New location for Clermont boat ramp in limbo

On Dec. 17 the Clermont boat ramp closes. What happens next is anybody’s guess.

The Clermont boat ramp relocation was on the City Council agenda Tuesday night but no decisions were made, no votes were taken and no one on the council other than the mayor said anything during the time allotted for the boat ramp.

The city’s consultant on the project, Richard Levy, briefed the council on boat ramp developments in the past two months. Chief among them is that the Cypress Cove Marina has been eliminated as a possible site for a new public ramp.

“It’s not something that would be feasible,” Levy said.

Located on Lake Minnehaha, but south of Clermont city limits, the marina is currently for sale. Cypress Cove was suggested by council as a possible location on Aug. 8, the last time the issue was on the agenda. Continued public discussion on the matter was delayed until the city, county and the Lake County Water Authority could sit down for a three-way talk on the matter. LCWA board member Peggy Cox, speaking at the most recent LCWA meeting, pointed out that the size of the parcel (5 acres) was too small to be developed as a public ramp.

LCWA Executive Director Mike Perry said that the LCWA favors relocating the ramp to what is known locally as the Bell Ceramics site, located just east of Clermont’s Waterfront Park. He pledged LCWA’s help in locating a new boat ramp site but said of his board of directors that “they don’t want me to make your problem my problem. We would like to be part of that solution.”

The current boat ramp is being demolished to make way for the final stage of the Victory Pointe stormwater treatment system, and for Triathlon Beach. The purpose of the stormwater system is to improve the quality of water going into the lake, as well as to make it easier to develop the remaining undeveloped parcels downtown. The purpose of Triathlon Beach is to move the bulk of the athletic activity westward from Waterfront Park, and closer to downtown. The city’s new master plan, published about two years ago, had the boat ramp relocated to the Bell Ceramics site, but the consultant, as well as some council members, have discouraged that site on the basis of traffic concerns.