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Meetings · Eustis

Eustis Local Planning Agency — June 19, 2025 minutes

City of Eustis Local Planning Agency — June 19, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 of 5 members present) Duration: 5:40 PM – 6:07 PM (27 minutes) Location: Eustis City Hall

Attendance

  • Present: Chair Willie L. Hawkins, Vice Chair Gary Ashcraft, Mr. George Asbate, Mr. Michael Holland, Ms. Emily Lee
  • Absent: None
  • Staff Present: Tom Carrino, City Manager; Mike Lane, Development Services Director; Jeff Richardson, Deputy Development Services Director; Sasha Garcia, City Attorney; Christine Halloran, City Clerk

Prior minutes: April 17, 2025 minutes approved (moved Holland, seconded Ashcraft), 5-0. The June 5, 2025 meeting was cancelled.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Approval of Minutes — April 17, 2025

  • Type: Other (procedural)
  • Request: Approve the April 17, 2025 LPA minutes.
  • Action: Approved
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Holland, seconded Ashcraft)

Item 2.1: Ordinance Number 25-09 — LDR amendments: use table changes, master planning over 300 acres, and Suburban Residential subdivision standards

  • Type: Text Amendment (Land Development Regulations)
  • Case Number: Ordinance Number 25-09
  • Location: Citywide
  • Applicant: City of Eustis (staff-initiated, developed with consultant Kimley-Horn)
  • Request: Amend the Use Regulations Table; add master planning requirements for properties over 300 acres in all Design Districts; and adopt subdivision regulations and design guidelines for Suburban Residential (SR) properties.
  • Current Zoning: N/A (citywide)
  • Proposed Zoning: N/A
  • Acreage: N/A
  • Staff Recommendation: Transmit to City Commission
  • Action: Recommended for transmittal to the City Commission
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Holland, seconded Ashcraft)
  • Conditions: None added
  • Notable Discussion:
    • Lane on the drafting problem: "the Land Development Code is full of redundancies," and his goal was simplification. Initial discussions with Kimley-Horn contemplated regulating subdivisions of more than three lots, which "didn't make sense"; the ordinance as presented applies to new subdivisions of ten lots or more.
    • The operative standard: new subdivisions in the Suburban Residential category must have minimum 100-foot-wide lots unless a waiver is requested. Lane said staff are "trying to push the developers who are interested in doing a typical subdivision to seek waivers so they can develop less than 100 foot lots."
    • The board asked whether this applies only to new annexations. Lane: it applies to any new subdivision, including land already designated Suburban Residential — roughly ten sites within the City.
    • The board observed it had already heard all of the proposed changes previously. Garcia said a full presentation would be given at the City Commission meeting.
    • Open space discussion: Lane said the City already requires 25% open space for all new subdivisions, encourages developers to use stormwater facilities recreationally, and noted the open space requirement affects achievable density. On the Wekiva, he said the City's code includes native vegetation guidelines and the comprehensive plan is explicit about retaining native vegetation.
    • Stormwater design: staff discussed bioretention swales with Kimley-Horn and would need to take that to the Water Management District. Lane agreed that smaller basins distributed around a subdivision would be preferable to one large pond, and described the current practice — an engineer runs calculations and picks a pond location.
    • Carrino relayed Kimley-Horn's position: open space should be "centrally located, consolidated and impactful," with the goal of making it active recreation.

Item 2.2: Ordinance Number 25-11 — 2025-CPLUS-03, Future Land Use for annexation parcels on State Road 19 at Ruth Avenue

  • Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Future Land Use assignment on annexation)
  • Case Number: Ordinance Number 25-11 / 2025-CPLUS-03
  • Location: West side of State Road 19, along Ruth Avenue (Alternate Key Numbers 3957568, 3957567 and 3450680 per the agenda; the June 5 agenda listed 3957568, 3955767 and 3950680)
  • Applicant: [not available — private property owner, not named in the minutes]
  • Request: Assign a future land use designation of Suburban Residential on 0.6 acres currently designated Urban Low in Lake County.
  • Current Zoning: Urban Low (Lake County), 4:1 density, lots at 66x130
  • Proposed Zoning: Suburban Residential (City of Eustis), 5:1 density
  • Acreage: 0.6 acres
  • Staff Recommendation: Transmit to City Commission
  • Action: Recommended for transmittal to the City Commission
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Holland, seconded Ashcraft)
  • Conditions: None
  • Notable Discussion:
    • Richardson said the proposed land use is consistent with surrounding properties, walked the property description, and confirmed water and sewer availability. He estimated the lots at roughly 66, 66 and 25 feet.
    • The board confirmed it would be limited to one house per lot, that proper notice was given, and that the site sits in an enclave.

