The case file
Three instruments comprise the Citrus Ridge entitlement package:
- Ordinance 2026-02 — annexation of ~17.878± acres into the City and rezoning of Lake County "Agriculture" → "Planned Unit Development"
- Ordinance 2026-03 — Future Land Use Map amendment to General Commercial
- Resolution 2026-01 — development agreement
Two parcels generally located west of N. Hancock Road, north and south of Citrus Grove Road. The applicant is Crittenden Howey, LLC; legal representation is Tara L. Tedrow, Esq. of Lowndes Drosdick.
The rename and the revision
The April 6, 2026 meeting filing was titled "Citrus Grove Road Commercial PUD" at 15.878± acres. The May 4, 2026 agenda re-listed the package as "Citrus Ridge Commercial PUD" at 17.878± acres. The rename and the 2-acre upward revision happened in the 28-day window between the tabling motion and the substantive return. Two distinct effects:
- Naming distance — the existing Citrus Grove residential PUD sits on the same road; the rename separates the new commercial PUD from that prior project.
- Acreage growth — 2 acres added (mechanism not stated in the corpus); the case grows during the delay rather than shrinking.
The procedural delay
At the April 6, 2026 P&Z meeting, Commissioner Rose moved to table all three items, Commissioner McCoy seconded. The motion carried 4-0 (Martin, Calderon, McCoy, Rose AYE). The applicant requested the tabling, so the procedural posture is clean — but Rose-McCoy are the same pair that dissented on the Whispering Winds environmental conditions package on March 2, 2026, when the case turned 3-2 (the first 3-2 split in recent Minneola P&Z). Two consecutive meetings of the same procedural-and-substantive faction positioning at the gate of the corridor's biggest commercial play.
The corridor formation
Three projects now cluster at the Citrus Grove Road / N. Hancock corner:
- The existing Citrus Grove residential PUD (south side)
- Citrus Ridge Commercial PUD (~17.878 acres, this entity)
- Camp Lake Industrial Park (preliminary subdivision plat, north of Citrus Grove, west of N. Hancock)
A residential PUD next to a commercial PUD next to an industrial subdivision plat, all at the same intersection. This is a corridor formation event — the eastern Minneola gateway off the Turnpike-fed Hancock alignment converting from rural-residential to mixed commercial-industrial in real time. The Crittenden Howey + Tara Tedrow / Lowndes representation is the same combination visible in Crystal Cove and other Lake County corridor casework — the legal-representation network is itself a forward indicator of where the next applications will land.
What the May 4 vote tested
The May 4, 2026 meeting was the first substantive hearing after the April 6 tabling. The watch dossier citrus-ridge-substantive-vote-may-4 tracks the outcome — whether the Rose-McCoy bloc cohered or fractured on substance, and how the Commission treated the rename, the acreage revision, and the corridor-formation framing in open hearing.