Westmonte Park getting splashy new attractions

Altamonte Springs’ $15 million renovation includes pool, courts

After almost 50 years of use, Westmonte Park in Altamonte Springs is undergoing a $15 million renovation that will include new facilities, pools and multiple sports courts.

The park is also getting a new name: Westmonte Recreation Center.

Construction at the park, at 624 Bills Lane, began last year and is expected to be completed this spring.

City Manager Frank Martz said the city has been anticipating the park's reconstruction and planning for the project for a long time. So the park is being leveled and replaced with no tax increase to residents or debt to the city.

“It was really important for us to be fiscally responsible that we could replace the park so that our future generation of Altamonte Springs residents enjoy the same level of service as our past generations,” Martz said.

When the park's renovation is complete, it will have an outdoor pool and deck, a multipurpose room, a senior activity room, playground, restrooms, a 100-person pavilion, two tennis courts, three pickleball courts, a basketball court, four bocce courts, a multipurpose field and 192 parking spaces, according to city officials.

Martz said that the renovation was necessary because the park was past the point where it could be repaired. Buildings had leaky ceilings and the pool was cracked.

The park, built in the early 1970s, originally served as a private club for Spring Oaks neighborhood residents. In 1978, it was expanded to include summer camp programs and activities, and in 1988 it received its most notable upgrade: a therapeutic pool.

Therapeutic pools, with water averaging 92 degrees, allow the water's buoyancy to take pressure off a person's joints to lessen the impact on the body.

Sheila Rashy,79, originally moved to Altamonte Springs in