About LEHA
The Lake Ellen Homeowners Association, or LEHA, represents the entire North Forest Hills neighborhood (about 218 homes), and discretionary membership is open to all residents. North Forest Hills has never had a mandatory homeowners association.
LEHA was incorporated as a voluntary HOA to protect and enhance the neighborhood and has remained as such. LEHA does not have restrictive covenants. Instead, members work together to preserve, protect and enhance the quality of the North Forest Hills neighborhood by providing leadership for neighborhood concerns, addressing safety issues, implementing neighborhood
improvements, providing social and community outreach activities, communicating important issues to residents and local government, promoting beautification projects and watershed protection, and maintaining Lake Ellen and other neighborhood common areas.
Some recent projects that LEHA members have worked on together include purchasing and installing benches and picnic tables near the lake, restocking the lake with fish, purchasing and spreading gravel on the walking path, and providing funds for social activities like the neighborhood Halloween event and the Ronald McDonald House luminary night.
Although LEHA membership is voluntary, this year more neighbors have chosen to join than ever before and this increase in membership has helped foster the wonderful sense of community for which our neighborhood is known.
History of Lake Ellen
The North Forest Hills neighborhood was developed in the 1970’s by the Greene family who owned the land at that time.
Sometime in the 1960’s, prior to selling off plots of his land to developers, Ted Greene created a lake by damming Booker Creek. Mr. Greene named the lake after his wife Ellen, stocked it with fish and charged people for fishing. Lake Ellen was originally about 8 acres with a maximum depth of 18 feet. When Mr. Geene began selling plots to future homeowners the lake was featured as a big selling point.
In April of 1978, the Lake Ellen Homeowners’ Association, or LEHA, was officially incorporated to protect, beautify, and maintain the property under and immediately adjacent to Lake Ellen. Mr. Greene continued to hold ownership of Lake Ellen until 1985. He transferred ownership of Lake Ellen and the dam to LEHA.
From 1986 to 1989 members of LEHA worked tirelessly to raise the money and complete repairs to the dam and construction of an upgraded spillway so the dam would conform to state standards. The dam is routinely inspected to ensure its safety. Inspections and maintenance of the lake and surrounding areas were fairly smooth until December of 2016 when a drainpipe located in the bottom of the lake inadvertently opened up and caused the lake to drain completely at a pace rapid enough to cause damage to the dam. LEHA stepped up again with the support of many neighbors to raise the money and complete the necessary repairs. Repairs to the dam were completed in the fall of 2018, the faulty pipe was sealed, and the lake gradually refilled.
