Zoning Signal

Meetings · Eustis

Eustis Local Planning Agency — August 7, 2025 minutes

City of Eustis Local Planning Agency — August 7, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 of 5 members present) Duration: 5:30 PM – 6:04 PM (34 minutes) Location: Eustis City Hall

Attendance

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

Prior minutes: July 17, 2025 minutes approved (moved Holland, seconded Ashcraft), 5-0.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Approval of Minutes — July 17, 2025

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

Item 2.1: Ordinance Number 25-21 — 2025-CPLUS-06, Future Land Use Map amendment for annexation at County Road 44A and County Road 44

  • Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Future Land Use Map amendment on annexation)
  • Case Number: Ordinance Number 25-21 / 2025-CPLUS-06
  • Location: Corner area of County Road 44A and County Road 44, between residential neighborhoods to the north and south (Alternate Key Number 1040141)
  • Applicant: Travis Sawchuk, who owns and lives on the property directly to the east
  • Request: Change the future land use from Urban Low in Lake County to General Commercial in the City.
  • Current Zoning: Urban Low (Lake County). Speaker Donald Doyle asserted the property is part of a Lake County PUD with use limitations; Richardson explained the PUD serves as the County's zoning and that on annexation the City assigns a future land use, not zoning.
  • Proposed Zoning: General Commercial
  • Acreage: 2.8 acres as described by the applicant in this hearing
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve
  • Action: Recommended for transmittal to the City Commission
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Holland, seconded Asbate)
  • Conditions: None
  • Notable Discussion:
    • Richardson said utilities are available, no wetlands, no 100-year flood zone, and the site is in the Wekiva Study Area with a medium recharge. Notices were completed and no comments were received.
    • Chairman Hawkins disclosed that he had met with Mr. Sawchuk previously, then opened the public hearing.
    • Sawchuk's stated plan: a low-density commercial center — a business park on 2.8 acres with only one or two occupants, "very low key." He said he had spoken to Lake County about the retention pond, that it is oversized, that it would accommodate a deceleration lane and a turn lane, and that Leslie Campione was willing for the County to cover the pond and install infiltrator pipes.
    • Ashcraft pressed on buffering. Sawchuk said he is not opposed to an 8-foot fence and plantings as a sound buffer. Ashcraft also raised gas-station lighting levels as a problem for adjacent residents.
    • Sawchuk described an L-shaped plaza with outparcels, said he provided an artist rendering to staff, and said he has no specific clients or national tenant.
    • On the PUD objection, Sawchuk said Leslie Campione and her husband own from Lake Swatara to the lighted intersection, that he purchased land from them, and that the historical subdivision PUD is "redundant and not active" because there are now too many owners.
    • Ms. Lee asked whether a tree-removal permit was required. Sawchuk said under agricultural/forestry classification no permit was needed to remove the slash pines, and that the trees removed were dead — infected by a beetle.
    • Hawkins asked Sawchuk to hold a community meeting with area residents; Sawchuk agreed.
    • Doyle also noted that the names on the two ordinances are reversed; Sawchuk said he had informed staff of the error too late to correct it before the meeting.

Item 2.2: Ordinance Number 25-24 — 2025-CPLUS-07, Future Land Use Map amendment for annexation of adjacent parcels

  • Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Future Land Use Map amendment on annexation)
  • Case Number: Ordinance Number 25-24 / 2025-CPLUS-07
  • Location: Adjacent to the Item 2.1 site at County Road 44A and County Road 44 (Alternate Key Number not yet assigned by the Lake County Property Appraiser)
  • Applicant: Travis Sawchuk
  • Request: Change the future land use from Urban Low in Lake County to General Commercial in the City. Richardson presented both items together and stated both properties are currently Urban Low requesting General Commercial.
  • Current Zoning: Urban Low (Lake County)
  • Proposed Zoning: General Commercial
  • Acreage: [not available]
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve
  • Action: Recommended for transmittal to the City Commission
  • Vote: 4-1 (moved Holland, seconded Lee) — Yea: Holland, Lee, Ashcraft, Hawkins. Nay: Asbate.
  • Conditions: None
  • Notable Discussion: No separate discussion was recorded; the item was presented jointly with Item 2.1 and voted immediately after it.

