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Orlando Sentinel - Orlando, Fla.
Oct 1, 1989
CLERMONT PLANS AHEAD FOR RESIDENTIAL GROWTH
Robin Pollack
More and more small Central Florida cities are becoming bedroom communities for people who
earn their paychecks in Orlando, a trend Clermont leaders have been watching closely.
They realize, after all, that the suburban stretches of Central Florida's main city some day will
spill over into Clermont, a south Lake County city down State Road 50 from Orlando.
Orlando's burgeoning residential growth, coupled with the rising number of developers scouting
for land in east Clermont, have convinced Clermont officials to plan for Clermont's future as a
bedroom community for those who work in Orlando but yearn for a quieter, suburban lifestyle.
That foresight has resulted in a $3.3 million investment into the city's future. That cash, included
in Clermont's new $6.89 million budget, will pay to expand sewer service to the city's eastern
stretches, expand its water system, and build a 28-acre recreation area and larger offices for city
staff and the police department.
"We're trying to stay one step ahead of growth," Clermont City Manager Wayne Saunders said,
"instead of trying to play catch-up later."
Projected population figures support this advance planning: Clermont's current 6,800 population
is expected to increase to 9,000 by the year 1995, and swell to 12,000-13,000 by 2005, city
Planning Director Jim McAllister said.
McAllister and Saunders expect that more Orlando workers will look to make Clermont their
home when the state Department of Transportation completes in the early 1990s its planned
construction of a new exit along Florida's Turnpike at Killarney, only five miles from Clermont.
By planning for this expected growth, Clermont hopefully can avoid having its main drags lined
with bright neon signs or turning into a maze of strip shopping centers, Saunders said.
"The bottom line is, you're not going to keep growth from happening . . . so we're making sure
that what growth we do have is good quality growth," Saunders said.
There's no doubt in McAllister's mind that Clermont is due for a boom.
"A week doesn't go by where two or three developers come in to talk about putting in a big
shopping center or a residential development," McAllister said. "Two years ago, you saw these
developers coming to City Hall maybe once a month."
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