City of Apopka Planning Commission — July 14, 2026

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (6 of 6 seated voting members present) Duration: 49 minutes (called to order 5:30 PM, adjourned 6:19 PM)

Attendance

• Present: Chairperson Robert Ryan, David Woods, Eric Mock, Mary Norwood, Malika Harrison, Wes Dumey
• Absent: Orange County Public Schools (non-voting representative)
• Staff Present: Bobby Howell (Planning Manager, signatory); Jun Sohn, Ph.D. and Amer Hamza listed as project managers

Agenda Items

Item 1: Approval of Minutes — June 9, 2026

• Type: Other (procedural)
• Action: Approved
• Vote: Unanimous (motion by Harrison, second by Norwood)

Item 2: Ordinance No. 3160 — Small-Scale Future Land Use Amendment — E. Keene Road

• Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Small-Scale FLU)
• Case Number: Ordinance No. 3160
• Location: E. Keene Road
• Parcel ID: 22-21-28-0000-00-206
• Applicant: Michael Rankin (owner: HCH Development LLC)
• Request: Change Future Land Use from Commercial to Industrial
• Current Zoning: C-C (Community Commercial); existing use vacant
• Proposed Zoning: I-L (Light Industrial)
• Acreage: 5.23 +/- acres
• Proposed Use: Warehouse storage (enclosed car storage)
• Project Manager: Jun Sohn, Ph.D.
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Recommended approval
• Vote: Unanimous (motion by Dumey, second by Mock)
• Notable Discussion: Applicant Mike Rankin described the project and the requested change from community commercial to light industrial, stating the purpose of the building is air-conditioned car storage spaces.

Item 3: Ordinance No. 3161 — Change of Zoning — E. Keene Road

• Type: Rezoning
• Case Number: Ordinance No. 3161
• Location: E. Keene Road
• Parcel ID: 22-21-28-0000-00-206
• Applicant: Michael Rankin (owner: HCH Development LLC)
• Request: Rezone from Community Commercial to Light Industrial
• Current Zoning: C-C (Community Commercial)
• Proposed Zoning: I-L (Light Industrial)
• Acreage: 5.23 +/- acres
• Proposed Use: Warehouse storage (enclosed car storage)
• Project Manager: Jun Sohn, Ph.D.
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Recommended approval
• Vote: Unanimous (motion by Mock, second by Woods)
• Notable Discussion: Public comment opened and closed with no speakers. The minutes render the motion as approving "Ordinance Number 3159"; the agenda and item heading both identify this item as Ordinance No. 3161, and Ordinance 3159 was a separate Chandler Road rezoning denied the previous month.

Item 4: Special Exception — 1030 E. Sandpiper Street

• Type: Special Exception
• Location: 1030 E. Sandpiper Street
• Applicant: Lincoln Douglas Haynes (owners: Lincoln Douglas Haynes and Lauren Elizabeth Haynes)
• Request: Special exception to allow an accessory dwelling unit within the residential country estates zoning district
• Project Manager: Amer Hamza
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Recommended approval, subject to the exhibits and findings of the staff report
• Vote: Unanimous (motion by Dumey, second by Harrison)
• Notable Discussion: The applicant requested approval on the grounds that he needs the accessory dwelling unit to house his aging elderly parents.

Item 5: Revised Cold Link Apopka — Major Development Plan

• Type: Site Plan (Major Development Plan, revised)
• Location: 2560 W. Orange Blossom Trail
• Applicant: Joshua Enot (owner: MG88 Central Florida Cold Storage II LLC)
• Request: Revised Major Development Plan for a new 168,180 square foot building
• Intensity: 0.6 maximum FAR
• Project Manager: Amer Hamza
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Recommended approval
• Vote: Unanimous (motion by Mock, second by Woods)
• Notable Discussion: The applicant stated the revision was a small change to labels on the plan and the data table, with no change to the building — only the labeling was incorrect.

