Bonnet Springs Park will receive its first taxpayer dollars for a project designed to help more people get into the park with ease.
Josh Henderson, CEO of Bonnet Springs Park, said the privately owned, philanthropically funded park received $1.5 million from the Florida Legislature in the year’s state budget to expand its parking lots.
“We asked if we could qualify to get some dollars for expanded parking,” he said. “Fortunately, the answer was yes.”
It comes as no surprise to many Lakeland residents that parking and traffic around Bonnet Springs Park can be difficult to navigate.
“At our major events, cultural programs, spring break programs and Light Up BSP, parking has been a significant challenge because we don’t have enough spaces to serve the number of guests attempting to enter the park,” Henderson said.
Bonnet Springs Park has 700 to 750 parking spaces available on site, according to Henderson, some of which are on grass. Those slots are shared with visitors to the Florida Children’s Museum and its event venue.
During its popular Movies on the Lawn program, Henderson said the park’s lots can go from nearly bare to spilling out the gates in roughly 30 minutes.
The park has partnered with the City of Lakeland to use two pieces of land it owns outside its gates, adjacent to George Jenkins Boulevard, and a vacant lot across the street for parking. It gained permission to use a city-owned lot off Main Street for Light Up BSP, with Citrus Connection providing shuttles. But that brought little relief.
“We were filling up that parking lot every night,” he said.
Parking is one of the key reasons the park has already announced Light Up BSP, a popular holiday light stroll, will not be returning for 2025.
“The park itself is so big, we’re only limited by the number of cars we can park for our attendance,” Henderson said. “If we can add a couple hundred more spaces, it will give more people a place to park and a lot more opportunity to visit.”
Despite the summer’s heat, Henderson said attendance is higher than last year, particularly after Bonnet Springs Park was named “Best City Park” in USA TODAY’s Readers’ Choice 2025.
One of the least utilized parking lots requires drivers to go past the Florida Children’s Museum and follow the road around the side of the park. Henderson said it’s a short walk to the Mabel the Mosaic Owl playground, the butterfly house or nature center.
“It can feel a little disconnected from the Welcome Center or children’s museum,” he said. “People usually don’t opt to go there unless they’ve been here before.”
Henderson is meeting with engineers to determine what spaces and land might be best suited for a parking lot, getting the most spaces without losing the park’s feel.
The $1.5 million will be used to create a surface-level parking lot, or lots, as Henderson said the cost of building a parking garage is significantly more expensive.
“The cost of a parking garage is way outside the bounds of that,” he said.”
Bonnet Springs will have to lay out the money, then submit its plans and documentation to be reimbursed by the state. Henderson is hopeful to have the spots paved and available by 2026, with hopes of working out details to bring back its holiday light show for 2026.