales of new homes.
Not from the recorded market yet. No Esplanade at Starling home has a second recorded sale in the county file, so every sale in the last 12 months was a builder’s first sale (our analysis). An owner may list a home at any time, and when resales come they will show on a saved search. A resale buyer should ask for the district estoppel letter, because a first owner’s closing may or may not have prepaid the debt.
Yes. Tell the sales center at your first visit that you are working with a realtor, and ask for the builder’s policy on buyer representation in writing, because we did not read Taylor Morrison’s terms. Bring us in before the first model visit. Since August 17, 2024, an MLS participant must have a buyer sign a written agreement before they tour a home together, stating specific, negotiable compensation. See how we represent buyers.
They are Taylor Morrison’s three product collections in Esplanade at Starling, with 14 floor plans between them from 1,483 to 4,591 square feet (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). The district assesses homesites in three matching classes, 42-foot, 52-foot and 62-foot (Starling CDD, Final Supplemental Methodology). The collections are product lines, not neighborhoods, and the class of any one homesite comes from the district’s assessment roll or an estoppel letter.
Yes. Esplanade at Starling is inside the Starling Community Development District, established by Charlotte County Ordinance No. 2024-007 in March 2024, covering 296.63 acres and managed by Wrathell, Hunt and Associates (Starling CDD, Ordinance 2024-007; Starling CDD, About). It finances, owns and maintains the stormwater system and financed water and sewer lines, walls, landscaping and mitigation; it does not own the roads or the amenities.
For fiscal year 2027, October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027, the adopted budget lists $1,051.83 a year for a 42-foot homesite, $1,275.68 for 52-foot and $1,499.52 for 62-foot. Of each, $111.70 is operations and the rest is Series 2025 debt service: $940.13, $1,163.97 and $1,387.82 (Starling CDD, FY2027 adopted budget). It is the district’s first year of assessments on homesites.
The difference is entirely in the debt line. Every class pays the same $111.70 operations assessment for fiscal 2027, while the Series 2025 debt service rises with the homesite class, because larger homesites carry a larger share of the bonds under the district’s methodology (Starling CDD, Final Supplemental Methodology). Confirm your homesite’s class in the closing documents.
Possibly, but only a document can say. The district’s methodology says the developer “currently intends to fully prepay” the Series 2025 assessments on Phase 1 homes at closing, so some homes may carry only the $111.70 operations assessment (Starling CDD, Final Supplemental Methodology). An intent is not a record of payment. Ask for a district estoppel letter from Wrathell, Hunt and Associates before closing, and keep it.
It depends on the home. The fiscal 2027 budget expects to bill the assessment directly, and the district’s July 2026 notice says the Tax Collector will collect the operations assessment on certain developed property, so some developed homes may see it on the county tax bill instead (Starling CDD, August 5, 2026 agenda). Check your tax bill and ask the district manager how your homesite is billed.
Yes. The Series 2025 debt assessment can be prepaid, and a payoff amount for a specific home comes from the district manager, Wrathell, Hunt and Associates, in a dated letter (Starling CDD, About). The balance changes as principal is paid. Prepaying removes only the debt line; the yearly operations assessment, $111.70 for fiscal 2027, still applies.
The debt part ends; the operations part does not. The Series 2025 bonds are repaid through May 1, 2056, after which that debt line falls away (Starling CDD, January 7, 2026 agenda). The operations assessment continues for as long as the district runs its stormwater system and administration. The district’s 2025 draft bond document also says it intends to issue more bonds for later work, which would carry their own assessments on the land they serve.
Yes. The assessment runs with the land, and a Notice of Series 2025 Assessments is recorded in the Charlotte County Official Records, which is the document a title company finds when it searches your homesite (Starling CDD, January 7, 2026 agenda). A buyer takes the homesite with its assessment, and the contract and the closing statement decide how the year’s bill is split.
The district’s 2025 draft bond offering document, using figures furnished by the developer, estimates association fees of $4,459 to $4,699 a year including lawn maintenance, subject to change (Starling CDD, August 15, 2025 agenda). That is an estimate, not a budget. The association’s adopted budget: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). Ask Taylor Morrison for the current budget and your fee in writing.
