Leesburg commission rejects 7.5-acre Royal Highlands annexation, tables 596-acre Oak Ridge PUD as county road dispute looms

The Leesburg City Commission on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025 rejected an annexation for a 7.53-acre parcel in Royal Highlands and delayed action on a much larger Oak Ridge planned unit development after Lake County officials raised questions about who would be responsible for maintaining County Road 48 if the city annexed the land.

The decisions came during a meeting that also moved several ordinances forward on first reading and approved routine items including inclusion in the countywide municipal service taxing unit for ambulance service and amendments to the city's facade grant and utility impact fee programs.

The Royal Highlands proposal would have annexed about 7.53 acres west of U.S. Highway 27 and south of the Florida Turnpike and rezone the parcel to a City of Leesburg SPUD to allow 48 attached single-family townhomes. Planning staff described the project as 48 townhome units on 20-foot lots with a minimum unit living area of 1,100 square feet, two off‑street parking spaces per unit, a 35% open-space minimum and requirements for sidewalks, buffers and use of city water and wastewater.

Dan Miller, the city planning and zoning presenter, described the package as an annexation, a small-scale comprehensive-plan amendment and a rezoning to SPUD. Developer representatives argued the residential plan would generate fewer traffic trips than commercial development planned for the parcel under county approvals; Tom Daley of Daley Design Group said the project’s traffic engineer estimated about 552 average daily trips for the proposed townhomes versus 3,236 daily trips for a retail strip center.

Despite the developer’s presentation and attorney reports that access easements were not limited to commercial uses, the commission voted against annexation. The chair noted the vote failed 0–4 and, because annexation is prerequisite to the accompanying land‑use and zoning ordinances, the commission did not proceed with the related ordinances.

By contrast, the commission tabled the Oak Ridge PUD — a proposed annexation, large-scale comprehensive-plan change and rezoning for roughly 596.28 acres east of County Road 48 and south of the Florida Turnpike — to a date certain (Nov. 10) to allow staff to obtain clarity from Lake County. Planning staff described Oak Ridge as a proposed 910-unit development with 642 detached and 268 attached units, a range of minimum lot and house sizes, design standards (two-story maximum, 35% minimum open space), three boulevard-style access points and extensive trail and wetland preservation elements.

Logan (developer representative) and planning staff stressed stormwater and open-space features; the developer said the proposal includes substantial wetland protection and multiuse trails and noted that a boardwalk shown at an earlier community meeting had been removed from the plan to avoid encroaching on view sheds.

The Oak Ridge item generated a separate and dispositive issue: a Friday letter from Lake County that suggested, if the property were annexed, the county’s position might be that the city would assume maintenance responsibility for an extended segment of County Road 48. City attorney Grant (recorded in the meeting as reviewing the letter) told commissioners that statutory procedures apply to noncontiguous annexations — either transmitting the comprehensive-plan amendment to the state for review or having a joint planning agreement in place — and that the city had not transmitted the amendment to the state before the meeting. He warned the commission that moving forward without that step could raise legal questions and recommended a continuance if the commission wanted to proceed with annexation that evening.

City staff and the city manager told commissioners they had met with county staff on multiple occasions and had received a county list of roads the county believes should be transferred under the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement (ISBA). The city manager told the commission staff’s reading of the 2014 ISBA is ambiguous in places and urged caution before annexing in ways that might trigger broad new city maintenance obligations. He proposed negotiating an amendment to the ISBA that would create negotiated “no‑annexation” zones to preserve portions of the county’s future-land-use plan while protecting municipal utility and service territories.

Commissioners voted to table the Oak Ridge PUD and several related items to a date certain (Nov. 10) so staff could gather additional information from county public works and state reviewers. The commission separately authorized the city manager to pursue an amendment to the 2013/2014 ISBA that would identify areas where the city and county agree not to pursue annexation. The motion to authorize the city manager to pursue an ISBA amendment was approved by unanimous roll call.

Other business and votes

- The commission approved inclusion of the City of Leesburg in Lake County’s municipal service taxing unit (MSTU) for ambulance and emergency medical services (first-reading ordinance and vote recorded in the meeting packet). This vote passed by roll call.

- The commission approved amendments to the city’s façade sign and landscape grant program (ordinance amending city code section 7‑170). The measure passed on a roll-call vote after commissioners confirmed that properties with outstanding code violations would be ineligible for grant awards.

- The commission approved an ordinance updating water and wastewater capacity impact fees consistent with a city study dated Sept. 4, 2025. Staff said utility departments have indicated there is capacity to serve pending PUD proposals.

- The commission tabled two other annexation items (the larger Oak Ridge related items identified on the agenda as items 5 and 6) to Nov. 10 and laid over other rezoning and annexation requests (including a Legacy Commerce Center and a Leesburg Lakefront PUD) to later dates noted on the agenda.

The meeting closed after a brief appointments item: the commission appointed Joshua Brewster to the Historic Preservation Board by unanimous vote.