The master planning process of Clermont, Florida, a city about 22 miles west of Orlando, included what was named the Victory Pointe Park project. The community solutions group at GAI Consultants, an engineering, planning, and environmental firm, identified this project as a key catalyst for the city's downtown.

GAI believed this was a project that could satisfy Clermont's need for a new stormwater facility and, more importantly, create a venue that relocates special events hosted by the city, while enhancing economic opportunities for downtown merchants and restaurants.

The Big Picture
The park was designed to receive stormwater from a significant portion of Clermont's downtown streets and provide stormwater treatment through filtration within a series of cascading filter marsh basins that reference native Florida ecosystems.

The concept behind the Victory Pointe Park project was to re-envision the conventional stormwater pond approach to create a sustainable community open space amenity-providing low impact development strategies for stormwater management, a new city events venue, a wildlife habitat, and a signature address for adjacent future development.

The Victory Pointe Park project, known as West Lake Wetland Park in its early stages of conception, had its genesis in the long-range vision for downtown Clermont as being a place for people-boasting a great waterfront, quality sense of place, visual character, and image, and supported by high-performing infrastructure.

The Community's Background
Clermont has always been committed to ensuring the ongoing social, cultural, and economic value of its downtown and waterfront. For the last 100 years, the hills, historic downtown, adjacent neighborhoods, and the Lake Minneola waterfront have been the defining characteristics of the community, creating a setting for a livable, small town feel that is connected to friends and family, the local Florida environment, and an emergent identification with healthy living.

The conditions that existed on the 10-acre waterfront site included a degraded interior wetland that was choked with exotic and invasive species, a lumber yard to the west, and residential and historic sites to the south and east. The waterfront on this valuable downtown parcel was also underutilized, given its proximity to downtown and West Montrose Street, Clermont's historic main street.

 
Also, development in the western portion of downtown Clermont was limited by on-site stormwater requirements; sites here were 15% less functional than other portions of downtown served by regional ponds, while the waterfront to the east had several dry ponds that impacted the environmental experience.

Imagining Change
The potential existed to combine the needs of the community and the available elements to make the site a multi-functional, multi-use park serving downtown Clermont. As the city's master planning process began, this site was quickly identified as a key catalyst project that could satisfy the city's need for a new stormwater facility and provide a special events venue proximate to downtown, enhancing economic opportunities for merchants and restaurants.

Prior to the development of this project, frequent and major triathlon events, including the famous IRONMAN competitions, were held on the far eastern waterfront, removed from the core of downtown. While this location facilitated ease of traffic access to and from events, it was not supporting downtown economically by encouraging people to stay longer and visit more often, positioning the downtown to grow and thrive.

With those goals in mind, the Victory Pointe Park project emerged and re-envisioned the conventional stormwater pond approach to create a sustainable community open space amenity, providing LID strategies for stormwater management, a new venue for major athletic events, a sustainable native wildlife habitat, and a signature address for adjacent future development.

Getting into the Weeds
The park was to include three distinct zones. The first is an upper-level stormwater, or settlement, pond designed to receive stormwater from a significant portion of Clermont's downtown streets. In this zone, the pond is surrounded by littoral shelves and vegetated upland banks where some coarse material settles out upon inundation.

The second is a marsh zone divided into two sections, the inundated marsh and the filtration marsh. Both serve to slow the flow of stormwater and finer suspended materials, providing treatment through filtration, percolation, and uptake of pollutants by plants within this series of cascading filter marsh basins referencing a native Florida plant palette. The "polished" stormwater is ultimately conveyed to Lake Minneola through a vegetated meandering stream.

Finally, the waterfront zone includes a beach for swim event landings and bicycle staging for triathlons, as well as flex open space, restroom facilities, and a park office for vendors, event patrons, and event staff organizers.

In addition to the LID stormwater treatment and athletic use layers to the park, the park also provides a quality open space for the community that has an interpretive layer. There is a continuous walkway and boardwalk system, including permeable accessible walks at the perimeter of the park with ample shaded seating and nighttime-use lighting.

A multi-story accessible observation tower provides commanding views and wildlife watching in the filter marsh and Lake Minneola beyond. The design of the space also includes accessible interpretive signage that can be found on the edges of the marsh to educate users about the LID system functions and benefits, and the native species that can be found within each of the stormwater filter marsh zones.

The Takeaway
As a community, Clermont advanced the discussions about its character and future. This was accomplished, in part, through an extensive master plan visioning process, recently adopted rebranding, and the design and implementation of this major first-step initiative that was born out of the downtown master plan.

Victory Pointe Park is a place that all of Clermont takes ownership in. It is a place where residents, business owners, and institutions enjoy the high quality of life of this intimate community.

TEAM LIST
Landscape Architect: GAI Consultants
Design Principal: Donald G. Wishart, PLA GAI Consultants
Principal-in-Charge: Frank Bellomo, PLA GAI Consultants
Client: Darren Gray, City Manager, City of Clermont
General Contractor: Ivan Oelrich, Oelrich Construction, Inc.
Landscape Contractor: Timothee Sallin Cherrylake
Civil Engineer: GAI Consultants, Inc.
Architect: Jeff Powell - Powell Studio Architecture