The Starling Community Development District is a local government special district created by county ordinance; it finances, owns and maintains the stormwater system and repays its Series 2025 bonds through assessments. Starling Homeowners Association, Inc. is a private not-for-profit that owns the private roads, will receive the amenities and enforces the Declaration (Florida Division of Corporations, Starling Homeowners Association, Inc.). You pay both.
Taylor Morrison does, for now. The association’s officers on the state record also sit on the district board, whose members are Taylor Morrison employees; no turnover date was found. A landowners’ election for Seats 3, 4 and 5 is set for November 3, 2026, and residents begin electing district seats only after six years and once the district has 250 qualified electors (Starling CDD, FAQs).
No. We searched the state’s corporate records for any other association tied to this community and found none; one association, Starling Homeowners Association, Inc., governs every homesite (Florida Division of Corporations, name search for Esplanade at Starling). Every collection and street sits in the same association and district. A later filing could change that, so confirm which association governs your homesite.
It is not marketed as one. Taylor Morrison’s listing data marks its homes as not age-restricted, and the district’s 2025 draft bond document describes the community as active-lifestyle and age-targeted (Starling CDD, August 15, 2025 agenda). No recorded age restriction was found. The Declaration controls age rules, and it was not available to us.
Yes. Esplanade at Starling is gated (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026), and the county’s site plan conditions require gate arms with an emergency EVAC system (Charlotte County, DRC-24-156). The internal roads are private and belong to the association. Whether the gate is staffed or electronic, and the rules for guests and contractors, sit in the association’s documents, which were not available to us.
We cannot say. Rental rules, including any minimum lease term or approval process, belong in the recorded Declaration, and it was not available to us: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). If renting matters to your plan, make delivery of the Declaration a condition of your contract and read the leasing section yourself before closing.
The Declaration and the association’s rules govern pets, and the Declaration was not available to us, so we state no rule: Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02). The county-approved amenity program includes a large dog park and a small dog park, and the builder lists the dog park as open, but a dog park is an amenity, not a pet rule.
The county approved the Starling Amenity Center on about 6.8 acres: “a clubhouse, Bahama bar, pool, tennis court, pickle ball courts, bocce ball courts, mail kiosk, community garden, large dog park, and small dog park” (Charlotte County, DRC-24-156). As of October 2, 2026, Taylor Morrison lists the dog park, tennis and pickleball as open, the resort-style pool as coming soon and the Bahama Bar as planned (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026).
Taylor Morrison lists The Venue clubhouse as slated to open in early 2027, with a lifestyle room, catering kitchen, fitness center, spa treatment room and outdoor terrace (builder marketing seen October 2, 2026). That is the builder’s schedule, not a county record of completion. The zoning requires the clubhouse to be built to the county’s highest wind loads and to serve as a post-storm refuge for residents, though not for all of them at once.
No separate club membership or club dues appear in any record we read; the district’s records say the developer funds the amenities for conveyance to the association (Starling CDD, August 15, 2025 agenda). Once the amenities are conveyed, their running costs will sit inside the association’s budget. Any amenity use fee would sit in the association’s rules, which were not available to us.
No. Esplanade at Starling has no golf course, marina or boat ramp of its own, and its lakes are stormwater lakes the district will own and maintain. The nearest golf is Heritage Landing Golf and Country Club across Burnt Store Road; see our Heritage Landing guide. The nearest full-service marina is Safe Harbor Burnt Store, in Lee County with a Punta Gorda address, about 7 road miles south.
Every lot on the Starling plats is in FEMA flood zone D on the current map, panel 12015C0409G, effective December 15, 2022. Zone D is not a Special Flood Hazard Area on that map, and the map gives no Base Flood Elevation (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer). No FEMA map revision covers any Starling lot as of October 2, 2026. The lender’s determination for your structure controls.
No. FEMA’s Letter of Map Revision 25-04-4878P, effective May 27, 2026, re-mapped Turnleaf next door from Zone D to zones AE and X, and its footprint touches only one common tract on Starling’s north edge, which stays Zone D (FEMA, LOMR 25-04-4878P). If a quote for a Starling home shows Zone X or AE, ask which map it used.
