Feature Story and Photos by Larry H. Oskin
The City of Clermont has an array of strong talented people and resources to make this city the Choice of Champions! Working closely with Clermont City Manager Darren Gray and the City Council, Curt Henschel has become one of our top city champions, serving as our Clermont Development Services Director.
Originally from the Titusville, Florida area, where his father worked for NASA for 30 years, Curt Henschel has a diverse background. He attended Astronaut High school in Titusville, with his dreams of getting into the space program. The space program became deeply rooted in his veins. In high school, he was part of their championship tennis team, earning state honors in 1989. After high school, his direction changed as he graduated from the University of Central Florida in 1994 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration while studying inter-governmental relations and budgeting.
After college graduation and with no direct job placement, he stepped back into his hobby of working on cars. He notes that while growing up with a NASA engineer as his dad, cars were also a big part of his life. He and his father restored several classic cars. This experience led him to pursue a career with AutoZone, where he was placed into a management program to quickly learn about their store operations. Within 6 months, they moved Henschel here to Clermont, where he opened and managed their new store on Highway 50 for the next three years.
Clermont City Planning Career: Then, he determined that it was time to refocus on what he went to school for and he wanted a new career path. He was hired for an open planning position with Lake County, where he started to learn about local government and land policies. Therefore, another three years, he then found a new opportunity and position here in Clermont as a Planner. In 2002, he first started to work in the old Clermont City Hall as the Clermont City Planner. Here, he began to process requests for new building development and construction projects.
He became the Assistant Director of Development Services when this City Planning Team and their growing department of twenty people was eventually split up into two sections. He began to manage building permits and code enforcement. In 2017, he became the City of Clermont Director of Development Services. This position included the city building services as well as everything else. Now with 6 staff members, they are focusing on all city development projects with Code Enforcement. They are responsible for guiding all projects through the city’s process for development. They process land development and construction site reviews, land-use changes such as zonings, and future land-use changes. They also manage conditional use permits, variances, right-of-way variances, plat reviews, site inspections and land development code changes. During the past 18 years, Henschel became a Certified Arborist, to help supervise city landscape projects.
Champion Clermont City Projects: Henschel has supervised and led many diverse projects. He helped change codes to help the city adapt to the ever-changing environment. One early project was to change the sign codes for everything from pole signs to monument signs. He helped set up a Joint Planning Area project with Lake County, to create a similar set of regulations. He worked on leading development for the new Montrose Streetscape project, new tree requirements and to supervise the need for enhancing city parking count. In his current position, he also works with the Clermont Downtown Partnership and the South lake Chamber of Commerce to make every project a win-win for our local businesses and citizens. Development of Victory Point and the waterfront was an important project.
Solutions For Covid-19 Pandemic Challenges: With an Emergency Executive Order from the governor for the current pandemic challenges, Henschel is working with the city team on “The Re-Opening of Clermont”. He has helped to create temporary regulations for additional outdoor seating for restaurants as well as new outdoor sales and signage with free permits staying within a few new rules and regulations. They are also working on potential new development of the Downtown Clermont density increase for business, local visitors and tourists.
Wellness Way has become one of his largest and most important new City of Clermont projects located in the large area on South Highway 27 with some of the land across from Lake Louisa. The critically important development of thousands of acres for this will create an exciting new job hub for the South Lake area while including the newly planned Olympus Sports and Entertainment Complex with new community housing developments and workforce housing ordinances. The goal will be to create a potential dwelling unit increase if the developers choose to take that option.
While the City Council first gives approved directives and guidelines to the City Manager, Darren Gray diligently works with the entire City of Clermont team to create, manage and supervise all projects. Curt Henschel continues his direct work with the City of Clermont Manager, Management Team and the City Council. Henschel adds, “City Manager Darren Gray has really been exceptional to work with! His dynamic and forward-thinking attitude makes working with the city a great experience, never dull or stale. He challenges our city staff to be creative and he is always open for input or suggestions. Our City Council has been great as well. It’s very constructive and positive when they support our city staff. I feel that positive teamwork shows with successfully proven results at all of our meetings and workshops.”
Maintaining The City Mission! Henschel adds, “The City of Clermont truly has the best interests of everyone in mind, especially when it comes to meeting the needs of our valued area citizens. We have learned from our massive growing pains, especially over recent years. We will continue to move forward with responsible development. We always strive by our City of Clermont mission statement – To preserve and enhance the quality of life for the Clermont community by providing exceptional services.”
Today, Curt Henschel is not only successful as our Clermont Services Director, but he is also a happy family man with a wife and two teenage daughters. Henschel enjoys cars, boating, skiing, camping, and flying remote model airplanes as well as his home improvement projects.
For more information, Curtis Henschel, Development Services Director can be contacted at the City Of Clermont, 685 West Montrose Street ~ 3rd Floor, Clermont, FL 34711, by phone at: 352-241-7308 and email at: CHenschel@ClermontFL.org or on the city website at: www.ClermontFL.gov and www.CityOfClermontFL.com
