Clermont Planning & Zoning Commission
October 2025
THE READINGmeeting record
Meeting Snapshot
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Date | Tuesday, October 7, 2025 |
| Body | City of Clermont Planning and Zoning Commission |
| Type | Regular meeting |
| Convened | 6:30 PM |
| Adjourned | 9:25 PM (≈ 2 hours 55 minutes) |
| Quorum | 5 of 7 commissioners present |
| Present | Chair Bain, Vice-Chair Niemiec, Commissioner Cramer, Commissioner Tidona, Commissioner May |
| Absent | Commissioner Colby, Commissioner Hoisington |
| Staff | Planning Manager John Kruse, Planning & Economic Development Officer Nicholas Gonzalez, Planner I Justine Day, City Attorney Waugh, Planning Coordinator Rae Chidlow |
| Source | October 7, 2025 minutes (PDF) |
| Items | 5 |
| Public speakers | 6 (4 on 7-Eleven, 1 on Olympus, 1 in commissioner reports) |
Plain-English Summary
On October 7, 2025, Clermont's Planning and Zoning Commission denied a 7-Eleven convenience store, gas station, and ancillary car wash 0-5 at the southeast corner of Wellness Way and Schofield Road. The applicant was V3 Capital Group, represented by Trey Vick. The 6.69-acre site sits inside the Wellness Ridge PUD (Ordinance 2019-06). Staff recommended denial under the 2022 Wellness Way Design Standards, the C-1 Light Commercial regulations (which prohibit car washes), and the PUD ordinance itself. Four residents spoke in opposition. The motion to approve failed unanimously — five commissioners present, no dissenting vote. The same agenda approved an 87-page master signage plan for the Olympus PUD 4-1 and three routine items 5-0. The 7-Eleven denial is the cardinal Bain-era artifact: the first landmark enforcement of Clermont's grandfathered form-based code as substantive regulatory law.
Signal Extraction
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The Wellness Way Design Standards (2022) enforce as substantive code. Staff named specific code conflicts on the record — car washes prohibited by the PUD ordinance, auto-dependent uses incompatible with the Neighborhood District designation, internal landscape buffer waiver below the 10-foot minimum. The commission delivered 0-5. The form-based codes adopted three years before the application moved from aspirational language to enforceable regulatory tool. SB 180-grandfathered (adopted before the August 2024 retroactive line); structurally durable through October 2027.
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The corridor's commercial-gateway line is now drawn at the gas station. Twenty-eight days earlier, Minneola denied a similar fuel-attached convenience store 4-0 at Hancock Road and CR-561A under organized Del Webb opposition. Two cities, two mechanisms, one converged outcome. The gas station has become the boundary marker between neighborhood commercial and too-much commercial across the south Lake corridor — and Clermont's October vote made it code-grounded.
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The contrast inside the meeting names the corridor's identity. Same agenda. The 7-Eleven denied 0-5. The Olympus master signage plan (87 pages, dark-sky lighting compliance, ARB oversight) approved 4-1. Olympus is the visual reference for what compliant commercial identity in Wellness Way looks like — premier sports, wellness, and lifestyle community signage. The 7-Eleven is the reference for what does not fit. The corridor knows what it wants and what it does not, and the meeting record names both.
Items of Interest
Item 1 — Resolution 2025-026R: Lakehaven on Grand Conditional Use Permit (unfinished business)
- Type: Conditional Use Permit (return item)
- Location: East of South Grand Highway, north of East Highway 50 (behind the At Home store)
- Applicant: Joe Zagame, Jr.
- Request: CUP for a 20-unit condominium development in R-2 Medium Density Residential
- Current zoning: R-2 Medium Density Residential
- Staff recommendation: Approve
- Action: Approved with conditions
- Vote: 5-0
- Conditions: No on-street parking; dumpster trash pickup required; walking path extended around the property
- Notable discussion: Returning item with material change — developer pivoted from rental to fee-simple ownership condominiums. Commissioners flagged single-access-point egress for 20 homes (fire egress not required until 25 units), one-car-garage functionality risks (HVAC and water-heater placement may render garages unusable for vehicles), and cumulative traffic load adding 40 to 60 vehicles to an area with single-lane access. Described as infill development in a largely built-out area. No public speakers.