Public Hearings Summary

  • Number of speakers: 5 (hearing open 5:43 PM – 6:03 PM)
  • General sentiment: Opposed, with one supporter
  • Key concerns:
    • Cindy Newton — possible impact on Lake Joanna and Lake Swatara; noted a house in the area with structural and drainage problems; urged that no additional water be added to developments to the south.
    • Donald Doyle (County resident north of the site) — homes already sit very close to the property; opposed many of the uses General Commercial would permit; said the property is part of a Lake County PUD with land use limitations; noted the applicant names on the two ordinances are reversed.
    • Trina Marquez (lives directly behind the site) — opposed; concerned that trees are already being removed; "would be fine with houses but not gas stations."
    • Paul Perkins (owner of city property directly across the street) — supported the development, citing the need for commercial services in the area.
    • Carrino said drainage would be considered at site plan submittal; the board asked Richardson to make sure it is addressed, and Richardson noted Water Management District permitting and engineering review would apply.

Key Signals

  • The first recorded dissent on the Eustis LPA in this coverage window is Asbate's 4-1 nay on Ordinance 25-24. Every prior substantive vote since February 2025 was unanimous. The dissent lands on the second of two adjacent parcels moving to General Commercial at CR 44A and CR 44 — the parcel whose alternate key the Lake County Property Appraiser had not yet assigned, and on which no separate discussion was recorded.

  • The board approved a General Commercial designation while three neighbors described the specific commercial uses they fear. Marquez's line — fine with houses, not gas stations — is the exact gap between land use designation and land use outcome. General Commercial permits the gas station; the applicant's stated intent of a two-tenant business park binds nothing. Six months later the same applicant returns citing a draft development agreement whose prohibited-use list starts with gas stations, and the LPA denies him 1-4 because the agreement is not yet in front of them.

  • A sitting board chair disclosed a prior private meeting with the applicant and then chaired the hearing. Hawkins made the disclosure on the record before opening the hearing and voted with the majority on both items. The disclosure is the notable part — it establishes the Eustis norm that ex parte contact is declared rather than avoided.

  • The site is in the Wekiva Study Area with medium recharge, and the drainage answer was deferred to site plan. Newton's question about Lake Joanna and Lake Swatara received the standard answer: stormwater is a site-plan and SJRWMD matter. In a recharge area, the land use decision precedes the hydrology review by years, and the designation cannot be revisited when the hydrology comes back unfavourable.

  • A County commissioner's name appears twice in the applicant's account of the site. Sawchuk stated that Leslie Campione and her husband own the land from Lake Swatara to the lighted intersection, that he bought from them, and that Campione was willing for the County to cover the retention pond and install infiltrator pipes. The minutes record these as the applicant's representations; no County official appeared.

Raw Notes

  • Source: minutes PDF at https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/eustisfl-pubu/MEET-Minutes-292a1303677b48938adecd613d43b458.pdf (3 pp.), retrieved 2026-08-15.
  • Minutes stamped "APPROVED 9/4/2025".
  • The agenda for Item 2.2 states the Lake County Property Appraiser had not assigned an alternate key number.
  • The minutes record no vote result line for Item 2.1 beyond the list of yea votes; all five members are listed voting yea.
  • Doyle's assertion that the applicant names on the two ordinances were reversed was acknowledged by the applicant and not corrected before the vote.
  • Alternate Key 1040141 returns to this board on February 19, 2026 as Ordinance 2026-07 and is denied 1-4; it returns again on the May 7, 2026 agenda paired with a development agreement.
  • Minutes pages headed "Eustis City Commission" (clerk template artifact).

Connected records

1 connected record

Places1