Orange County is set to break ground Monday on a new five-acre park in Horizon West, bringing an inclusive playground, a basketball court and a walking path to a neighborhood that has watched the project take shape on paper for years. The groundbreaking ceremony for Waterleigh Park is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 16, with county leaders on hand to mark the start of construction.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson will attend the groundbreaking, according to Orange Observer. The five-acre park will sit west of the intersection of Atwater Bay Drive and Lost Creek Drive, and the Observer reports it will feature an inclusive playground, a basketball court, a walking path and more.
A county bid listing for the project, filed under the name Waterleigh Neighborhood Park and tracked as project Y26-713, places the site at the southeast corner of Lost Creek Drive and Atwater Bay Drive in Winter Garden, according to GovTribe. The listing described a broader slate of amenities than the Observer's groundbreaking announcement, including a paved walking trail, basketball courts, playground equipment, a community garden, multipurpose areas and a covered pavilion. It also called for landscaping that includes 118 trees and 24 palms.
Construction Timeline and Costs
Per the same bid listing, the contractor selected for the job is required to reach substantial completion within 150 consecutive calendar days and final completion within 180 consecutive calendar days of starting work. The listing had set a deadline of 4 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, for electronic bid submissions.
Cost estimates for the park have shifted over time. An Orange County Parks and Recreation Division presentation from a November 2022 community meeting listed an overall budget of $1.2 million, with a detailed total of $1,191,912. The later bid listing on GovTribe put the estimated project cost at $1.3 million; the available records do not explain the change or confirm final spending on the park.
How Neighbors Shaped the Design
The park's amenities trace back to resident input gathered years before Monday's ceremonial first shovel. According to the same 2022 county presentation, an online survey drew 519 responses, with a half basketball court, shade trees, and a paved walking path or sidewalk ranking as the top three preferences among respondents.
That feedback fed into a conceptual master plan budget that, per the presentation, tentatively included two half basketball courts, shade trees and other landscaping, paved walking paths, a picnic pavilion, a playground with picnic tables, and a multipurpose field. A separate 2022 Orange Observer report on the park's early planning described a similar tentative amenity list and noted that officials at the time anticipated a grand opening in the last quarter of 2025 — a target that predates Monday's groundbreaking.
With construction now set to formally begin, Horizon West residents who weighed in on the design years ago will finally see dirt move on the project meant to bring a dedicated green space to their corner of the community.
