Orange County Parks and Recreation will cut the ribbon on Watermark Park at 8 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 31, marking the debut of a $1.8 million neighborhood park built directly in front of Panther Lake Elementary School at 9940 Seidel Road. The 5.69-acre site includes a dog park for both small and large dogs, shaded playgrounds split for ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12, a paved perimeter walking path, open green space and a picnic pavilion.
The grand opening caps a project that broke ground on July 30, 2025, with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson on hand for the groundbreaking celebration, according to the West Orange Times & Observer. Watermark Park became Orange County's 115th park site at that groundbreaking, part of a network that now spans nearly 15,000 acres of parkland, trails and public facilities across more than 114 operational sites countywide, according to OCFL Newsroom.
Built to Walk To, Not Drive To
Watermark Park was intentionally designed without dedicated parking spaces or public restroom facilities, meaning it's meant to function strictly as a walk-up park for the surrounding neighborhood rather than a regional draw. County planners connected the site directly to existing neighborhood sidewalks so residents can reach it on foot rather than by car, the newspaper's reporting notes. The park's picnic pavilion is also non-rentable, open on a first-come, first-served basis for gatherings of 24 people or fewer, with larger groups directed to reservable pavilions at bigger regional parks.
Placing Watermark Park directly in front of Panther Lake Elementary, which opened in August 2022 as a 96,600-square-foot campus built to relieve overcrowding at Castleview, Summerlake and Water Spring elementary schools, fits a broader pattern in the county's growth playbook, per Florida Neighborhood Realty. Orange County Parks and Recreation has used the same approach elsewhere, including the 6.5-acre Taborfield Park built next to Castleview Elementary, a strategy aimed at giving suburban families immediate walking access to green space near their kids' schools.
A Small Park Amid a Much Bigger Boom
Watermark Park's scale looks modest next to Orange County's other big Horizon West investment: the 215-acre Horizon West Regional Park, where the county opened a $15.6 million Phase 1A in February 2026 and broke ground on a $5.5 million Phase 1B expansion in June 2026 that will add a splash pad, kayak launch and space for a farmers market. That contrast underscores how the county is pairing small walk-up parks with larger regional facilities as it tries to keep pace with Horizon West's growth.
And that growth has been dramatic. Unincorporated Horizon West grew from 46,204 residents in the 2020 census to an estimated 73,264 in 2026, according to World Population Review, an annual growth rate exceeding 5%. That surge has fueled a 2026 public debate among residents over whether the unincorporated community should incorporate as its own city to gain local governance, as WKMG has reported, since parks, roads and other infrastructure are currently managed at the county level.
Roots in a 1990s Master Plan
The park sits within a development framework Orange County established three decades ago. The county created the Horizon West master plan in 1995 based on New Urbanism principles after devastating freezes in the 1980s wiped out the area's citrus groves, structuring the region into five walkable villages and a central town center surrounded by greenbelts, according to OCFL Newsroom.
Traffic near the new park has also been shaped by ongoing regional construction. The $546 million State Road 516 toll corridor project expanded in 2026 and prompted overnight detours along Seidel and Avalon roads in the spring, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the new SR-516 toll road. The 4.4-mile expressway is designed to connect State Road 429 with Lake County to relieve regional traffic pressure as Horizon West continues to fill in with new residents.
