The Old Gulf Gate Golf Course Question Is Headed for Gulf Gate Mailboxes

For more than a decade, the question of what happens to the closed 49-acre golf course in the middle of Gulf Gate Estates has been argued in front of the Sarasota County Commission. On Sept. 8, 2026, commissioners sent it back to the neighborhood. They directed staff to survey residents, keep negotiating with the property owner, and study how a special assessment district would work before the board takes the issue up again.

That makes the next step a household decision. The county is weighing the purchase as a stormwater facility, and the owner already holds approval to build homes. Whichever way it goes, the outcome depends on how Gulf Gate answers a question about its own property tax bills. It also has to happen before a construction deadline that is now about six months away.

What commissioners asked for on Sept. 8

According to Siesta Sand's account of the meeting, County Stormwater Director Ben Quartermaine described a possible way to pay for it: a capital stormwater assessment. His preliminary model assumed an $8 million purchase, cleanup and maintenance, and about $12 million in stormwater improvements. Without grant funding, he estimated a 20-year assessment at roughly $340 to $500 a year per billing unit.

County Administrator Jonathan Lewis said Sarasota County typically surveys affected residents before it sets up this type of assessment district. He asked staff to evaluate two structures, a municipal services benefit unit and a municipal services taxing unit. Chair Ron Cutsinger said the county needs to know whether residents who support buying the land also support helping pay for it.

Commissioner Teresa Mast pushed for the survey to state the cost plainly. Business Observer reported her comments this way:

"$300 to $500 is a significant impact to many households, so I'm very thoughtful in that. I want to make sure we err on the side of the high end instead of on the low end because if you're going to have shocker to your budget, I'd rather know it up front."

Who gets the survey has been described two ways. The Gulf Gate Community Association says it will go to about 1,500 Gulf Gate residents. Business Observer reported that staff would contact affected property owners in the core community and on its fringes.

The numbers behind the survey question

The survey is asking residents about a price no one has agreed on yet. Here are the figures presented at the Sept. 8 meeting, with the sale that started it all:

All of the remediation and construction costs come on top of whatever the county pays for the land. Cutsinger said the gap between the county's appraisals and the owner's figure has to narrow, and called the owner's ask "not within the realm of reality, as far as I'm concerned."

That gap matters to anyone filling out the survey. Quartermaine's $340-to-$500 range assumed an $8 million purchase price. That is near the top of the county's appraisals and well below the owner's number. If the negotiated price moves, the numbers residents are asked to weigh could move with it.

Why the county treats this as a Gulf Gate project

The case for buying the land is about water. Quartermaine told commissioners that the drainage basins serving Gulf Gate were mostly built before today's rules required stormwater ponds, swales, treatment and attenuation. Seven roads inside the neighborhood still fall short of the county's stormwater level-of-service standards. A county project on the old course could address those problems and also significantly cut the nitrogen flowing into Metheny Creek. He called it a potential "legacy stormwater project" in a basin that is already built out.

Business Observer traced the land back to a dairy farm owned for decades by the Bispham family. It was sold to a developer in 1957 and became an executive-style course in the early 1960s. Quartermaine compared that era with Palmer Ranch, which has ponds and swales that treat stormwater. Gulf Gate was "primarily built out before ponds and water treatment were required."

Commissioners also heard about the condition of the site. Officials reported arsenic in both the soil and the water. Staff stressed that the Phillips cleanup estimate assumes a county stormwater use, and that a cleanup plan for homes could be different. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection would decide which method is appropriate, whether that's capping, soil mixing or removal.

The association's answer to the survey

The Gulf Gate Community Association has pushed for a county purchase for years, and it supports one now. It objects to the survey as the county has framed it. In a Sept. 17 update, the GGCA board said it asked the stormwater department to identify which costs benefit the county as a whole and take those out of the survey. The board believes that covers almost all of the $300 to $500. The same update included correspondence from Jon Thaxton, a former county commissioner who now leads the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. Thaxton challenged the survey and reminded commissioners of other funding sources that could pay for the purchase.

Adrian Moore, a Gulf Gate resident and Observer columnist, made the same argument in a Sept. 24 opinion column in the Observer. He wrote that stormwater from the neighborhood drains through two creeks into Little Sarasota Bay. He listed funding streams he believes the county could use instead, including the Environmentally Sensitive Land Protection Program, Resilient SRQ, the infrastructure surtax and Stormwater 441. His column also says the county would walk away from negotiations if residents reject a special district. That is his reading of the situation, not a stated county position.

The association's latest step came on Oct. 18. "Save the Bay, Buy the Gulf Gate Golf Course" bumper stickers are now available through the GGCA for $2 each. Proceeds go toward an environmental attorney to give residents a voice in the purchase and use of the property.

The deadline underneath all of it

The survey, the negotiations and the funding debate are all running against a set of approvals that already exist. The property is entitled for 108 lots. It has gone through the site development permit phase and received some demolition permits. At the Sept. 8 meeting, Cutsinger said the board was not deciding whether homes could be built, because those rights had already been granted.

Business Observer reported that those construction approvals expire in April 2027. At a May 20 community meeting at Gulf Gate Library, an attorney working with the developer said groundbreaking could come in the fourth quarter of 2026, possibly starting in October.

There is also a state-level track. The owner has asked for a brownfield designation, which Sarasota County's public notice calls a Green Reuse Area. Under Florida's Brownfields Redevelopment Act, the designation creates a framework and possible incentives for voluntary cleanup and reuse. The designation itself is not a finding that a property is contaminated. The May notice said two County Commission public hearings would follow, with dates to be announced. As of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Sarasota County brownfield list, last updated Sept. 3, 2026, Gulf Gate does not appear among the designated areas.

Neighbors noticed work on the course after the September meeting. The GGCA's Sept. 10 update reported demolition activity on the site. A county Environmental Protection Office employee visited, and the county was checking that work against the applicable contamination protocols. Siesta Sand's Oct. 1 report described that review as still underway.

What to watch for between now and spring

1. The survey itself. When Business Observer reported on Sept. 29, county staff were only beginning to draft the survey's wording. Mast asked that it describe what could happen on the site, the expected results and the costs.
2. The County Commission agenda. The golf course did not appear on the Sept. 22, Sept. 23, Oct. 6 or Oct. 7 agendas. The next Commission meeting on the county's calendar is Nov. 4, 2026, starting at 9 a.m.
3. The brownfield hearings. Two public hearings on the Green Reuse Area request are still to be scheduled.
4. Activity on the site. Watch for groundbreaking for the 108-lot plan or more demolition, along with the county's finding on the September work.
5. April 2027. That's when the existing construction approvals expire, according to Business Observer.

The survey will put numbers in front of homeowners about a possible assessment, and how an MSBU or MSTU would apply to your parcel depends on details the county hasn't released yet. This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. When the survey arrives, check how it applies to your property with the county or your own tax professional.

If you own near the old course and want to talk through what a decision either way could mean for your property's next chapter, A Classic Approach is glad to sit down with you. Schedule a Free Market Consultation, and we'll go over what's been decided so far and what's still pending.