Tall Pines

Ardisia Lane is the only road into Tall Pines. It leaves Airport-Pulling Road and crosses the Airport Road Canal on a short bridge, laid out as a divided entry with one lane each way, before it reaches the houses. Two streets branch off it and stop at turning circles, so nothing passes through.

There's no clubhouse, no shared pool and no court. Life here happens on the lots, where the pools and yards belong to the houses. Between the two inner streets lie two lakes, a fountain playing in the northern one. Sprouts is a 13-minute walk. The neighborhood sits on the eastern side of Airport-Pulling Road in North Naples, in the stretch between Pine Ridge Road and Orange Blossom Drive, and its houses are all detached, each on a separate lot.

What is it like to walk around Tall Pines?

You walk in loops that end where they began. Waxmyrtle Way and Cypress Hollow Way run north to south, side by side, and each ends in a turning circle at both ends. Ardisia Lane crosses the middle to join them, and neither street leads anywhere but back to Ardisia Lane, so none of the three carries through traffic.

Counted together, the three streets come to about a mile and a quarter, with sidewalks the whole way, and that is the neighborhood's walking and cycling route. The lakes fill the ground between the two parallel streets. Some houses back onto the water.

The addresses spell it Waxmyrtle, as one word.

What is within a mile or two of Tall Pines?

Three grocery stores lie within a mile. Sprouts Farmers Market in Ridgeport Plaza is about 0.6 miles away, around 13 minutes walking. The Publix and the Target at Pine Ridge Crossings are about 0.9 miles, around 20 minutes. By car, each is about a mile and about 3 minutes.

The headquarters of the Collier County Public Library, on Orange Blossom Drive, is about 1.2 miles away, around 26 minutes walking, or 1.3 miles by road.

Further out, the times below are for driving on clear roads, and each one stretches in season traffic.

• Waterside Shops and Artis–Naples, about 3 miles each, around 7 minutes
• Mercato, 4.3 miles, around 8 minutes
• Vanderbilt Beach Park, about 5.4 miles, around 11 minutes
• Fifth Avenue South, 7.6 miles, around 15 minutes
• Southwest Florida International Airport, 26 miles, around 35 minutes

Two hospitals are within 5 miles. Physicians Regional's Pine Ridge hospital lies 3.2 miles away, around 7 minutes when traffic is light, and NCH North Naples Hospital on Health Park Boulevard is 5 miles, around 10.

Are there tennis or pickleball courts near Tall Pines?

Yes, but they aren't the neighborhood's. The courts belong to the YMCA of Collier County, whose North Campus on YMCA Road is about three-quarters of a mile away, around 16 minutes walking, or under a mile by car. Of its tennis center, the YMCA says: "We offer 8 clay courts and 2 hard courts that are all lighted for night play." Of pickleball: "Pickleball at the North Campus offers four (4) indoor courts and six (6) outdoor courts."

Playing there means joining the YMCA, or paying a day rate for pickleball. That membership is separate from owning a house in Tall Pines, and buying here doesn't come with it.

What kinds of homes are in Tall Pines, and what do they sell for?

Detached houses, one story and two, and no condominium or townhouse anywhere among them. These are established houses built from 1981 onward, mostly through the 1980s and 1990s, and the newest on record is one rebuilt in 2014. Nobody is building or selling new homes in Tall Pines, so every purchase is a resale.

Lots run about a third of an acre, and one reaches roughly half an acre. The houses run from about 2,450 to about 4,600 square feet, with 3 to 6 bedrooms. Any pool is private, on the house's own lot.

Homes have sold from the $740,000s to around $1.8 million. That span rests on a small number of resales, so read it as the two ends of the sales so far and not as a price for any particular house.

Is there a homeowners' association, and what does it cost?

Yes. Tall Pines has a homeowners' association, though no club or golf course. A fee to the association comes with every house; only the association can confirm how much it is and how often it is billed.

The same goes for everything that hangs off the fee. What the assessment pays for, whether there are leasing rules, and whether any charge is due at closing are all questions for the association itself.

What should you pin down before making an offer?

The association's paperwork, before you are under contract. It publishes nothing that can be found: no website, no documents, not even its own name in a public source. There is no rulebook to read in advance.

So ask for the governing documents and the current assessment early, before you sign. Read them for the fee and how often it is billed, for any rule on renting the house out, and for anything owed at closing. Once the contract is signed, a surprise in those papers is harder to undo.

Whatever the papers say, the map stays as it is. A single bridge crosses the canal from Airport-Pulling Road, turning circles close off Waxmyrtle Way and Cypress Hollow Way, and the fountain plays in the northern lake.