From Wellen Park's construction boom to island infill — FWC-authorized gopher tortoise surveys and relocation across greater Venice.
Greater Venice is being built on former scrub and flatwoods — the exact habitat gopher tortoises prefer. Wellen Park alone is one of the fastest-selling master-planned communities in the country, expanding across land that held tortoise populations long before the first model home, and the surrounding corridors (US-41 south, Jacaranda, Laurel Road east) are following the same pattern.
South Venice's older platted neighborhoods behave like North Port in miniature: sandy quarter-acre lots, decades vacant, frequently occupied by tortoises. Meanwhile the island of Venice itself has limited habitat — but teardown-rebuild projects near the coast still occasionally turn up a burrow in an overgrown side yard.
Wherever your parcel sits, the rule is the same statewide: nothing gets cleared within 25 feet of a burrow until it's resolved under an FWC permit. We handle the survey, the permit, and the relocation as one engagement.
Four flavors of Venice work.
Lot-level compliance inside the master plan, plus owner upgrades (pools, extended lanais) that come within 25 feet of preserved-edge burrows.
Older platted lots with established burrows — the highest hit rate in the Venice area. Survey before clearing, every time.
Acreage and transitional parcels heading toward I-75 — active development with significant scrub habitat.
Limited habitat, but overgrown coastal lots still surprise people. A $350 survey beats a stop-work order.
Projects inside Venice city limits permit through the City of Venice; South Venice, Nokomis, Osprey, and most of Wellen Park run through Sarasota County. Both expect gopher tortoise compliance — a state matter under Rule 68A-27, F.A.C. — to be resolved before land clearing. Our survey report is formatted to drop into either permit package.
In HOA communities like Wellen Park, we also coordinate with community rules on access and scheduling — tell us your community and gate details when you book and we handle the rest.
The same four steps everywhere we work — most clients only ever make one phone call.
Give us the property address and your timeline. We confirm whether a survey is needed and schedule within 48 hours.
We walk 100% of the parcel, GPS-map every burrow, and deliver an FWC-format written report the next business day.
If tortoises are present, we prepare and submit the FWC relocation permit application for you. Typical review: 2–6 weeks.
Once permitted, we capture and relocate the tortoises to an approved recipient area. You're legal to clear and build.
Same transparent pricing across our whole service area — no location markups.
| Gopher tortoise survey | $350 / quarter acre |
| Relocation (up to 2 tortoises, permit included) | $1,400 |
| Each additional tortoise | +$400 |
| Off-site recipient site fee (waterfront/canal lots — paid to the conservation site) | $5,000 / tortoise |
Full details, examples by lot size, and what's never included: see the pricing page.
Wellen Park, South Venice, or the island — on-site within 48 hours, report the next business day.