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Clermont Planning and Zoning Commission — July 7, 2026 agenda

City of Clermont Planning and Zoning Commission — July 7, 2026 (Agenda)

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: TBD (agenda only) Location: Clermont City Hall, 685 West Montrose Street

Attendance

  • Present: TBD
  • Absent: TBD
  • Staff Present: TBD

Agenda order: Call to Order; Pledge of Allegiance; Minutes (approval of June 2, 2026 P&Z minutes); Reports; New Business (Items 1–3); Discussion of Non-Agenda Items; Adjourn.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Resolution 2026-021R — CityVet Conditional Use Permit

  • Type: Conditional Use Permit (CUP)
  • Case Number: Resolution No. 2026-021R
  • Location: Governors Lake Commerce Center, southeast corner of S US Hwy 27 and Citrus Tower Blvd (AK 3921298, 3921299, 3921300)
  • Applicant: Peacock Partnership (project architect), on behalf of CityVet
  • Request: Allow a veterinary clinic to operate within a Planned Unit Development carrying C-1 Light Commercial uses — a build-out within a future multi-tenant shell building currently undergoing site review.
  • Current Zoning: PUD with C-1 Light Commercial uses (Kings Crossing Commercial Complex PUD, Ordinance No. 2017-02 as amended by Ordinance No. 2020-24)
  • Proposed Zoning: No change (CUP within existing PUD)
  • Acreage: 2.33 +/- acres
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve with the conditions contained in Resolution No. 2026-021R
  • Action: Pending (agenda only — public hearing July 7; Council action scheduled July 28, 2026)
  • Vote: Pending (agenda only)
  • Conditions (as drafted): Use limited to a veterinary clinic providing general health checkups, diagnosis, dental care, and minor surgery; small animals only (canine and feline) — no horses, cows, swine, or other livestock; no boarding, with overnight stays permitted only where medically necessary for observation and monitoring (abandoned animals handled under F.S. § 705.19 without CUP-revocation exposure); hours Monday–Friday 7:00 AM–6:00 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM–2:00 PM; any future outdoor relief/exercise area requires a clinic-managed waste station with animals monitored, leashed, and never unattended; a waste management and operation plan required, with the City reserving the right to reopen the CUP if odors become a nuisance; use confined to the southern end unit of approximately 2,873 sq ft, with expansion into other units requiring a CUP amendment; City Council may amend or revoke if parking proves inadequate; conditions of Ordinance No. 2020-24 remain in effect.
  • Notable Context: Staff found the use comparable to the retail businesses and doctor offices already permitted in C-1, noting no overnight boarding is proposed. The parcel is bounded by commercial uses north, south, and west, with Lake Felter buffering the east; the nearest residential use is approximately 1,100 ft away across S US Hwy 27, and the nearest veterinary clinic roughly 1.5 miles south of Hartwood Marsh Road. Legal ad ran in the Daily Commercial June 30, 2026.

Item 2: Ordinance 2026-025 and Resolution 2026-022R — Dark Sky Land Development Code Amendment

