If you live in Hamlin Reserve and you've been waiting to walk your dog off leash somewhere other than your own street, you've probably seen the headlines. Orange County held a ribbon cutting at Horizon West Regional Park back in February, the news said the park was open, and that should have settled it. Except a walk over there still won't get you a dog park, a splash pad, or a kayak launch. What opened in February and what's still sitting on a conceptual map are two very different lists, and the gap between them is worth knowing before you plan a Saturday around either one.
What actually opened in February
Phase 1A of Horizon West Regional Park had its grand opening on February 16, 2026, hosted by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson. The county put $15.6 million into this phase, and nearly all of it went into things you don't see in a brochure photo: a new access road, underground utilities, retention ponds, paved parking, and a paved sidewalk connection along Hamlin Groves Trail. What residents actually get to use out of that investment is a restroom building with chilled water fountains, an inclusive playground built to serve kids of all abilities, a small picnic shelter, a larger event pavilion with eight tables and two charcoal grills, and one completed segment of trail.
That's genuinely walkable from Hamlin Reserve. The park entrance sits at 4715 Hamlin Groves Trail, and Enclave at Hamlin has sidewalk access from about a quarter mile away. For Hamlin Reserve, it's closer to a mile, still an easy bike ride, and one of several neighborhoods the county itself lists as being within easy reach of the park.
What's easy to miss is that this land wasn't new to anyone in the area. The 215-acre site originally opened back in December 2010 with limited access for hiking and horseback riding, and for most of the last decade Orange County Parks and Recreation kept about five miles of grass trails mowed even though the site had no formal infrastructure. That's not standard practice. Most undeveloped county land gets closed off entirely during a pre-construction holding pattern. Horizon West Regional Park stayed open the whole time, which is part of why long-time Hamlin residents already had a relationship with this land well before the ribbon got cut.
The splash pad and kayak launch are close, not here
Phase 1B broke ground on June 18, 2026, with Mayor Demings and Commissioner Wilson back on site for another groundbreaking, this one with a $5,565,000 budget attached. This is the phase that actually delivers the amenities most people picture when they hear "regional park": a splash pad, a two-acre open event lawn with hookups for a farmers market, a floating dock and kayak launch on Lake Hartley, plus additional parking and sidewalks to connect it all to the completed Phase 1A core.
Kyle Kent, Orange County's Parks and Recreation manager, told West Orange Times & Observer reporters at the groundbreaking that crews would start at the far end of the park near the kayak launch, since that's where power and water infrastructure has to go in underground first. The splash pad comes next, once the site is cleared and leveled. The parking lot next to the existing pavilion is the last piece.
Kent also said construction on a phase this size typically runs about 180 days once it starts, barring delays. Count forward from the June 18 groundbreaking and that puts a realistic opening somewhere around the turn of the year, not by late summer as some early coverage implied. If you've been holding off on packing swim gear for a park trip, the honest answer right now is not yet.
The wishlist that isn't funded yet
Here's the part that the master plan graphics don't make obvious. The county's conceptual plan, drawn up by Mulligan Constructors, lays out five phases total, and phases 2 and 3 are exactly the amenities that would matter most to a neighborhood like Hamlin Reserve with its own dog park and pool already built in.
| Phase | Status as of Sept. 2026 | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| 1A | Open since Feb. 16, 2026 | Access road, restrooms, inclusive playground, pavilion, trail segment |
| 1B | Under construction since June 18, 2026 | Splash pad, kayak/canoe launch, farmers market lawn, added parking |
| 2 | Conceptual, not yet funded | Large pavilion, paved parking, soccer fields, pickleball courts |
| 3 | Conceptual, not yet funded | Dog park, botanical garden, baseball fields, more pickleball, restrooms |
| 4 | Conceptual, not yet funded | Second botanical garden, community center, performing arts stage, more soccer fields, basketball, tot-lot playground, possible YMCA |
| 5 | Conceptual, not yet funded | Tennis courts |
Kent was specific about this when he spoke to reporters in February: phases 2 and 3 are not yet funded. That's the detail that matters if you've been checking the park website every few months hoping the dog park moved up the list. It hasn't moved anywhere yet, because there's no budget behind it. Everything past Phase 1B exists as a drawing the county has committed to in concept, not in dollars.
None of this means the dog park or the pickleball courts are in doubt long term. Orange County has followed through on every phase it has funded so far, on roughly the timeline it announced. It just means the honest way to think about this park right now is in two tiers: what's built and open, what's actively under construction with a real budget and a rough date, and then a separate tier of things that are genuinely still just an idea on paper.
The trails were never really closed
If you've walked or biked the natural areas of the park over the past few years, none of this construction news changes much for you. The undeveloped hiking trails on the north and east side of the property have been usable the entire time, long before Phase 1A broke ground and through all of Phase 1B's current work. A local hiking enthusiast and Horizon West Magazine contributor named Jerry Blank has put together his own trail maps for these sections, since the county never formally marked them, using landmarks and distance notes he's gathered from his own time exploring the property. That resource still applies today for anyone using the older trail network while the newer paved sections get built out closer to the entrance.
The library changes the math on funding
One more piece worth knowing if you're trying to guess when phases 2 and 3 might get funded. Orange County has a library branch under construction on an adjacent parcel at the northeast corner of the park, about 20,000 square feet, meant to serve the broader Horizon West area. A civic project of that size sitting next to the park is a signal about how the county is prioritizing this corridor generally, even if it doesn't move dog parks or pickleball courts up the funding queue on its own. Worth watching if you want an early read on when phase 2 might get its own groundbreaking announcement.
For now, if you're heading to Horizon West Regional Park from Hamlin Reserve this fall, plan around what's actually there. The playground, the pavilion, and the trail segment are open and functional today. The splash pad and the kayak launch have a construction crew on site and a rough timeline attached. Everything else is still a line on a map waiting for a budget line to match it.
If you're weighing what a park like this means for property values or resale timing in Hamlin Reserve, that's a longer conversation, and one worth having with someone who tracks this corridor closely. Reach out to Pristine International Realty for a free consultation, available in English or Português over WhatsApp.
