Lake Angelus

Oakland County lists Lake Angelus among the lakes with a court-set normal level. The city's published site-plan review form states that legal level at 950.0 feet and the base flood elevation at 953.0. The 2024 master plan puts the shoreline at 950 feet, the lowest elevation in the city, and the high ground at 1,060 feet near Lake Angelus Road and Baldwin Road. A spillway built in the 1930s still controls the level, and the city maintains it. The same plan calls this lake the first in a chain that includes Mohawk Lake and Wormer Lake, a tributary of the Clinton River, fed by springs, groundwater, and small streams. A sale on Mohawk, on Wormer, or on Lake Oakland is not an open-water Lake Angelus comp.

How the house meets the water is the sale. The 2024 master plan states that use of the lake is limited to residents and their guests. The city owns the Shores Road boat launch, and that ramp is for residents, not the public. Welcome Island is city-owned. The city's abbreviated boating rules, dated May 1, 2023, are tighter than a typical all-sports lake. Personal watercraft, including jet skis, are prohibited. A powerboat other than a pontoon has to be an inboard four-cycle, no longer than 25 feet and no heavier than 6,100 pounds dry. Guests are not on the lake unless a resident is with them, and residents may not let a guest launch a boat. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, powerboats are held to no-wake before 9 a.m. and after 8 p.m. No powerboat may exceed 35 miles per hour, and no-wake applies within 200 feet of shore. Deeded frontage and a house whose access is the resident launch, rather than its own shoreline, are two different properties.

The city, the school district, and the utilities are three readings off the same address. The 2024 master plan says Lake Angelus lies in two school districts, Waterford and Pontiac, so the district comes off the address, not the ZIP. Most properties use a private well and a septic field. A limited number of properties on the west end of North Lake Angelus Road can connect to sewer or water through an agreement with Waterford Township, which also provides fire service by agreement. The city runs its own police department. Baldwin Road, Gallogly Road, North Lake Angelus Road, Old Baldwin Road, and Newark Road are public roads, owned by the Road Commission for Oakland County or the City of Pontiac. Lake Angelus Shores, Lake Angelus Lane, Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, Gray Woods Lane, and Private Drive are privately owned and maintained by the residents who use them. The city's site-plan form calculates allowable building square footage as lake frontage, in feet, times 60. A wider shore can carry a larger house under that formula. A new or repaired seawall still needs a state permit, and a new or altered septic needs an Oakland County permit. Read the district, the well and septic, and who owns the road before anyone prices the house like an inland house in 48326.

The shoreline incorporated so it would stay one city. Residents accepted a village charter on May 10, 1930, by a vote of 52 to 0, and the village incorporated on May 17, 1930. In 1984, by a vote of 149 to 4, the village became a city. The 2024 master plan counts 174 residential parcels on 861 acres of residential land, inside a city of just over 1,102 acres of land, and it estimates that nearly 97 percent of the homes are owner-occupied. The same plan, citing the American Community Survey, estimates that 9 percent of homes are valued under $1,000,000, 72 percent between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000, and 19 percent over $2,000,000. Those are citywide estimates, not the price of any one house. On the city's Baldwin Road land, the master plan lists tennis courts, a driving range, a memorial park, and a walking path, and it states that those facilities are for residents.