  • Type: Text Amendment (Land Development Code) + implementing Resolution
  • Case Number: Ordinance No. 2026-025 (new Chapter 129, "Outdoor Lighting and Dark Sky Standards"); Resolution No. 2026-022R (lumens-per-acre schedule implementing § 129-4(d))
  • Location: Citywide — all properties within the corporate limits
  • Applicant: City of Clermont (staff-initiated at the direction of the City Manager's Office and City Council)
  • Request: Repeal LDC §§ 24-12 (Lighting of property) and 115-12 (Lighting facilities) in their entirety and replace them with a new chapter establishing enforceable outdoor lighting standards aligned with DarkSky International and Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) model standards.
  • Current Zoning: N/A (citywide text amendment)
  • Proposed Zoning: N/A
  • Acreage: N/A
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve both Ordinance 2026-025 and Resolution 2026-022R
  • Action: Pending (agenda only — public hearing July 7; Council adoption scheduled August 11, 2026)
  • Vote: Pending (agenda only)
  • Key provisions:
    • The stated defect being cured: § 24-12 dates to Ordinance No. 233-C of April 12, 1983 and prohibits "unnecessary and unreasonable reflection, glare or light on other property" but "contains no objective measurements, no fixture standards, no light trespass limits, and no enforceable performance criteria." § 115-12 is similarly unenforceable. The ordinance recites that lighting technology "has fundamentally changed" in the four decades since, citing high-intensity LED parking lot lighting, commercial signage, sports field lighting, and architectural floodlighting that did not exist in 1983.
    • Prohibited: unshielded fixtures (except as expressly permitted), mercury vapor lamps, low-pressure sodium lamps, and lamps exceeding 3,000K Color Correlated Temperature. Parking lots and storage yards (Class 2) carry a tighter 2,700K cap.
    • Measurement methodology written into the code: measured at the property line (or right-of-way boundary), at finished grade with the meter parallel to the ground pointing upward, using a calibrated foot-candle meter, with ambient light documented or eliminated.
    • Maximum lumens per net acre set by resolution rather than ordinance so values can be revised as technology evolves. Schedule in Res. 2026-022R: detached single-family 5,000 initial lumens per lot; multifamily / mixed-use / commercial / industrial / agricultural / institutional 70,000 per net acre; parking lots and storage yards 100,000 per net acre; outdoor display lots (auto, boat, RV dealerships) and service station canopies 150,000 per net acre. Athletic fields and government streetlights excluded and governed elsewhere; sign illumination not counted toward the cap; structured-parking interiors excluded but rooftops subject to the parking-lot value. Service station pumping areas additionally held to 10–30 maintained foot-candles at the island.
    • Adaptive controls bonus: +10% total output for Class 1 installations where 50% or more of Class 1 lighting is at or below 2,700K, demonstrated on the photometric plan and verified by field inspection before certificate of occupancy.
    • Phased retrofit: City-owned and City-leased nonconforming fixtures compliant no later than September 1, 2031, coordinated with Duke Energy; City Manager to inventory all City fixtures within twelve months and report annually to Council. All other nonconforming lighting compliant at the earlier of replacement/removal/substantial modification or September 1, 2036.
    • Vested-rights carve-out: complete applications filed and under good-faith review before the effective date are governed by the law in effect at filing unless the applicant elects in writing to proceed under the new standards.
    • Conforming amendments to § 101-352 (site plan submittal / photometric plan), § 117-9 (sign illumination), § 117-23 (electronic message board color temperature cap), and § 119-311 (subdivision streetlights).
  • Notable Context: The ordinance expressly recites that the City of Groveland adopted a comprehensive Dark Sky ordinance in August 2022 and on June 22, 2023 was certified by DarkSky International as the first International Dark Sky Community in Florida and the Southeastern United States. Clermont's stated policy anchor is its identity as the "Choice of Champions" and "Gem of the Hills," with lakefront and scenic character named as economic identity. Cost of fixture upgrades stated as unknown; offsetting benefit stated as long-term electricity savings. Legal ads ordered June 16, 2026.

Item 3: Ordinance 2026-026 — Surrounding Property Notifications (450 Ft.) Land Development Code Amendment

  • Type: Text Amendment (Land Development Code — public notice procedure)
  • Case Number: Ordinance No. 2026-026
  • Location: Citywide
  • Applicant: City of Clermont (staff-initiated at the direction of the City Manager's Office and City Council)
  • Request: Increase mailed public-hearing notice from property owners within 150 feet of a subject property to 450 feet — described by staff as "a 200% increase in the written notification requirements" — and require notice to any property owners' association (condominium or homeowners association) governing property within the 450-foot radius.
  • Current Zoning: N/A (citywide procedural amendment)
  • Proposed Zoning: N/A
  • Acreage: N/A
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve — "in the best interest of the public and citizens of Clermont"
  • Action: Pending (agenda only — public hearing July 7; Council adoption scheduled August 11, 2026)
  • Vote: Pending (agenda only)
  • Sections amended: § 101-211 (CUP notice), § 101-245 (variance notice), § 101-281 (rezoning and Future Land Use Map amendment notice), and § 125-527 (Live Local Act project review procedure — including the applicant-run neighborhood workshop mailing radius).
  • Notable Context: No changes proposed to newspaper publication or on-site signage requirements. The applications reached are Conditional Use Permits, Variances, Rezonings, Future Land Use Map Amendments, and Live Local Act projects. Under the amended § 125-527, Live Local Act workshop notices continue to go to the Lake County School Board and the Lake County Board of County Commissioners, mailed at least 15 calendar days before the workshop, now at the wider radius and with HOA/condo-association notice added.

Public Hearings Summary

Pending — this is a pre-meeting agenda document. Item 1 is an advertised quasi-judicial public hearing; Items 2 and 3 are advertised legislative public hearings on Land Development Code amendments. Public participation will be recorded in the July 7, 2026 minutes.