Item 2 — Ordinance 2025-034: ProActive Auto Small-Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment
- Type: Comprehensive plan amendment (small-scale)
- Location: 13550 Granville Avenue (east of Granville Avenue, south of SR-50)
- Applicant: City-initiated (staff)
- Request: Designate annexed property with Industrial future land use
- Acreage: 2.35 ± acres
- Current zoning: Lake County Heavy Industrial (HM)
- Staff recommendation: Approve
- Action: Approved
- Vote: 5-0
- Notable discussion: City-initiated following the September 9, 2025 annexation via utility agreement. The site is an existing auto repair shop that needed city water service for a fire-protection-system upgrade. Compatible with surrounding industrial uses. Minimal commission discussion.
Item 3 — Ordinance 2025-035: ProActive Auto Rezoning
- Type: Rezoning
- Location: 13550 Granville Avenue
- Applicant: City-initiated (staff)
- Request: Rezoning from Lake County Heavy Industrial (HM) to City of Clermont M-1 Industrial
- Acreage: 2.35 ± acres
- Staff recommendation: Approve
- Action: Approved
- Vote: 5-0
- Notable discussion: Companion to Item 2. Completes the comp-plan amendment and zoning conversion as a single annexation cycle.
Item 4 — Resolution 2025-037R: 7-Eleven Wellness Way Conditional Use Permit
- Type: Conditional Use Permit
- Location: Southeast corner of Wellness Way and Schofield Road, within the Wellness Ridge PUD
- Parcel: 6.69 ± acres
- Applicant: V3 Capital Group, represented by Trey Vick
- Request: CUP for convenience store, gas station, and ancillary car wash; waiver request for a 0-foot internal landscape buffer in lieu of the 10-foot minimum
- Current zoning: C-1 Light Commercial within the Wellness Ridge PUD (Ordinance 2019-06)
- Staff recommendation: Deny — conflicts with the PUD ordinance (which specifically prohibits car washes), with C-1 regulations, and with the Wellness Way Design Standards; auto-dependent use incompatible with the Neighborhood District concept of walkability and wellness-oriented community
- Action: Denied (motion to approve failed)
- Vote: 0-5
- Public speakers: 4 in opposition
- Notable discussion: Staff presented a detailed code analysis showing the proposal conflicted with multiple sections — car washes prohibited under the PUD ordinance, auto-dependent uses incompatible with the Neighborhood District, internal landscape buffer below the 10-foot minimum. The nearest existing gas station is 2.5 miles away. Residents speaking in opposition raised fume and noise concerns from a vinyl-fence-separated rear property line, 24-hour operation in a family-oriented neighborhood, traffic safety on single-lane Wellness Way Boulevard, illegal-turn and cut-through risk on residential Blissful Street, and children walking to school. Multiple commissioners cited the 2022 Wellness Way Design Standards explicitly and named alternatives that would fit the Neighborhood District character — coffee shops, yoga studios, fire station, police substation. Staff noted car washes are specifically prohibited by the PUD ordinance. Vice-Chair Niemiec disclosed prior HOA employment but did not need to recuse.