Item 6: Items for Discussion — Rights of the Planning Commission; Land Development Code Workshop

• Type: Other (discussion and procedural motion)
• Request: Schedule a workshop on changes and improvements to the Land Development Code
• Action: Approved — a Community Workshop will be held immediately following the conclusion of Planning Commission business at the September 8, 2026 meeting, to discuss changes and improvements to the Land Development Code
• Vote: Unanimous (motion by Dumey, second by Mock)
• Notable Discussion: Chairperson Ryan spoke about an email sent to board members "pertaining to the rights of the Planning Commission," asked whether any members had suggested changes to the Land Development Code, and suggested a workshop.

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 2 (applicants Mike Rankin and Lincoln Haynes, each speaking to their own item)
• General sentiment: No public opposition recorded on any item
• Key concerns: None raised by the public. The only substantive discussion originated with the board, on its own authority and on the Land Development Code

Key Signals

• The board answered a removal motion by claiming an agenda. One month after a City Commissioner moved to remove the Planning Commission's members and Chairperson Gusler resigned, new Chairperson Ryan opened a discussion of an email "pertaining to the rights of the Planning Commission" and the board voted unanimously to convene a Community Workshop on the Land Development Code following its September 8, 2026 meeting. A board whose plat authority was removed by ordinance in September 2025 and whose existence was questioned in June 2026 is now proposing to rewrite the code it administers. The August 11, 2026 agenda names the workshop's three topics: data center definitions, open spaces, and commercial development.

• Apopka is converting commercially designated land to industrial, against the usual suburban direction. E. Keene Road moves Community Commercial to Light Industrial on 5.23 acres, four months after 606 S. Hawthorne Avenue moved Mixed Use and Commercial to Industrial in March 2026. Both passed unanimously. Retail-designated frontage is being re-tasked for storage and logistics, and the stated end use here — enclosed, air-conditioned car storage — is a storage product wearing an industrial zoning label rather than a manufacturing or employment use.

• Cold Link grew by 20,556 square feet between February and July without a new hearing on scale. The February 10, 2026 Major Development Plan carried 147,624 square feet; this revised plan carries 168,180, described in the record only as a labeling and data-table correction with "no change to the building." The full sequence on this site runs: an 18-foot height variance to 58 feet in June 2025, a 147,624 square foot plan in February 2026, and 168,180 square feet in July 2026. The height entitlement came first and the square footage followed it upward.

• Accessory dwelling units are arriving through the special-exception door, one household at a time. The 1030 E. Sandpiper Street approval — an accessory unit for aging parents — is followed immediately by 107 N. Central Avenue on the August 11, 2026 agenda, an accessory dwelling unit in the Mixed-Use Downtown district. Two consecutive dockets, two accessory units, both requiring a special exception. This is multi-generational housing demand expressing itself as case-by-case relief rather than as code, and the Sandpiper parcel already carried its own Future Land Use and rezoning ordinances in December 2025.

• Wes Dumey returned after two absences and immediately drove the docket. Dumey, absent in January and June, moved three of the five substantive actions here including the workshop motion. The board's longest-standing advocate for stronger open-space standards — the lone dissenter on the May 2025 comprehensive plan rewrite for that reason — is the member who moved to open the Land Development Code, with "open spaces" as a named workshop topic.

Raw Notes

• These minutes were drafted for approval at the August 11, 2026 meeting and had not yet been approved by the board as of this harvest. Status recorded as pending-approval.
• Robert Ryan chairs this meeting, having been elected Vice-Chairperson on January 13, 2026 and succeeding Gusler after his June 9, 2026 resignation. The August 11, 2026 agenda schedules an election to refill the Vice-Chairperson seat.
• The board is operating at six seated voting members following Gusler's resignation; all six attended.
• Ordinance 3160 and 3161 are a matched Future Land Use and rezoning pair on a single parcel, the standard Apopka two-ordinance conversion template.
• The minutes describe the 1030 E. Sandpiper Street district as "residential country estates"; the district code is not given in the minutes or the agenda.
• Source: minutes embedded at pages 2-5 of the August 11, 2026 agenda packet (CivicClerk apopkafl, agendaId 1326, fileId 4233). Agenda: agendaId 1325, fileId 3189.