With a last-minute stroke of his red budget pen, Gov. Ron DeSantis cut from the fiscal year 2026 state budget the $600,000 that the City of Westlake was counting on to move forward with construction of a 50-acre regional park.
“It’s super unfortunate that the governor vetoed the park appropriation,” Westlake Mayor JohnPaul O’Connor said at the Westlake City Council meeting Tuesday, July 1. “However, rest assured, funding for the park is not a dead issue.”
For the moment, the park site at the southwest corner of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and Sycamore Drive West has been leveled and prepared in partnership with the Seminole Improvement District (SID). Soon, the bare ground will be seeded in hopes of creating green carpet for the soccer fields that may someday come, but for now, everything else is on hold until an alternate funding source can be found, City Manager Kenneth Cassel said this week.
“We’re still fully intending to move forward with the project,” O’Connor said. “But it’s a matter of how we’re going to pay for it.”
The city will be looking at possible state grants from the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to begin work on the entrance, parking lot and restrooms.
It’s also possible that SID could float a bond issue to fund all or part of the project, which is expected to cost more than $7 million, depending on the amenities that are part of the final buildout, said Cassel, who also is the SID manager. The bond would be repaid by property owners over a period of years.
“That has always been an option,” Cassel said. “But we’re trying to be very judicious in the way that we do this.”
The park will likely be done in four to five phases over eight to 10 years, Cassel has said.
Already in place are three linear, north-south lakes that provide a barrier between the park site and the city’s main thoroughfare. The entrance will be between those lakes. Parking is eventually planned for 275 cars and 190 golf carts, and numerous hookups for food trucks.
The park as envisioned will include a berm that runs along the west side next to the M-2 Canal. The berm will provide a niche for a concert stage that will look out on a wide, flat, uncluttered space that could accommodate up to 10,000 people for concerts and the city’s annual FourthFest Independence Day celebration and fireworks.
In time, plans call for six soccer/sports fields; a shaded tot lot; basketball, pickle ball, tennis, racquetball and beach volleyball courts; a smaller concert area for more intimate shows; and perhaps a dog park. A six-foot-wide asphalt path will frame the entire area.
“We’re trying to do this in a fiscally responsible way,” O’Connor said. “The park is still coming, we just don’t know exactly when.”
In other business:
- The council heard that plans for a Lowe’s Home Improvement store in Westlake are moving forward.
Cassel said later he expects Lowe’s representatives to present a site plan to the council at its August or September meeting.
“I haven’t heard anything more from Walmart,” he said.
Earlier this year, the nation’s largest retailer expressed interest in property at the north end of the community, according to Cassel.
- The council approved a zoning change that allows for the construction of attached “cottage homes” on land between The Hammocks and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, and on some parcels west of the roadway.
The homes will be one story, 1,350 to 1,900 square feet, and contain two and three bedrooms in a variety of styles.
“The units are really, really cute and very nice with vaulted ceilings,” said Donaldson Hearing, representing Minto Communities USA, the city’s primary landowner and developer. “These are typically for couples downsizing. They’re [also] very, very livable for… a single person, maybe a single mom.”
This offering will diversify the housing stock in Westlake. “I’m excited to have a new product in the city,” said O’Connor, while emphasizing that the homes are not intended as rental properties.
Westlake has allowed only single-family homes and traditional townhouses until now.
“I think it says more about the market than anything else,” Cassel said. “These units are going like crazy all over the state.”
- The council also heard about plans by its Education Advisory Board to create fundraising opportunities through partnering with local restaurants to support after-school activities, such as a robotics club, chess club and sports clubs.
“The concept is simple,” board members wrote in a letter to be sent out by O’Connor. “We invite families and supporters of schools in Westlake to dine at your establishment on a date and time frame of your choice, and in return, we kindly ask for a donation of 10 percent of the dining proceeds during that time.”
“It’s a chance for us to come together and support our local schools,” said Vice Mayor Greg Langowski, who serves as the council’s liaison to the board.
For more information, call (561) 530-5880.