Item 5 — Ordinance 2025-031: Olympus PUD Amendment (Master Signage Plan)
- Type: PUD amendment
- Location: Olympus development (Wellness Way area)
- Applicant: Mike Carroll
- Request: PUD amendment to approve an 87-page master signage plan and incorporate it into the PUD ordinance
- Staff recommendation: Does not oppose; requests Architectural Review Board sign-off requirement for individual sign permits
- Action: Approved
- Vote: 4-1
- Public speakers: 1 (Dylan Torres)
- Notable discussion: Comprehensive signage plan for the premier sports, wellness, and lifestyle community. Includes gateway monuments, roundabout markers, multi-tenant signage, digital and facade signage for major venues, and pedestrian wayfinding. Sign heights reach 17 feet (versus typical 8-12) and 85 sq ft (versus typical 32-64), justified for visibility at speed. All signs must comply with dark-sky lighting rules. Commissioner Cramer praised the dark-sky approach and asked whether Clermont could adopt similar standards citywide. Public speaker Dylan Torres raised event-traffic concerns and suggested exploring light-rail and Brightline partnerships, affordable housing, and traditional American architecture. Commissioner Tidona raised concerns about amenity placement, walkability, and mass-transit needs.
Entity Map
Applicants and representatives
- V3 Capital Group (Trey Vick) — applicant, Resolution 2025-037R 7-Eleven CUP (denied)
- Joe Zagame, Jr. — applicant, Resolution 2025-026R Lakehaven on Grand CUP (approved 5-0)
- Mike Carroll — applicant, Ordinance 2025-031 Olympus PUD master signage plan (approved 4-1)
- City-initiated — Ordinances 2025-034 and 2025-035 ProActive Auto comp plan and rezoning (approved 5-0)
Parcels and addresses
- 6.69 ± acres, southeast corner of Wellness Way and Schofield Road — within the Wellness Ridge PUD; subject of the 7-Eleven denial
- 13550 Granville Avenue — 2.35 ± acres, ProActive Auto site; September 9, 2025 annexation via utility agreement
- East of South Grand Highway, north of East Highway 50 — Lakehaven on Grand 20-unit condominium site
Streets, roads, and corridors
- Wellness Way Boulevard — single-lane access road feeding the Wellness Ridge gateway
- Schofield Road — gateway intersection with Wellness Way
- Blissful Street — residential street flagged for cut-through traffic risk in resident testimony
- South Grand Highway / East Highway 50 (SR-50) — Lakehaven on Grand corridor
- Granville Avenue — ProActive Auto corridor (south of SR-50)
Ordinances and code references
- Wellness Way Design Standards (2022) — form-based codes governing the Neighborhood District; SB 180-grandfathered; cited as the cardinal denial basis
- Ordinance 2019-06 — Wellness Ridge PUD ordinance; specifically prohibits car washes
- C-1 Light Commercial — base zoning within the PUD; the 7-Eleven request fell outside its permitted uses
- Resolution 2025-026R — Lakehaven on Grand CUP (approved 5-0 with conditions)
- Resolution 2025-037R — V3 Capital Group 7-Eleven CUP (denied 0-5)
- Ordinance 2025-031 — Olympus PUD master signage plan amendment (approved 4-1)
- Ordinance 2025-034 — ProActive Auto small-scale comp plan amendment (approved 5-0)
- Ordinance 2025-035 — ProActive Auto rezoning (approved 5-0)
Districts and overlays
- Wellness Ridge PUD — master-planned area inside which the 7-Eleven was proposed
- Wellness Way Neighborhood District — form-based code overlay invoked by staff and commissioners
- R-2 Medium Density Residential — base zoning for Lakehaven on Grand
- M-1 Industrial / Lake County HM — ProActive Auto annexation conversion
Public speakers
- 4 residents in opposition to the 7-Eleven (names not in the source minutes)
- Dylan Torres — sole speaker on the Olympus signage plan
- 1 speaker during commissioner reports / public comment
Commissioners (acting)
- Chair Bain, Vice-Chair Niemiec, Commissioner Cramer, Commissioner Tidona, Commissioner May
Staff
- John Kruse (Planning Manager) — introduced new Planner I Justine Day
- Nicholas Gonzalez (Planning & Economic Development Officer)
- Justine Day (Planner I — first meeting)
- Waugh (City Attorney)
- Rae Chidlow (Planning Coordinator)
External entities surfaced in commissioner reports
- DPZ CoDesign — engaged on Clermont's comprehensive plan update
- USA BMX — partner on the comp plan kickoff (BMX facility, trail connections)
- Lake County Board of County Commissioners — Hartwood Marsh Road expansion advocacy target
- FDOT / Lake County — road jurisdiction clarifications
- Live Local Act — January opt-out deadline approaching for Florida cities
What Changed
The 7-Eleven denial is the first 0-5 enforcement of the 2022 design standards. The Wellness Way Design Standards have sat in the Clermont code since 2022, governing the south Clermont master-planned corridor's form, walkability, and wellness orientation. Until October 7, 2025, no application of comparable scale had tested whether the standards were aspirational language or substantive regulatory tools. Staff recommended denial; the commission delivered unanimously. Three years after adoption, the code is enforced.