It depends on the lender and the insurer. Federal rules require flood insurance for federally backed mortgages in Special Flood Hazard Areas, zones starting with A or V, and Zone D is outside that category on the current map (Charlotte County, Flood Information). Some lenders require it elsewhere, and Citizens requires flood coverage on homes with a replacement cost of $400,000 or more now and on all its personal residential policies from January 1, 2027. Get a quote whatever the zone.
County evacuation zones split the community. Of 457 parcels, 239 are in Zone D and 218 in Zone C, and all 42 built homes are in Zone D; most of Arbor Circle and all of Adelie Way are Zone C (Charlotte County GIS, evacuation zones layer). Evacuation zones are county storm surge planning areas, not FEMA flood zones, so check your exact address on Know Your Zone.
No Esplanade at Starling home existed during Charley in 2004, Ian in 2022, or Helene and Milton in 2024; every built home on the roll dates from 2025, and the preliminary plat was approved two weeks after Ian. So there is no storm record for these homes either way. For context, the National Hurricane Center reports that a sensor at Pirate Harbor, about 3 miles west-southwest by our calculation, measured 4.47 ft above MHHW during Ian (NHC Ian report).
Information not available at time of publishing (checked 2026-10-02); we have no quotes. Two rules shape the conversation: Citizens requires a flood policy on all personal residential policies from January 1, 2027, and an insurer may not refuse a policy solely because a roof is under 15 years old (Florida Statutes, section 627.7011). Get quotes on a named home, with its wind mitigation form, before you commit.
Esplanade at Starling homes sit in county tax district 121, where the combined millage was 15.0855 mills for 2025, which is $1,508.55 per $100,000 of taxable value, and the published proposed rates for 2026 sum to 15.4046 mills (Charlotte County Property Appraiser, 2025 final rates). The county’s MSBU records show Fire Rescue $294.90 and solid waste $335.51 per home and stormwater $26.75 per acre, MSBU year 2027. The district assessment is separate.
The seller’s capped assessment does not transfer, so your first full bill reflects market value and your own exemptions. A homestead requires you to live in the home as your permanent residence on January 1 and to file by March 1, and portability may carry savings from a prior Florida homestead (Charlotte County Property Appraiser, Exemptions). Amendment 3 is on the November 3, 2026 ballot and is not law until voters act.
The district’s Boundary Locator assigned all six Esplanade at Starling addresses we checked, on six streets, to East Elementary, Punta Gorda Middle and Charlotte High on October 2, 2026. Their 2026 state grades are B, A and B, and the district is graded A (Boundary Locator; Florida Department of Education, 2026 results). The state changed its grading scale in 2026, so do not compare letters year over year.
Punta Gorda has no open hospital. The nearest are HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital and AdventHealth Port Charlotte, both about 23 minutes and 13 road miles from 26000 Starling Boulevard by estimated free-flow drive (HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital; AdventHealth Port Charlotte; OSRM, our analysis). The community is in the response zone of Charlotte County Fire Rescue Station 5.
The nearest Gulf beach, Englewood Beach at Chadwick Park, is about 55 minutes and 33.9 road miles from 26000 Starling Boulevard, and Fort Myers Beach at Lynn Hall Park about 57 minutes (OSRM, our analysis, free-flow, no traffic). Port Charlotte Beach Park, about 26 minutes away, is a harbor beach on Charlotte Harbor, not a Gulf beach. We print no marketing distance claims.
The nearest full grocery is Publix at Burnt Store Marketplace, 3941 Tamiami Trail, about 11 minutes from the community’s map pin (Publix, Burnt Store Marketplace; OSRM, our analysis). We found no grocery on Burnt Store Road between the community and US 41 in the sources we read. Plan on driving north toward US 41 for errands.
Esplanade at Starling’s own Phase 2 site plan of 131 lots is approved but not platted, and a third phase is planned. Directly south, a planned development of up to 999 homes and 195,000 square feet of commercial space won a 3-0 Planning and Zoning Board recommendation on April 13, 2026, with the County Commission’s decision not found as of October 2, 2026 (Charlotte County Planning and Zoning Board agenda, April 13, 2026). Fire Station 17 has a forecast completion of March 2027.
No. Turnleaf, directly north, is a separate master plan with its own district, the Coral Creek CDD, and its own association; Esplanade at Starling has the Starling CDD and Starling Homeowners Association (Charlotte County GIS, petitions layer). Coral Lakes, also to the north, is a third community with its own Coral Lakes CDD. The two communities do not share amenities.
