Why Windermere Is Raising the Tennis Key and Leaving the Boat Ramp Pass Alone

"Council does not have to recover 100% of the historical average cost." That line comes from the September 22 staff memo to the Windermere Town Council, and it explains most of what happens to your Fernwood Park gate code and your Park Among the Lakes court key this winter.

The memo laid out five years of what the Town actually spent on its tennis courts and its two resident-only boat ramps, then divided that by the number of people holding passes. One amenity was already close to paying for itself. The other was covering less than a third of its cost. Council's direction followed those numbers. Council told staff to keep the boat ramp pass at $35 and raise the tennis key from $25 to $50.

October 1 Came and Went Without a Renewal

Windermere's ramp passes and tennis keys normally renew at the start of the fiscal year on October 1. This year the Town put both renewals on hold until December 1 while Council reconsidered the fees. In the meantime, current keys and codes keep working at no extra charge.

The hold came out of a slower process than most fee changes. The Parks and Recreation Committee first recommended raising both passes to $50. It based that on comparable Central Florida jurisdictions and on what the facilities cost to maintain. On September 8, Council unanimously tabled both resolutions and asked for expense and revenue figures first, as the West Orange Times & Observer reported. Public Works and Finance then pulled five fiscal years of actual spending, and that is where the two passes split.

What the $35 Park Pass Actually Opens

To see why the ramp fee held, start with what boaters get for it. The Town's permits and passes page lists three ramps inside town limits, and only two of them need a pass:

• Orange County ramp at E. 6th and Conroy, onto Lake Down. Public, so no Town pass is needed.
• Fernwood Park ramp on Lake Butler. Residents only. The Town suggests using the vehicle gate from Butler Street, not W. 7th Avenue, because it's easier to maneuver a trailer there.
• Lake Bessie ramp. Residents only, opened with a key.

One $35 pass covers a Lake Bessie key, a unique Fernwood Park code, and pedestrian gate access. The price is the same if you only want one ramp. A Fernwood pedestrian-only code is free. Fernwood Park is open dawn to dusk, and codes entered before dawn or after dusk won't open either gate.

The Lake Bessie ramp has also been part of a bigger project this fall. The Town laid new sod along the Lake Bessie lakefront as part of the Bessie and Butler Stormwater Improvement Project and closed the ramp for about two weeks while the grass took hold.

The Math That Split the Two Passes

The staff memo boils each amenity down to one number, the break-even fee: the price per pass that would cover the Town's five-year average annual cost at current participation.

Per pass, the gap is easy to see. At $25, every tennis key carried about $58 of court cost that the general fund paid. At $35, every ramp pass carried about $23. The memo also showed what a modest ramp increase would do: a $55 pass would have covered 95.3% of ramp costs, and $60 would have brought in about $359.80 more than the five-year average. Council chose to leave it at $35. The ramps were already recovering a larger share of their cost than the tennis courts would recover even after doubling the key.

Both figures come out to about 60%. After the change, tennis players and boaters each pay about three-fifths of what their amenity costs the Town, and general revenues cover the rest. The memo points out that residents and property owners already help fund parks and recreation through those general revenues.

Why the Courts Drifted So Far Below Cost

Two things pushed tennis so far out of line. One is time. The October 13 staff summary says the tennis court key fee "has not been increased since 2010," which means about 16 years at the same $25.

The other is what the courts need. Windermere has six secured, lit courts, three at Park Among the Lakes on Main Street and three at the Windermere Recreation Center on Park Avenue, according to the Town's parks page. The five-year spending history for tennis covers resurfacing, lighting, windscreens, keys and locks, nets, gates, equipment and related repairs. The ramp history is a shorter list: gate and access-control work, fencing, locks and keys, security improvements, repairs and grounds work.

Staff used a five-year average because tennis spending "fluctuate[s] considerably from year to year." A resurfacing year looks very different from a year spent replacing nets, and averaging spreads the big projects out instead of pricing the key off one unusual year.

At the September 22 workshop, staff confirmed that a $50 key would bring in about $11,600 a year. That still leaves about $7,604.76 a year for the general fund to cover, based on the five-year average. The courts are still subsidized. The subsidy is just smaller.

What December 1 Looks Like for Each Pass Holder

The September 22 minutes record Council's consensus: keep the boat ramp pass at $35, raise the tennis key from $25 to $50 effective December 1, 2026, and have staff bring final resolutions for formal adoption at the October 13 meeting. The tennis fee was on that agenda as Resolution 2026-06. Because Council left the boat fee unchanged, no boat-fee amendment was on the agenda at all. The draft resolution in that packet still lists October 1, 2026 as its effective date, which doesn't match the December 1 date Council agreed to at the workshop. The Town has said it will announce renewal timing and any fee changes through social media, its app and its website. That's the place to confirm the adopted tennis fee and its start date before you renew.

Here's how the renewal works:

1. Tennis key holders get a new physical key. All tennis key holders will need a new annual key starting December 1. Existing keys work until then. Tennis keys normally run October 1 through September 30 and aren't prorated, so check the Town's renewal notice for how this year's December start is handled.
2. Boat ramp pass holders renew at the same price. The $35 pass still includes the Lake Bessie key and the Fernwood Park code.
3. Bring the "3 Ps" to Public Works. That's paperwork, proof of residence and payment. Public Works is at 614 Main Street, open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It doesn't take American Express, Apple Pay or cash. You can download and print the Park Pass form ahead of time.
4. Call ahead with questions. The Town's renewal notice lists 407-909-5327 and Lilian Colli at [email protected] for questions about your key or pass.

If you just want to walk to the water at Fernwood Park, the pedestrian-only code is still free. If you launch at E. 6th and Conroy onto Lake Down, nothing changes, because that ramp is Orange County's and needs no Town pass. For more on how the town's outdoor spaces split up, see our guide to Windermere's three outdoor spaces. If you launch outside the town limits, we've also covered the boat ramp situation at Keene's Pointe.

In Windermere, the Fernwood Park and Lake Bessie ramps are open only to Town residents. If you're weighing a home near Lake Butler or Lake Bessie and want to know how ramp access and Town residency would work for your boat, Toni Cafferty is glad to talk through it. Request a Confidential Consultation.