City of Eustis Local Planning Agency — March 6, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (4 of 5 members present at call to order; 5 present from 5:24 PM) Duration: 5:02 PM – 5:27 PM (25 minutes) Location: Eustis City Hall

Attendance

• Present: Chair Willie Hawkins, Mr. George Asbate, Mr. Michael Holland; Vice Chair Gary Ashcraft arrived 5:24 PM
• Absent: Ms. Emily Lee
• Staff Present: Kyle Wilkes, Senior Planner; Jeff Richardson, Deputy Director of Development Services; Tom Carrino, City Manager; Sasha Garcia, City Attorney; Christine Halloran, City Clerk

Prior minutes: February 20, 2025 minutes approved (moved Holland, seconded Asbate), 3-0.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Approval of Minutes — February 20, 2025

• Type: Other (procedural)
• Request: Approve the February 20, 2025 LPA minutes.
• Action: Approved
• Vote: 3-0 (Asbate, Holland, Hawkins) — Ashcraft had not yet arrived; Lee absent

Item 2.1: Ordinance Number 25-02 — Future Land Use Amendment, 4017 E Orange Avenue

• Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (small-scale Future Land Use Map)
• Case Number: Ordinance Number 25-02
• Location: 4017 E Orange Avenue, Eustis (Alternate Key 1658641)
• Applicant: Charles Leonard, property owner
• Request: Change the future land use designation from Rural Residential to Suburban Residential so the already-developed site can comply with the impervious surface ratio.
• Current Zoning: Rural Residential (future land use)
• Proposed Zoning: Suburban Residential (future land use)
• Acreage: [not available]
• Staff Recommendation: Approve — transmit to City Commission
• Action: Postponed (indefinitely, with no restriction on when it may return)
• Vote: 4-0 (moved Asbate, seconded Holland; Asbate, Holland, Ashcraft, Hawkins)
• Conditions: Motion expressly declined to restrict when the applicant may bring the item back
• Notable Discussion:
  • Wilkes explained the site is already developed and the amendment exists to bring it into compliance with the impervious surface ratio; the change would let the owner add to the existing home. He said the site would function as a transition area, that redevelopment at higher density is impractical given the parcel's length and width, and that no responses were received from surrounding residents.
  • Asbate opposed the request on the ground that it would permit increased density, and asked whether any other route to compliance existed.
  • Wilkes: the impervious surface ratio cannot be waived. Richardson: the ratio sits in the comprehensive plan, so it cannot be waived — the properties were annexed as Rural Residential because they were already developed, and the land use change "is the only remedy allowed."
  • Board and staff explored amending the comprehensive plan's ISR standard for Rural Residential instead. Carrino cautioned that a comprehensive plan text amendment is substantially harder to accomplish, and the board agreed the action should not include one.
  • Garcia advised staff to check the subdivision's deed restrictions so that any advice given does not conflict with them.
  • The board discussed postponing until the City completes its rewrite of the Code of Ordinances and Land Development Regulations.

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 2 (public hearing open 5:13 PM – 5:20 PM)
• General sentiment: Mixed — one neighbor opposed, the applicant in support
• Key concerns:
  • Cindy Newton — the property sits in a platted subdivision; a land use denser than the rest of the subdivision is inappropriate, and the property is already out of compliance with the deed restrictions.
  • Charles Leonard (owner) — bought the property in July 2024; wants space for hobbies, a motor home and vehicle trailers; said the parcel dimensions would realistically allow no more than three homes even at the higher density; stated he does not intend to sell.
  • Richardson noted local government does not enforce deed restrictions — that falls to an HOA where one exists.

Key Signals

• Eustis's impervious surface ratio is a comprehensive-plan number, which makes it effectively unwaivable at the staff level. Two officials said so on the record: Wilkes said the ratio could not be waived, and Richardson explained why — it lives in the comprehensive plan, not the code. For an owner of an already-built Rural Residential parcel who wants to add a structure, the only path staff could identify was a full future-land-use amendment. That is a meaningful friction point for infill and additions on the city's Rural Residential inventory, which Richardson noted is small.

• The board declined to solve the problem by changing the standard, and postponed rather than denying. Carrino's warning that a comprehensive plan text amendment is harder than a map amendment steered the board away from fixing the ratio itself. The motion postponed Ordinance 25-02 with an explicit instruction not to restrict when it could return — a deliberate choice to keep the applicant's clock running rather than trigger any re-filing waiting period. Watch for this item to reappear after the Kimley-Horn code rewrite lands.

• Deed restrictions were raised as an obstacle the city cannot resolve. Newton's point — the property is already out of compliance with private covenants — drew a clean jurisdictional answer from Richardson: the city does not enforce them. The city attorney nonetheless directed staff to read the restrictions before advising further. Buyers in Eustis's older platted subdivisions should read the plat covenants as a separate and independently binding layer that no city approval clears.

• A vote was taken with three of five members while a fourth was en route. Ashcraft arrived at 5:24 PM, after the minutes vote and mid-discussion, and participated in the substantive motion. The LPA operates at the edge of quorum often enough that timing of arrivals changes vote composition.

Raw Notes

• Source: minutes PDF at https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/eustisfl-pubu/MEET-Minutes-1a5eb57d7178454badd58e7c0fb95f44.pdf (3 pp.), retrieved 2026-08-15.
• Minutes stamped "APPROVED 3/20/2025".
• Meeting start time was 5:00 PM, not the LPA's usual 5:30 PM.
• Richardson referenced an earlier conditional use permit application on the same property during which the impervious surface question first surfaced.
• Asbate referenced the City's engagement of Kimley-Horn to revise the code — the first mention of that consultancy in the LPA record; the resulting amendments arrive as Ordinance 25-09 in June 2025.
• Minutes pages headed "Eustis City Commission" (clerk template artifact).