Over the same window, September 27, 2025 to September 26, 2026, Esplanade at Starling recorded 48 sales at a $540,850 median and Turnleaf 79 at a $350,000 median, per our Turnleaf guide. Esplanade at Starling is gated with one builder and an association estimate that includes lawn care; Turnleaf has four builders and a fiscal 2026 district total of $1,946.81 to $3,015.02. The decision table above sets out every factor.
They sit across Burnt Store Road from each other and differ in age and in kind. Our Heritage Landing guide describes a gated golf community of about 1,545 homes and condominiums, with 138 recorded sales from September 5, 2025 to August 31, 2026 at a $352,500 median, 108 of them resales. Esplanade at Starling’s 48 recorded sales over its own window are all first sales of new homes, and it has no golf course.
In Charlotte County the seller customarily pays for the owner’s title insurance policy, and the contract controls. A builder’s contract may assign it differently, so read the clause. Florida sets title insurance premiums by rule, so the premium for the same coverage is the same at every title company, and the settlement and search fees are what vary (Rule 69O-186.003). A buyer pays separately for a lender’s policy.
A financing buyer pays the documentary stamp tax on the mortgage at $0.35 per $100, the 2-mill intangible tax on the loan, recording, lender, title and inspection charges, and any association or district charges the contract assigns. On a round $540,000 price with 20 percent down, the mortgage stamps are $1,512 and the intangible tax is $864, our arithmetic (Fla. Stat. 201.08). Deed stamps of $3,780 are customarily the seller’s.
Ask for the recorded Declaration and rules; the association’s current budget and your fee; your homesite’s district class and a district estoppel letter showing whether its Series 2025 debt was or will be prepaid (Starling CDD, Final Supplemental Methodology); the written warranty; any capital contribution or charge due at closing; the permit plan set with its design wind speed; and the written status of the pool and The Venue. Add a lender’s flood determination and a Know Your Zone check.
Hire an independent inspector who reports to you, and look at three points: before the walls close if the builder allows it, at the final walk-through before closing, and before the warranty’s first coverage period ends. Ask for the wind mitigation form, the elevation certificate and the permit plan set as well (Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, wind mitigation resources). A builder’s checks and the county’s permit inspections do not replace an inspector who works for you.
Florida law requires a builder to warrant a newly constructed home for one year against construction defects that result in a material violation of the Florida Building Code, and the builder must honor that full one-year period even if the home is sold (Florida Statutes, s. 553.837). Anything longer is set by the builder’s own written warranty, which we did not read, so read it before you sign and ask whether it transfers to a later owner.
It is a negotiated amount that must be stated in a written agreement before you tour. Since August 17, 2024, an MLS participant must have a buyer sign a written agreement before they tour a home together, and that agreement must state compensation that is specific and fully negotiable (NAR, Summary of 2024 MLS Changes). A builder or seller may still agree to pay some or all of it. Our buying page describes how we work with buyers.
Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, call or text Jesse at (239) 898-6072, or book an Esplanade at Starling buyer consultation. The first conversation is a carrying-cost and shortlist session across the three collections, with the district, flood and association paperwork for any address you name. There is no charge, and you keep the work whether or not you go further. See also our Punta Gorda new construction guide.
Every document below links to the body that issues it rather than to a copy we host, so it stays current. An Esplanade at Starling buyer is handed several of these during a transaction, and reading them before the offer costs nothing. Community rules come from the recorded Declaration, requested through the association or the Charlotte County Clerk’s Official Records.