Key Signals

  • Clermont is writing an enforceable dark-sky code and citing Groveland as the precedent. Ordinance 2026-025 does not tune the existing lighting rules — it repeals a 1983 ordinance and a parking-lot lighting section that staff describe as having "no objective measurements, no fixture standards, no light trespass limits, and no enforceable performance criteria," and replaces them with a full chapter: a 3,000K color-temperature ceiling, full-cutoff fixture requirements, property-line measurement methodology, and lumens-per-acre caps. The whereas clauses name Groveland's August 2022 ordinance and its June 2023 DarkSky International certification as the first such community in Florida. This is south Lake County regulatory diffusion running west-to-east, and it is the second cross-city code transplant in Clermont in two months.

  • The lumens cap lives in a resolution, not the ordinance — a deliberate lever design. Section 129-4(d) delegates maximum light output to a Council resolution "so that the values may be revised from time to time as lighting technology and best practices evolve, without the need to amend the underlying ordinance." Res. 2026-022R sets the opening schedule: 5,000 lumens per single-family lot, 70,000 per net acre for general commercial, 100,000 for parking lots, 150,000 for auto/boat/RV display lots and service station canopies. Future tightening requires one resolution vote rather than a full LDC amendment cycle. Anyone underwriting a US-27 dealership or service station should note the cap can move without reopening the code.

  • The retrofit clock is long and the vesting carve-out is real. The City gives itself until September 1, 2031 to bring its own fixtures into compliance and gives everyone else until September 1, 2036 or the moment a fixture is replaced, removed, or substantially modified. Applications already filed and under good-faith review are governed by prior law unless the applicant opts in. The practical effect: this reshapes new construction and fixture replacement immediately while leaving the existing built environment largely untouched for a decade.

  • Tripling the notice radius is the most consequential procedural change on this agenda. Ordinance 2026-026 moves mailed notice from 150 to 450 feet for CUPs, variances, rezonings, future land use amendments, and Live Local Act projects, and adds mandatory notice to HOAs and condominium associations inside the radius. Clermont's contested hearings have repeatedly turned on who showed up — the Immanuel Temple neighbor compromise, the Waterbrooke storage protests, the 17 speakers at the First Baptist ALF. A 450-foot radius plus association notice materially enlarges the pool of people who learn about an application before the hearing, and it applies to the Live Local Act workshop mailing where developer-run outreach has been the weakest link.

  • Two veterinary clinics in two consecutive months signals a services-economy tier arriving on the corridor. CityVet at US-27 and Citrus Tower Blvd is the July item; Elite Veterinary Specialists on Hatteras Avenue follows in August. Staff's own analysis notes the nearest existing veterinary clinic is about 1.5 miles south of Hartwood Marsh Road. This is the same population-maturation pattern already visible in specialized education and healthcare — rooftops built over the past five years now generating demand for services that follow households rather than highways.

Raw Notes

  • Source: July 7, 2026 P&Z agenda (CivicClerk file ID 5689, 2 pp.) and July 7, 2026 agenda packet (file ID 5690, 61 pp.). Meeting ID 1152; portal event 1765.
  • The packet's first ten pages carry the agenda plus the full approved June 2, 2026 minutes; staff reports and ordinance text for the July 7 items begin at PDF page 11.
  • CityVet CUP: Resolution 2026-021R recites the Kings Crossing Commercial Complex PUD history — approved January 10, 2017 (Ord. 2017-02), master development plan amended July 28, 2020 (Ord. 2020-24). Resolution execution deadline 90 days from Council grant; short-form CUP to be recorded in Lake County public records within 90 days. Council date on the resolution: July 28, 2026.
  • Dark Sky exemptions as drafted: federally/state-required lighting including FAA hazard lighting; FDOT and Lake County traffic-control and roadway safety lighting; temporary emergency and permitted special-event lighting; seasonal decorative lighting between November 1 and January 15; temporary construction lighting under a valid building permit (shielded from abutting residential, extinguished outside working hours except for security, no prohibited light sources); underwater pool and water-feature lighting; low-voltage landscape lighting.
  • Dark Sky enforcement: fines plus "any other remedy provided by law, including injunctive relief." Variance procedure included in the chapter.
  • Ord. 2026-026 strikethrough rendering: the extracted text shows "1450 feet" where the source uses strikethrough on "150" and underline on "450" — the operative figure is 450 feet.
  • Ordinance 2026-025 and Ordinance 2026-026 both carry a Council adoption date of August 11, 2026; Resolution 2026-022R the same. Mayor of record Tim Murry; City Clerk Tracy Ackroyd Howe; City Attorney Christian W. Waugh approved all three as to form and legality.
  • Legal advertising: CityVet ad ordered June 17, 2026 (Daily Commercial, ran June 30); Dark Sky ordinance and resolution ads ordered June 16, 2026.

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