The Bain-era denial pattern compounds. The September 2024 Family Christian Center 2-2 quorum failure, the May 2025 Heritage Square 1-6 speculative-rezoning denial, the September 2025 Camping World flagpole 1-5 refusal — and now the October 2025 7-Eleven 0-5. The Bain-era commission has now produced four signature denials in ten months, each tracking staff recommendations on substantive grounds. The pattern named in The Six-Month Board Flip now has its cardinal proof.
The corridor's gateway line propagated municipally in 30 days. Minneola's 4-0 denial at Hancock Road and CR-561A on September 8, 2025 (Resolution 2025-17) anticipated the Clermont vote by 28 days. Two cities, two mechanisms — one through organized Del Webb residential opposition on a special-exception standard, one through staff-recommended code-grounded denial under form-based design standards — produced the same outcome on the same use class at gateway-adjacent residential parcels. The pattern named in The Bellwether Gas Station crystallized this meeting.
The comp-plan kickoff named the next regulatory cycle. Commissioner May reported that DPZ CoDesign (nationally recognized New Urbanist firm) and USA BMX have begun work on Clermont's comprehensive plan update. BMX facilities, trail connections from Sugarloaf Mountain to Lake Louisa, and multi-use lakefront paths are on the table. The framework Clermont prepares now positions the city to adopt the moment SB 180's October 2027 sunset lifts.
Hartwood Marsh Road advocacy escalated. Multiple commissioners urged residents to contact Lake County Commissioners about the Hartwood Marsh Road expansion — funded since 2007, still not under construction. With Wellness Ridge's pipeline adding thousands of homes, the infrastructure gap is binding. The advocacy posture is now coordinated rather than incidental.
Procedural normalcy reinforced. Vice-Chair Niemiec disclosed prior HOA employment on the 7-Eleven item and did not need to recuse — the August 2025 ex-parte disclosure rules under City Attorney Waugh now operate as routine practice. Commissioner Cramer criticized City Council's retroactive flag-display code amendment as undermining planning-process integrity. Chair Bain discussed development impact fees from Wellness Way and transparency in their use. New Planner I Justine Day was introduced.
Why It Matters
For any developer with a fuel-attached convenience-store prototype evaluating Wellness Way or any Wellness Ridge PUD parcel, the 7-Eleven denial is the binding precedent. Three operational reads follow. First: pre-application diligence must run against the 2022 Wellness Way Design Standards and the Wellness Ridge PUD ordinance (Ordinance 2019-06) before any site-control decision — car washes are explicitly prohibited and the Neighborhood District designation reads auto-dependent uses as code-incompatible. Second: staff alignment is now the leading indicator. When staff recommends denial citing specific code sections, the Bain-era commission delivers unanimously. Third: brand prototypes that do not adapt to the form-based regime will not entitle. The Olympus signage plan (4-1, 87 pages, dark-sky compliance, ARB sign-off) is the visual reference for what compliant commercial identity at Wellness Way looks like. Plan against the standards, not around them.