| Document | Issuing body | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Starling CDD fiscal year 2027 adopted budget | Starling Community Development District | Fiscal year 2027 budget |
| Starling CDD fiscal year 2026 adopted budget | Starling Community Development District | Fiscal year 2026 budget |
| Final Supplemental Methodology, Series 2025 bonds, November 5, 2025 agenda package | Starling Community Development District | Assessment methodology |
| Series 2025 closing and disclosure of public financing, January 7, 2026 agenda package | Starling Community Development District | Bond closing package |
| Fiscal year 2027 budget hearing and assessment notice, August 5, 2026 agenda package | Starling Community Development District | Budget hearing package |
| Draft 2025 bond offering document with the association estimate, August 15, 2025 agenda package | Starling Community Development District | Draft offering package |
| Master Engineer’s Report, May 1, 2024 agenda package | Starling Community Development District | Engineer’s report package |
| Ordinance 2024-007 establishing the district, with petition | Starling Community Development District | District ordinance |
| Ordinance 2021-036, petition PD-21-00010 (planned development zoning) | Charlotte County | Zoning ordinance |
| Decision letter DRC-24-171 (774 planned homesites) | Charlotte County | Planned development modification |
| Decision letter DRC-24-156 (Starling Amenity Center site plan) | Charlotte County | Amenity site plan letter |
| Decision letter DRC-24-224 (Phase 2 site plan) | Charlotte County | Phase 2 site plan letter |
| Decision letter FP-22-03-09 (Starling Phase 1 plat) | Charlotte County | Phase 1 plat letter |
| 2025 final rate chart by tax district | Charlotte County Property Appraiser | Final rates |
| 2026 proposed rates by tax district | Charlotte County Property Appraiser | Proposed rates |
| Flood Insurance Rate Map panel 12015C0409G | Federal Emergency Management Agency | FEMA map panel |
| Know Your Zone, evacuation zones | Charlotte County Emergency Management | Know Your Zone |
| School Boundary Locator | Charlotte County Public Schools | District Boundary Locator |
| 2026 School Grades results packet | Florida Department of Education | School grades |
| Starling Homeowners Association, Inc. filing record (N24000006543) | Florida Division of Corporations | Association record |
| Fla. Stat. 720.401, HOA disclosure summary | Florida Senate | Florida Statutes 720.401 |
| Fla. Stat. 720.30851, estoppel certificates | Florida Senate | Florida Statutes 720.30851 |
| Fla. Stat. 689.302, flood disclosure | Florida Senate | Florida Statutes 689.302 |
| Fla. Stat. 501.1375, new-construction deposits | Florida Senate | Florida Statutes 501.1375 |
| Fla. Stat. 553.837, new home warranty | Florida Senate | Florida Statutes 553.837 |
| Form DR-501T, portability application | Charlotte County Property Appraiser | Portability form DR-501T |
Every source below for this Esplanade at Starling guide was read or checked on October 2, 2026. Where a figure is our own tabulation, the text says so beside it. No competitor brokerage, listing portal or builder page appears here, by policy. County sales figures come from Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis.
McGreevy and Comisar are the Southwest Florida team Esplanade at Starling buyers call when a new-construction purchase has to be priced on the county record, read against the Starling district and closed without surprises. Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008 and lead the #1 team in Southwest Florida since 2012.
McGreevy and Comisar are a top-reviewed buyer team in Southwest Florida, and Esplanade at Starling buyers get the same partner-level representation our clients from Estero to Charlotte Harbor get. If you are searching for the best buyer’s agent in Esplanade at Starling, Punta Gorda, Florida, McGreevy and Comisar represents homebuyers across Punta Gorda, Charlotte County, Cape Coral, Estero, Bonita Springs, Naples, Fort Myers, Lee County and Collier County. Whether you are relocating, snowbirding, buying your first home, buying new construction or upgrading to a newer home, our team provides honest market guidance, partner-level negotiation and a clear plan to help you buy confidently.
Jesse McGreevy (Sales Associate, SL3101296) and Marc Comisar (Broker Associate, BK3060671) are licensed Florida Realtors with Domain Realty, regulated by the Florida Real Estate Commission under Chapter 475, Florida Statutes. Meet Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, or read about McGreevy and Comisar.
The community guide for this purchase is our Esplanade at Starling neighborhood guide. Selling first? Read how we sell homes in Esplanade at Starling. Ready to buy? Start your Esplanade at Starling buyer consultation or call Marc at (239) 287-5873. Owners can also see what their Esplanade at Starling home is worth.
McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team. Learn more at DomainRealtyGroup.com.
Updated October 2026. This guide is general information about buying a home in Esplanade at Starling, Punta Gorda, Florida. It is not legal, tax or insurance advice, and it is not an offer of representation. Market figures from Charlotte County Property Appraiser public sales files, our analysis, pulled September 2026. Brokered by Domain Realty.