Is Lake Denham within Leesburg City Limits
 

It got real today. Our desired lots in Lake Denham are being released tomorrow. Fingers crossed. For property tax purposes, is Lake Denham within the incorporated city limits of Leesburg? I realize the tax rates are higher in Lake County, but I am hoping I will not need to pay Leesburg rider as well.

Thanks for any info.

Your village agent should be able to answer this question.

Yes, you will be in Leesburg city limit.

Little late for that question I think....get your lot :)

Yes and will be subject to Leesburg city tax assessments.

Good luck tomorrow - I’m rooting for you!😀

Thanks everyone for the responses. We were successful in acquiring the lot, but now have learned it is in flood zone A according to Lake County. Now pursuing advisement on how to move forward. Some have suggested hiring a surveyor to certify that the elevation is now different from that found in public records.

Pick another lot; there are plenty. It is going to be a flood zone. BTW, your agent knew - or should have. It is right on the site map. Newell has a few flood lots - on lots no where near water. I am building in Newell and wish I stayed in Citrus Grove. Not to mention no one has bought my house yet.

One last thing - it does NOT mean it WILL flood. See what flood ins will cost - may be worth staying.

Question why do you wish you stayed in Citrus Grove, instead of build a custom in Newell?

Just chiming in. There are no more custom homes being built. Please check out earlier threads in the last month or so discussing what design options really are available. As of fall 2022, The Villages stopped custom designs and the Design Center became more of a historic model of what used to be. You get 4 or so choices that are well documented. Stepped up spec homes. Previously we moved walls, added rooms, moved bathrooms, electrical, plumbing etc. You have two pool choices. Nothing wrong with this other than the misunderstanding that you have more than the small menu to choose from and this doesn’t seem to be explained to all.

Curious. If in Lake County, does that still mean no bond to pay? Or has that changed? Might be an offset to higher taxes & flood insurance.

Best of luck in your new home & for a quick sale of your current one

Many new homes have not been reaccessed by FEMA yet. This is the responsibility of the Villages and takes time to get FEMA out here. Our sales rep told us his home took about 1 1/2 yrs for the reassessment. Buckle up for flood insurance in the meantime.

They piled a lot of soil in that area. The flood map may not be up to date to the final grading for the home.

I've observed the lots trend to be more than about 75ft above sea level.

You can rough check using the Compass app on an Apple Watch. Or another GPS App. Compare your home reading to other areas.

Thanks for the thread. I was thinking of building in Lake Denham until I looked at the flood zone map. When I looked at that map, in addition to the large areas with flood zones, it was obvious that the offramp for the turnpike will be awfully close to those houses. So, in between flood zones and the offramp, I think I'll be waiting until they release lots south of the turnpike.

Replying to laurawilcox post & regarding building a designer home from scratch in 2022….not the experience you mention. Structural - only allowed to stretch the floor plan; we chose 3 stretches. Otherwise we picked everything from flooring to cabinet pulls to paint colors in & out.

Flood insurance quoted for us was $1000 for the year. We are in Richmond.

There will be a bond attached. The bond is the funding mechanism used by the developer to pay for the infrastructure costs to build a village.

Flood zone
 

Do not worry about flood zone, we purchased our last 2 homes in flood zones, after about a year, fema will do another survey and you will be removed from the flood zone. The villages always brings the soil above flood zone, just takes time for fema to catch up. We paid about 500 for flood insurance the first year. The biggest problem with being in the initial flood zone is that you have to escrow your taxes and insurance, which most banks demand when you are in flood zone, unless you pay cash for the house. Good Luck.

Can you build a 2 story house there like in the coastal flood plane areas?

Good advice. When we were looking to buy, we learned than much of Chitty Chatty and Bradford were on "flood plains". They would require flood insurance in order to get a mortgage... IIRC, it wasn't THAT expensive.

Sea level isn't the issue...

It's the nearby LAKE Level...

I am in Lake and I have a bond - Village of Pine Ridge

City of Leesburg
 

Here is an interactive map for Leesburg. There are some flood zones south of Lake Dedham area. Bridget, Vanbeck, Tanya, Newell, Gary, Ralph, Christian, Wettstien, Meggison and Schroeder are problem areas. As far as taxes, from what I understand Leesburg has their hands in the millage till up to the Lake County line, while Wildwood has everything south of 44 in Sumter.



ArcGIS Web Application

I do have some basic questions based on reasonable conjecture:

1) Were lot prices reduced because of flooding charts and additional costs to the prospective homeowner?
2) Reduced prices seem to correlate with a time period where interest rates are higher making someone look like the good guy? Was this the plan all along to get the most for the Villages dollar on otherwise questionable real estate?

“Full steam ahead on the flood zone area we bought! Hurry, interest rates are going up! We can finally ditch this swampland!”

What you were able to do is great.

Prior to fall of 2022, you had many more custom choices than the ones you suggest. It seems like this isn’t always presented to new buyers. We created bathrooms, moved bedrooms etc. Anything you want (reasonably) for your pool and birdcage. Have the word “custom” thrown around to frequently. All new buyers should ensure they know what that means before they make a purchase decision and wait for their “custom” new build.

No need for "conjecture." They elevated those areas, you can see it in the latest GoldWingnut video. The flood zone maps have not yet been updated to reflect final grading in that area.