The denial reprices Wellness Ridge gateway commercial parcels and thickens the moat around already-entitled assets. Three signals matter. First: the supply ceiling on auto-dependent commercial just landed. A 7-Eleven, a gas station, a low-amenity convenience pad cannot anchor the corridor's gateways. Capital underwriting to fuel-station-quality demand at gateway-adjacent sites must reweight to non-fuel commercial categories or to inline US-27 frontage further from residential edges. Second: the 2022 Design Standards are SB 180-grandfathered (adopted before August 1, 2024) and are structurally durable through the October 2027 sunset and beyond. The regulatory moat is legally insulated. Third: the meeting's contrast inside one agenda — 7-Eleven denied 0-5, Olympus signage approved 4-1 — names the corridor's tenant mix. The basis-point edge sits in Wellness Way assets entitled before the precedent compounds further, with post-precedent regulatory protection.
The plain-English read for residents along Wellness Way Boulevard, Blissful Street, and the Wellness Ridge interior. The walkable-commercial regime promised when the corridor was master-planned is being enforced. Four residents spoke; staff recommended denial; the commission delivered 0-5. A 24-hour gas station with car wash will not anchor the gateway. The fume and noise concerns from vinyl-fence-separated rear property lines, the cut-through-traffic risk on residential Blissful Street, the children-walking-to-school argument — all surfaced in the record and contributed to the denial. The protective regime sits in code adopted in 2022, before the August 2024 SB 180 line, so it is durable. The next applications at Wellness Way commercial pads will land on the same regime. Show up to meetings; quorum and attendance still affect outcomes (two commissioners were absent on October 7, and the four-resident testimony nonetheless produced a unanimous denial).
For non-fuel commercial operators — coffee, fast-casual, medical office, urgent care, fitness, wellness — the gateway pads at Wellness Way and Schofield Road are now arbitrage. Multiple commissioners explicitly named the alternative tenant mix: coffee shops, yoga studios, fire station, police substation. The supply has been rezoned by precedent toward these categories, and the comp set is mid-revision. Operators reading the meeting record now have leasing intelligence the comparables-driven market does not yet price. Site selection benefits from three structural reads: brand prototypes that adapt to the 2022 form-based standards face structurally lower entitlement friction at the same parcels where fuel-attached projects fail; the Olympus signage plan (87 pages, dark-sky lighting compliance, ARB sign-off) is the visual reference for compliant commercial identity in the corridor; and the corridor's residential pipeline (Lennar Swap 699 units, Olympus, McKinnon Groves 660 homes) will absorb the demand the denied gas station would have served.
For elected officials and civic operators in adjacent municipalities — Minneola, Groveland, Mascotte, Montverde, unincorporated Lake County — the October 7 record names a portable governance model. The 2022 Wellness Way Design Standards were adopted three years before the cardinal enforcement; the precedent demonstrates that form-based code adoption now produces enforceable tools later. Cities that build the architecture before they need it inherit the durability. The Bain-era procedural infrastructure — quasi-judicial training under City Attorney Waugh, ex-parte disclosure rules, action-summary submissions to City Council — operated routinely on this agenda; Vice-Chair Niemiec's HOA-employment disclosure illustrates the normalized practice. The DPZ CoDesign comp-plan engagement positions Clermont to adopt the next-generation framework the moment SB 180 sunsets in October 2027. Other south Lake municipalities can study the architecture: deliberate appointments + procedural professionalization + early code adoption + comp-plan readiness, executed inside ordinary advisory-commission frameworks without charter or legislative authorization.
The infrastructure-load argument carried quantitative weight on the 7-Eleven item and reshaped the meeting's broader procedural posture. Wellness Way Boulevard is currently a single-lane road feeding thousands of approved residential units across Lennar Swap, Olympus, McKinnon Groves, and the Wellness Ridge build-out. Hartwood Marsh Road — the regional capacity binding constraint — has been funded since 2007 and is still not under construction; multiple commissioners urged residents to escalate advocacy at Lake County. A fuel-attached convenience store generates trip volumes substantially higher than non-fuel commercial; the 4-resident testimony on traffic safety, illegal turns, and cut-through risk on residential Blissful Street gave the residential-character objection its quantitative spine. The corridor cannot absorb additional auto-dependent generation while its capacity-relief road remains unfunded for construction. Until Hartwood Marsh widening breaks ground (anticipated spring 2026), every gateway commercial decision sits inside the same infrastructure constraint.
