A buyer who spent an afternoon researching Mello-Roos in Dublin now knows the Dublin Crossing number by heart: somewhere between $3,912 and $5,830 a year per single-family home in fiscal year 2024-25, depending on the size of the house, with a separate services charge riding alongside it. That buyer walks into an open house at Francis Ranch expecting a version of the same math. It isn't there.
Francis Ranch runs on a different formula entirely, one tied to the price of the home rather than a schedule of flat per-parcel amounts. When the Dublin City Council formed the district that covers this project in late 2023, the special tax started at 1.58% of each home's sales price and was set to climb 2% annually after that, with no ceiling tied to what the market actually does to home values. Based on price projections from RCLCO Real Estate Consulting at the time, that worked out to roughly $20,000 to $42,000 a year across six tax zones, spanning townhomes priced around $1.3 million to single-family homes around $2.7 million.
That is not a rounding difference from Dublin Crossing. It is a different kind of tax, calculated a different way, and a buyer who already did their Mello-Roos homework on the wrong development is going to be surprised by the size of the gap.
Two CFDs, Two Different Formulas
Dublin Crossing's special tax comes from Community Facilities District No. 2015-1, formed the same year the city broke ground on what's marketed as "The Boulevard." That district assigns a maximum special tax to each land use category, meaning the dollar figure is set by the size and type of the home, not by what any individual buyer pays for it. A services district, CFD No. 2017-1, sits on top and covers things like park maintenance and street lighting. One documented Dublin Crossing parcel's combined bill across both districts came to $5,048 in fiscal year 2025-26.
Francis Ranch sits inside a different district altogether. The city's own CFD page lists it as CFD No. 2023-1, East Ranch, distinct from both Dublin Crossing districts. Where Dublin Crossing's tax is anchored to a fixed schedule, East Ranch's rate is a percentage of sales price. That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should, because it means the tax isn't a number a buyer can look up citywide and apply to any Francis Ranch address. It's a number that changes with whatever the home actually sells for.
What the City's Own Documents Show for Francis Ranch
The project itself, built out on 165 acres north of Interstate 580 between Fallon Road and the city's eastern boundary, was approved for 459 single-family homes, 14 duet homes and 100 townhomes, a total that lines up with the 573-home community Trumark Homes now markets as Francis Ranch. The city council's vote to form the district was not unanimous. It passed 3-2, with Vice Mayor Michael McCorriston and Councilmember Kashef Qaadri voting against it before the formal formation in December 2023.
Here's how the two districts compare on paper:
| Dublin Crossing (CFD 2015-1) | Francis Ranch (CFD 2023-1, East Ranch) | |
|---|---|---|
| Formed | 2015 | 2023 |
| Tax basis | Flat rate by land use category | Percentage of sales price |
| Initial range | ~$3,912–$5,830/year (FY 2024-25, single-family) | 1.58% of sales price at initial levy |
| Annual escalation | Up to 2% | 2% |
| Projected annual range | N/A (fixed schedule) | ~$20,000–$42,000/year (2023 projection, $1.3M–$2.7M homes) |
| Sunset | No levy after FY 2050-51 | Tied to bond repayment, not yet published |
The projected range for Francis Ranch came from 2023 price assumptions, not a confirmed fiscal-year assessment the way the Dublin Crossing figures are. Because the rate is a percentage rather than a fixed number, the actual dollar amount on any given Francis Ranch tax bill depends on what that specific home sold for, which means two homes on the same street can carry different tax bills indefinitely based on what each buyer paid at closing.
A Tax That Moves With the Price You Pay
This is the part that's easy to miss when comparing new construction across Dublin on price per square foot alone. A percentage-of-price special tax rewards nothing about buying the more expensive floor plan or the premium lot. It taxes it, permanently, at 1.58% of whatever number is on the purchase contract, then adds 2% to that number every year afterward regardless of whether the home's value keeps pace.
Two buyers who close on comparable homes in the same tax zone but negotiate different prices will carry different special tax bills for as long as the district's bonds remain outstanding. A flat per-parcel structure like Dublin Crossing's doesn't create that dynamic. Every single-family home in a given land use category owes the same scheduled amount whether it sold for $50,000 more or less than the house next door.
The Name on the Paperwork Isn't the Name on the Sign
Anyone pulling up Dublin's public list of Community Facilities Districts to check on Francis Ranch won't find it listed under that name. The city's CFD directory lists the project as "2023-1, East Ranch," the name used before the community was rebranded for sale. Builders now market homes here as Larkspur at Francis Ranch and Primrose at Francis Ranch through Taylor Morrison, and Azure at Francis Ranch through Trumark Homes. The special tax paperwork, the title report, and the county's fiscal status filings will all reference East Ranch. A buyer searching only for "Francis Ranch CFD" on the city's site may come up empty and wrongly conclude the district isn't formed yet.
The Affordable Units Sit Outside This Math
When the district was formed, the project's plan carved out 18 affordable-housing units that were excluded from the new special tax altogether. That exemption has continued to matter as the project has built out. In February 2026, the City of Dublin announced seven new below-market-rate homes at Francis Ranch through Trumark, four duet homes priced at $576,615 and three townhomes priced at $627,815, open for applications from February 1 through March 2, 2026. Income limits ranged from $172,600 for a three-person household up to $253,100 for an eight-person household, and the program required buyers to be first-time homebuyers occupying the home as a primary residence.
The special tax structure that applies to market-rate Francis Ranch homes doesn't apply the same way to this program, which is worth knowing if a below-market-rate unit is part of what someone is comparing against a market-rate purchase elsewhere in the project.
Before You Remove Contingencies
The special tax on a specific Francis Ranch parcel won't show up as a clean, memorizable number the way it does at Dublin Crossing, because it isn't one. A few steps matter more here than they would in a flat-rate district:
- Ask for the exact rate and formula tied to the specific lot and floor plan, not a project-wide average, since the percentage applies to the actual purchase price being negotiated.
- Confirm the current fiscal year's levy against the preliminary title report before removing contingencies, since the tax lien will show up there under the East Ranch name.
- Contact Goodwin Consulting Group, the city's retained special tax administrator for all of Dublin's CFDs, for the current annual amount and any prepayment option on the specific parcel.
- If comparing a below-market-rate unit against a market-rate purchase, confirm in writing whether the special tax exemption applies to that specific unit before assuming the monthly numbers are comparable.
FAQ
Is the Francis Ranch special tax the same as the Dublin Crossing special tax? No. Dublin Crossing's tax comes from CFD No. 2015-1, a flat schedule based on land use category. Francis Ranch's tax comes from CFD No. 2023-1 (East Ranch), calculated as a percentage of sales price with 2% annual escalation.
Why does the city's CFD list show "East Ranch" instead of "Francis Ranch"? East Ranch was the project's name when the district was formed in 2023. The community was later branded Francis Ranch for sale, but the tax district and its official filings still use the original name.
Do the below-market-rate homes at Francis Ranch pay the same special tax as market-rate homes? The project's formation documents excluded 18 affordable-housing units from the special tax. Buyers considering a below-market-rate unit should confirm the current exemption status in writing rather than assume it carries over automatically.
If you're comparing new construction across Dublin's tax districts and want the actual numbers pulled for a specific address before you write an offer, the Duarte Team can walk through the parcel-level math with you.