Public Hearings Summary

  • Number of speakers: 2 across two hearings (Item 2.1: 5:46 PM – 5:55 PM; Item 2.2: 6:03 PM – 6:06 PM)
  • General sentiment: Mixed — supportive of the lot-width standard, confused about the second item
  • Key concerns:
    • Cindy Newton (Item 2.1) — supported the 100-foot lot widths. Asked that open space count only common areas, not individual lots. Presented a copy of the open space standard the City had when the Wekiva Protection Area took effect and asked the City to restore it. Cited LDR § 121-24(c)(2) and its maximum 25% impervious surface restriction within the Wekiva Study Area, asking that it be reinstated.
    • Thomas Cochrane (Item 2.2) — owns the immediately adjacent property; said the information provided was vague and mentioned eminent domain, which "sounded like they were taking his property," and asked why power lines were not being run down the graveyard road. Carrino clarified the letter he was referencing likely related to Duke Energy, not the City, and does not concern the subject property.

Key Signals

  • Eustis proposed a 100-foot minimum lot width for new Suburban Residential subdivisions and openly described it as a lever to force developers into the waiver process. Lane's phrasing is the signal: staff are "trying to push the developers ... to seek waivers so they can develop less than 100 foot lots." The standard is not primarily about lot size; it is about relocating negotiating position, converting narrow-lot product from an as-of-right entitlement into something the City grants case by case. Roughly ten existing Suburban Residential sites inside the City are affected, plus every future annexation assigned SR.

  • This ordinance becomes the reference standard for a code Eustis is then barred from adopting. Ordinance 25-09's design guidelines are what developers later call the City's "aspirational code." When the state's post-hurricane freeze on land development regulation amendments stops Eustis from applying them, at least two applicants — MAS Development in September 2025 and Grand Island Crossings in January 2026 — volunteer to comply by contract instead. A standard that never became law still shaped what got built.

  • A resident asked Eustis to restore two specific Wekiva-era protections, by citation. Newton named LDR § 121-24(c)(2) and its 25% impervious cap in the Wekiva Study Area, and asked that the older open space definition return. Staff acknowledged the definition has changed several times over the years and did not commit either way. The Wekiva overlay is the one regulatory layer in north Lake County that binds harder than local preference.

  • Staff want distributed bioretention; the Water Management District has not agreed to it. Lane conceded that current practice is a single engineered pond sited by calculation, and that smaller basins spread through a subdivision would be better. That change requires SJRWMD buy-in that had not been sought. Until it happens, expect the one-big-pond pattern to continue — including ponds counted toward open space, which is the exact objection the LPA raises against Grand Island Crossings seven months later.

  • A 0.6-acre parcel moving from 4:1 to 5:1 density brought out a neighbor who thought the city was condemning his land. Cochrane's confusion traced to a Duke Energy letter. The episode is a notice-quality signal: the mailed material was specific enough to alarm an adjacent owner and not specific enough to tell him what was happening.

Raw Notes

  • Source: minutes PDF at https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/eustisfl-pubu/MEET-Minutes-5bbc511138e84279bab649df9d53105b.pdf (3 pp.), retrieved 2026-08-15.
  • Minutes stamped "APPROVED 7/17/2025".
  • The minutes render Ordinance 25-09's subject as "LOR Amendments" — an OCR artifact for LDR.
  • Alternate key numbers for Ordinance 25-11 differ between the cancelled June 5 agenda (3957568, 3955767, 3950680) and the June 19 agenda and minutes (3957568, 3957567, 3450680). Both are reproduced above; the discrepancy is in the source documents, not the transcription.
  • Lane referenced the stormwater pond adjoining his own property when discussing pond design.
  • The meeting was called to order at 5:40 PM, ten minutes after the noticed 5:30 PM start.
  • Minutes pages headed "Eustis City Commission" (clerk template artifact).

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