The denial's legal durability under SB 180 is the structurally distinguishing fact. The 2022 Wellness Way Design Standards predate the August 1, 2024 retroactive line. The Wellness Ridge PUD (Ordinance 2019-06) predates it. The C-1 Light Commercial code's prohibition on car washes predates it. Staff cited specific code conflicts on the record — three separate code instruments, each grandfathered. A citizen-plaintiff challenge under SB 180's "more restrictive or burdensome" standard would face a denial grounded in code adopted three or more years before the statutory line. By contrast, Minneola's September 8 denial of a similar fuel-attached convenience store at Hancock Road and CR-561A (Resolution 2025-17, 4-0) ran through a special-exception standard without comparable code grounding and is exposed to the same statutory regime. Same outcome, different durability. Heritage Square's May 2025 1-6 denial — which went beyond staff recommendation — remains the cleanest quasi-judicial procedural-challenge test case in the Bain-era record, but the 7-Eleven denial is structurally insulated.
The October 7 meeting collapses three patterns into a single record. The Six-Month Board Flip — Clermont's transition from the Krzyminski-era approval-disposition machine to the Bain-era deliberative posture — produced its cardinal Wellness Way artifact: 0-5, staff-aligned, code-grounded, durably defensible. The Grandfather Window — the SB 180 bracket sorting south Lake codes by date of adoption — found its cardinal protected case: the 2022 Design Standards enforced inside a regulatory frame the state cannot tighten and the city cannot replicate elsewhere until October 2027. The Bellwether Gas Station — the 30-day cross-municipal convergence on commercial gateway uses — closed into precedent: Minneola's organized-resident denial on September 8 and Clermont's code-grounded denial on October 6 produced the same outcome on the same use class through structurally different mechanisms. The structural insight: the corridor knows what it is becoming. The 7-Eleven is not. The Olympus master signage plan is. Same agenda. Same evening. The contrast names the line.
Source Trail
- City of Clermont Planning and Zoning Commission, October 7, 2025 — meeting minutes (PDF) — Document #595656, Clermont Laserfiche WebLink. Approved minutes; status: approved. Direct PDF, harvested 2026-03-04.
- Standardized meeting reading (NLAA) —
clermont/2025-10-meeting-PZC.md(knowledge/source-syntheses, 131 lines) - Wellness Way Design Standards (2022) — form-based codes governing the Neighborhood District; SB 180-grandfathered; cited as the principal denial basis on Item 4
- Wellness Ridge PUD (Ordinance 2019-06) — base PUD ordinance specifically prohibiting car washes; cited as a parallel denial basis
- C-1 Light Commercial regulations — base zoning within the PUD; the 7-Eleven request fell outside its permitted uses
- City of Clermont place dossier — Clermont, Florida — the city-scale reading that anchors this meeting
- The Six-Month Board Flip — /briefs/six-month-board-flip — the named pattern for which this meeting is the cardinal Bain-era artifact
- The Grandfather Window — /briefs/grandfather-window — the SB 180 bracket sorting south Lake codes; the 2022 Design Standards are the cardinal protected case
- The Bellwether Gas Station — /briefs/bellwether-gas-station — the 30-day cross-municipal convergence on commercial gateway uses; this meeting is one of two cardinal anchors
Connected Signals
- Place: Clermont, Florida — the city-scale dossier; this meeting is one of 24 in the underlying synthesis
- Corridor: US-27 South Lake Corridor — the cross-municipal economic topology within which Wellness Way sits
- Brief: The Six-Month Board Flip — how Clermont's review philosophy changed in a single appointment cycle
- Brief: The Grandfather Window — how the SB 180 bracket sorted south Lake codes into protected and exposed
- Brief: The Bellwether Gas Station — how two cities drew the same line on commercial gateway uses through different mechanisms in 30 days