A first phase of the Art Walk passage, connecting Clermont’s main street (Montrose Ave.) with Lake Minneola, features murals and a fully covered arcade with restaurants.

Clermont, FL: A Rare, Simultaneous Comp Plan Update and Zoning Code Overhaul

In February, DPZ was honored to spend a week in Central Florida conducting a planning charrette for the City of Clermont, once the heart of Florida’s citrus industry and now a desirable destination for new families and retirees drawn to its distinctive landscape of hills and lakes. A small city of 51,000 that already possesses many commendable qualities and has a highly engaged citizenry, Clermont has nonetheless experienced the kind of rapid suburban growth in the past two decades with all the typical problems that sprawl brings.  This expansion pattern has prompted the city to challenge its future vision and prompted the leadership to reassess its principal regulatory documents. The five-day workshop marked the commencement of a dual commission tasked with both updating the City’s comprehensive plan and creating a new form-based zoning code for its Northwest Quadrant (the Downtown). This presented DPZ with a rare opportunity, as these two assignments are typically addressed at different times and by different firms.

The historic Roe Building, a fine example of a mixed-use building from the early 1900s, has become a community hub with an artisan market and food hall at sidewalk level, and apartments above – one of downtown Clermont’s great urban precedents worth emulating.

The culture of outdoor dining is alive and well in Clermont along W. Minneola Ave. and Eighth Street.

Unique among Florida cities for its high elevation, hilly topography, and chain of lakes, Clermont boasts numerous waterfront amenities like the Park of Indian Hills at the foot of 12th St.

The well-attended event featured two DPZ teams, led by Lizz Plater-Zyberk and Marina Khoury, respectively. Residents, city staff, business owners, and other stakeholders convened in the City’s council chamber studio throughout the week to engage in a robust discussion of various ideas and potential solutions related to Clermont’s future growth. Simultaneously, the design and consultant teams worked collaboratively, drawing and crafting text in response to the stakeholders’ concerns.

The special topic meetings throughout the week elicited insight regarding community concerns over future growth—helping to inform the charrette team as they worked within earshot.

Visitors to the charrette studio were able to provide real time feedback to the designers and consultants.

Ten opportunity sites were the subject of detailed illustrative plans that showcased improvements to the urban fabric of this municipality, which is situated just 20 miles west of Orlando. Among the benefits of these proposed enhancements were additional road connections to alleviate traffic congestion, sensible infill development, downtown parking garage options, a more activated lakefront, a broader range of housing types, additional neighborhood nodes that are mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly, a more complete green trail network, and an overall greater sense of place throughout the four city quadrants.

Some of the key highlights of the two projects:

• The comprehensive plan updates will emphasize the document’s main objective of defining the community’s future aspirations tied to a physical vision for growth. Language pertaining to regulations that are more appropriately incorporated into the land development code will be eliminated, and recommendations that appear in multiple policies will be consolidated. 

• The new zoning code has the potential to serve as a pilot project for coding the other three city quadrants. Its form-based regulations will emphasize a walkable, more human-scaled public realm that prioritizes physical form over the separation of uses.  Its new format will be characterized by a user-friendly interface and visual graphics. The document will be integrated into an online platform, facilitating access to zoning information for both property owners and city administrators. This platform will enable users to conveniently determine zoning details for any given parcel on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Attendees of the closing had the chance to meet with the designers and share their reaction to the display of Opportunity Site proposals for downtown infill projects; walkable, mixed-use centers; and infrastructure interventions.

The closing presentation filled the main hall of the Clermont City Center across the street from City Hall.

Supporting DPZ has been a group of architects, civil and transportation engineers, market and economic analysts, as well as landscape and conservation experts. Meetings are underway this month with the Planning Department and the City Manager’s office to review the proposed revisions. The City’s newly appointed economic development director, longtime DPZ colleague and New Urbanist Nathan Norris, is providing valuable guidance and assistance in navigating this process. The final documents will undergo a vetting process with the citizens and the City Council before being finalized in the autumn of 2026.

We thank the City of Clermont, its Council and Administrative Staff, and our consultant team:

Dix.Hite (landscape), ETM (transportation), CGI (civil engineering), Gridics (zoning analysis and visualization), Modica (conservation), Urban3 (fiscal analysis), Weitzman (market analysis); and Global 5 (communications).