"If we're not going to raise them enough to make a difference, then why raise them?" Mayor Andy Williams asked that at the Sept. 8 Town Council meeting, according to the Orange Observer. Council had been asked to approve higher fees for boat ramp passes and tennis keys. Instead it voted unanimously to table them until staff could show what the ramps and courts actually cost.
Staff came back with five years of spending, and the numbers answer his question. Windermere's resident boat pass has been bringing in a good deal less than the ramps cost to keep running. The general Town budget has covered the difference. The vote is about how much of that difference the 158 people holding a pass should pay. That is why the Oct. 1 renewal date passed this year without anyone renewing.
What the $35 Pass Opens
Three ramps sit inside Windermere's town limits, and the pass covers two of them. The Fernwood Park ramp on Lake Butler and the Lake Bessie ramp are for residents only. The third is the public Orange County ramp on East 6th Avenue at Conroy-Windermere Road, which launches onto Lake Down and needs no Town key.
The $35 pass comes with a key to the Lake Bessie ramp and a code for the Fernwood Park gate. It costs the same if you only want one ramp. Residents who walk in to Fernwood and don't need the vehicle gate can get a pedestrian code for free. Fernwood is open from dawn to dusk, and codes entered outside those hours won't open either gate. The Town recommends reaching the Fernwood vehicle gate from Butler Street rather than West 7th Avenue because there's more room to maneuver.
The Lake Bessie Lakefront runs along the water between East 8th and East 11th Avenues and has no parking. In early September its ramp closed for about two weeks for sod and stormwater work, the Orange Observer reported. Work like that shows up in the fee debate.
What Five Years of Ramp Upkeep Cost
Public Works and Finance gathered five fiscal years of actual spending for the Sept. 22 Council workshop. Over that period the Town spent $45,601 on the boat ramps, an average of $9,120.20 a year. The staff memo lists what that money went to: gate and access-control work, fencing, locks and keys, security improvements, repairs, and grounds work.
Spread that average across the 158 passes now issued and each pass costs about $57.72 a year to support. Holders pay $35. Each pass therefore runs about $22.72 a year short, and across all passes the Town covers roughly $3,590 a year.
Staff set out the choices in a table. These are the boat ramp options from the memo:
| Annual boat pass fee | Revenue at 158 passes | Covered by Town | Share of cost recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| $35, current | $5,530.00 | $3,590.20 | 60.6% |
| $45 | $7,110.00 | $2,010.20 | 78.0% |
| $55 | $8,690.00 | $430.20 | 95.3% |
| $57.72, break-even | about $9,120 | about $0 | 100% |
| $60 | $9,480.00 | $359.80 surplus | 103.9% |
The Parks and Recreation Committee originally proposed $50, which falls between the $45 and $55 rows. Public Works Director Tonya Elliott-Moore told Council the fees had stayed "very similar over a long time." She described them as low compared with other Central Florida municipalities, where she put comparable rates around $50, as the Orange Observer reported. Council Member Mandy David asked Council to take up the increase.
The memo also says Council doesn't have to recover the full cost. Residents and property owners already pay for parks through general Town revenue, and the tables are meant to help Council decide how much should come from pass holders and how much from the general fund. Council Member Tony Davit took a narrower view, according to the Orange Observer. He said the fees should either work as cost recovery or stay where they are: "Why bother raising the rates arbitrarily?"
The Tennis Courts Are Further From Covering Their Costs
The boat pass covers about 61% of its costs. Tennis keys cover less. Windermere has six lighted, resident-only courts. Three are at Park Among the Lakes on Main Street between East 2nd and 3rd Avenues, and three are at the Windermere Recreation Center, 11465 Park Avenue. Over the same five years the Town spent $96,023.80 on them, about $19,204.76 a year, for resurfacing, lighting, windscreens, nets, gates, locks and repairs.
With 232 keys issued, the $25 family key brings in about $5,800 a year and covers 30.2% of that cost. Breaking even would take $82.78 per key. The memo's middle options are $50, which recovers 60.4%, and $60 and $75, which recover 72.5% and 90.6%.
A $50 fee would land the two passes in different places. Going to $50 would bring the boat pass to about 87% of break-even. It would bring the tennis key to about 60%, roughly where the boat pass is now.
The County Ramp Down Chase Road
Orange County runs the other main way onto the Butler Chain, and its pricing explains why Council isn't treating this as a big change for boaters. R.D. Keene Park, at 10900 Chase Road on Lake Isleworth, has public ramp access to the chain. Vehicles towing motorized craft pay $5 a day. An annual ramp pass costs $150 and has to be bought at the Tibet-Butler Preserve office.
Keene also limits space. The lot holds 49 vehicles with trailers. Once it fills, the entry gate closes and doesn't reopen until after 2 p.m., and the County doesn't allow waiting or "drop and go."
Compared with that, Windermere's current $35 pass costs as much as seven launch days at Keene. Even the $57.72 break-even fee would be well under half of the County's $150 annual pass, and the Fernwood and Lake Bessie ramps don't have a gate that closes on a busy Saturday morning. On staff's own numbers, the highest boat fee Council is weighing would still leave the Town's resident ramps far cheaper than the public alternative.
The fee resolution wouldn't change who can use the ramps. The draft limits the pass to eligible Town residents and property owners, as it does now. The committee did raise concerns about passes being used by friends, guests or relatives outside the household. The Town's Council meeting packet says the fee resolutions would leave the existing tennis guest rules unchanged, including the requirement that a member accompany guests and fines of up to $200.
Between Now and December 1
Passes and keys usually renew at the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. In a Sept. 16 notice, the Town put renewals on hold until Dec. 1 while Council considers the fees. Anyone with a current key or code can keep using the ramps and courts until then at no extra charge.
The staff memo said revised resolutions could return for formal action at the Oct. 13 Council meeting. Whatever rate Council settles on, the Town has said it will post renewal timing and any fee changes on its social media, its app and its website. When renewals open, the process is the same as before:
- Download and fill out the Park Pass form from the Town's Permits & Passes page.
- Bring the form, proof of residence and payment to the Public Works Office at 614 Main Street, open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Pay by a method other than American Express, Apple Pay or cash, since the office accepts none of those.
For questions about a specific key or pass before December, the Town directs residents to Lilian Colli at 407-909-5327 or [email protected].
The pass is a small line in the Town budget. It also pays for the gate codes, locks and shoreline work that let residents reach Lake Butler without the line at Keene. If you'd like to talk through how lake access, ramp rules and Butler Chain frontage figure into a Windermere property decision, the team at Nest Seekers Orlando can walk you through it. Speak With a Global Advisor.
