Members of Clermont City’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) unanimously voted their support for the proposed Clermont Center Lake Botanical Garden.
The development is part of Clermont’s Main Street’s larger Phase 2 streetscape, a continuous corridor running from SR50 to 8th Street and onto Lake Minneola. Main Street is a non-profit driven by Clermont business owners to cultivate a thriving, connected and resilient downtown.
Main Street President Patrick Bianchi gave a detailed presentation at the meeting of his vision of a beautiful area filled with Florida native plants that can be accessed by everyone in the community.
“At the heart of it, we’re proposing to reimagine Center Lake as a 100% Florida native botanical garden,” Bianchi said. “It will be a restored shoreline of pickerelweed, duck potato, and blue flag iris; pollinator meadows of milkweed, coreopsis, and blanket flower; and a canopy of live oak, bald cypress, red maple, and slash pine throwing shade over stabilized shell trails.