Flood Plain to Showcase — Financed Through the Tax Bill
The land under Viridian was flood-prone and effectively undevelopable. Arlington created Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. 6 in 2007 and the Texas Legislature chartered the Viridian Municipal Management District the same year, empowering it to issue bonds and levy taxes for the bridges, sewers, and flood-control work that turned 2,000 unbuildable acres into the third-richest zip code in North Texas. Residents repay that transformation annually, through the MMD line on the bill.
Here is the structural distinction that matters if you have read our Trinity Falls page: a MUD typically replaces city taxes because the land sits outside city limits. Viridian sits fully inside Arlington — so its MMD is additive. You pay Arlington’s city rate, Tarrant County, the JPS hospital district, the school district, and the MMD, stacked. That is how a Tarrant County address reaches $2.46 when the county’s typical range tops out around $2.40. Tax bills on Viridian’s estate streets average nearly $20,000 a year; Elements homes sit below those values, but the rate applies all the same.
And the over-65 caveat that recurs across special-district communities: the MMD levy is untouched by the school exemptions and never freezes. Numbers in the Texas Over-65 Property Tax Guide.
One Neighborhood, Three Price Tiers
Elements is unusual among DFW 55+ communities in running three builders simultaneously — which means a $427K Lennar buyer and a $719K Drees buyer share the same Magnolia Lifestyle Center and the same Lifestyle Director’s calendar:
| Builder | Recent Pricing | Product | Quoted HOA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lennar | From ~$427K | 1,746–1,872 sq ft single-story — the entry tier | ~$337/month |
| David Weekley (Encore) | ~$570K–$679K | 2,212–2,917 sq ft Traditional Series | $1,011/quarter (~$337/mo) |
| Drees Custom | From ~$719K | 2,850–3,120 sq ft, up to six bedrooms | Published figures vary — confirm in writing |
About that last column: HOA figures quoted for Elements range from $75 to $337 a month depending on which builder’s marketing you read, because some quotes show only one layer of the structure. Elements runs a sub-association (the Elements Residents Association, billed quarterly, CCMC-managed) underneath the Viridian Residential Association master. The ~$337 figure appearing across multiple builders is the realistic planning number — and it buys real lock-and-leave service, with the association handling mowing, pruning, fertilizing, edging, and shrub care on original landscaping. Demand both assessments itemized; the combined figure is the only honest one.
The Only 55+ Address Inside a Sailing Lake District
Strip the tax discussion away and Elements has a claim nothing else in this market can make: walk out your door onto 1,200+ acres of lakes, beaches, sailing center, and trails, twenty minutes from both downtowns and ten from AT&T Stadium and the entertainment district. The Magnolia Lifestyle Center’s "Best Community Amenity Center" award from the Texas Association of Builders is a juried state title, not ad copy, and the full-time Lifestyle Director keeps a calendar — pickleball, bocce, Ladies Who Lunch, Bunko, travel groups — that runs deeper than a ~700-home community has any right to. Grandkids are a design input here: the master plan’s beaches and events are partly what the master assessment funds.
So the decision compresses to one sentence: metro-best surroundings at metro-highest carrying costs. Whether that trade pencils against a conventional Tarrant address is exactly the matchup in Elements at Viridian vs. Ladera Mansfield, where the Mansfield side brings a city-level senior tax freeze Viridian cannot offer. Ten-year projections: the Elements true cost guide.