The explosion of housing thanks largely to The Villages was Leesburg’s No. 1 story in 2022.
In January the Leesburg City Commission gave the green light to the Whispering Hills real estate development. Construction Journal detailed the Whispering Hills plan which calls for 2,942 residential units to be constructed. Plans call for 2,302 units which will be single-family homes and townhomes with an additional 640 multi-family units. The plan also calls for 451,000 square feet of commercial space which would include medical and business offices as well as a hotel. The first phase will consist of 700 single family homes and a golf course.
You can see the plan at this link: whispering_hills_phase_plan_pg1 .
The Villages purchased 515 acres from the city in November which will be developed to handle waste water by The Villages. That purchase was in addition to the 1,200 acres The Villages has acquired and more than doubles the amount of land owned by the The Villages in Leesburg. In 2018, The Villages finalized a deal to purchase 1,127 acres of land along County Road 470 from the city for about $7.54 million. That property, which eventually could include 2,800 houses, is being developed.
The new residential and commercial developments will add several thousand residents and millions of dollars to the cities tax base. The expansion of The Villages should result in a substantial increase in tax dollars for schools and public safety. Age restricted developments place almost no students into Leesburg schools while providing much needed funds to local educators. Police and fire budgets should also be enhanced as age restricted new developments tend to have low crime rates and new construction tends to have fewer fires.
When one looks to the west they can see the positive impacts such expansion has had on Wildwood which has built a state of the art public safety building, added additional police and support people.
Leesburg netted about $4.1 million on a previous deal with The Villages that City Manager Al Minner labeled in June of 2020 as an “economic engine” for years to come.
