Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 of the 7 voting members on the agenda roster present) Duration: 5:03 PM to 7:02 PM, about 2 hours Record: The city's minutes of this meeting, posted as a scanned file and read by OCR. No later minutes record their approval (see Raw Notes). The agenda for this meeting is held in the corpus as groveland/2026-08-agenda-PZB.md.

Attendance

Present: Zach Decker (Chairman), Robin Hoover, Michael Archer, Alisha Kissee, Brandan Dixion
Absent: Kerry Lambert, Marty Proctor, Bill Mathias (non-voting, per the agenda roster)
Staff Present: Benjamin Schafer, City Attorney (spelled "Benjermin" in the minutes); Andrew Landis, Interim Community & Economic Development Director; DeWayne Jones, Planning and Zoning Manager; Alan Booker, Senior Planner; Maria Ramirez, Recording Secretary
Also appearing: Mike Walker, Director, Parks and Community Services; Alex Stringfellow, the applicant's representative on the Sampey Road ordinances

Agenda Items

Item 0: Approval of the July 9, 2026 Minutes (Consent)

Type: Consent
Request: Approval of the July 9, 2026 Planning & Zoning Board meeting minutes
Action: Approved
Vote: All board members present voted aye (motion by Alisha Kissee, seconded by Robin Hoover)
Notable Discussion: The minutes approved here are held in the corpus as groveland/2026-07-meeting-PZB.md.

Item 1: Ordinance 2026-13, Sampey Road Parcel 2 Small Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment

Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (small scale, F.S. § 163.3187(1))
Case Number: Ordinance 2026-13
Location: Sampey Road, Parcel 2
Applicant: Represented by Alex Stringfellow
Request: Amend the Future Land Use Plan designation from City of Groveland Established Neighborhood, Agriculture, and Conservation to City of Groveland Employment Center and Conservation, per the ordinance headnote read into the record
Acreage: 15.41 +/- acres, per the ordinance headnote
Action: Approved (recommendation to City Council)
Vote: All five board members present voted aye. Motion by Robin Hoover, seconded by Alisha Kissee.
Notable Discussion: Mr. Stringfellow described the project and its anticipated economic benefits, including future employment opportunities and additional tax revenue. The minutes record no public comment. Board Member Hoover expressed concern with traffic conditions from Sampey Road to Highway 19 and State Road 50, and Board Member Kissee with flooding for existing homes near the project.

Item 2: Ordinance 2026-14, Sampey Road Parcel 2 Rezoning

Type: Rezoning
Case Number: Ordinance 2026-14
Location: Sampey Road, north of State Road 50, east of Phelps Street and west of Beverly Drive, per the ordinance headnote (which reads "Phelp Street")
Request: Change the zoning from City of Groveland Agriculture, Light Industrial, and Conservation to City of Groveland Light Industrial and Conservation, for the property the headnote describes as "owned by Jon Jones"
Current Zoning: City of Groveland Agriculture, Light Industrial, and Conservation
Proposed Zoning: City of Groveland Light Industrial and Conservation
Action: Approved (recommendation to City Council)
Vote: All five board members present voted aye. Motion by Alisha Kissee, seconded by Robin Hoover.
Notable Discussion: The minutes record no public comment and no board discussion.

Item 3: Ordinance 2026-15, Sampey Road Parcel 1 Small Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment

Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (small scale, F.S. § 163.3187(1))
Case Number: Ordinance 2026-15
Location: Sampey Road, Parcel 1
Request: Amend the Future Land Use Plan designation from City of Groveland Established Neighborhood and Conservation to City of Groveland Agriculture, Employment Center and Conservation, per the ordinance headnote
Acreage: 14.77 +/- acres, per the ordinance headnote
Action: Approved (recommendation to City Council), as the minutes record it under this item
Vote: All five board members present voted aye. The minutes print the motion under this item as "Board Member Robin Hoover motioned to approve Ordinance 2026-14; Seconded by Board Member Brandan Dixion" (see Raw Notes).
Notable Discussion: The minutes record no public comment. Board Member Dixion asked whether there are structures on the property; Mr. Stringfellow confirmed it is fully vacant.

Presentations

Presentation A: EAR Update, Parks Levels of Service Review

Presenters: Alan Booker, Senior Planner; Mike Walker, Director, Parks and Community Services
Proposed standard: Mr. Booker presented proposed updates to the Parks and Recreation Level of Service standards under the City's Evaluation and Appraisal Review. The proposed amendment would raise the standard from six acres per 10,000 residents to eight acres per 10,000 residents. He also discussed expanding the definition of qualifying parkland to include privately owned recreation areas that are accessible to the public. Current park inventory and future park planning initiatives were reviewed.
Parks department: Mr. Walker covered park acreage calculations, park accessibility and connectivity, future park planning priorities, maintenance and funding considerations, and implementation of the Parks Master Plan.
Board discussion: Comments covered recreation opportunities, water-based amenities, park equity throughout the city and long-term maintenance funding. Board Member Hoover recommended updating the master plan before partnership decisions are made, saying the board needs to know how it will work with the making and spending of money. Mr. Walker said the Parks Master Plan will take 9 to 10 months to complete. Chair Decker said he would like to see diversity in sports.

Public Hearings Summary

Number of speakers: 1. The minutes record no public comment on any of the three Sampey Road ordinances; the one speaker, Mayor Keith Keogh, spoke under general Public Comment.
General sentiment: The Mayor advised the board on the parks standard, the city's code and long-term costs rather than taking a position on an ordinance.
Key concerns (all from Mayor Keith Keogh):
- Parks standard: He was concerned about moving to a standard of "eight to ten acres per thousand residents" and said the Parks and Recreation Master Plan does not count water, such as recreational waterways and the kayak blueway, when calculating acreage needs. He said Groveland has about 34,000 acres, roughly 9,000 of them water, and asked that the standard be framed as a minimum, such as six or eight acres, so the city has flexibility to exceed it.
- Code and density: Citing conversations with developers, he said the Florida vernacular code's requirement for rear entrances or rear garages on 65-foot lots appears to contribute to higher density, because alleyways and rear-loaded garages are costly and developers may need more units to break even. In a project like Brighthill, he said, allowing front-loaded garages and larger lots could reduce the number of homes by about 300. He added: "If Amendment 3 passes, every new house could become more of a liability than an asset."
- Master plan: He asked that recommendations to Council be clear and specific and that the city commit to following the existing Parks and Recreation Master Plan before starting another. Speaking, in his words, "as a private citizen," he said he is not in favor of bringing in an outside consultant. He said pickleball ranks near the bottom of the top 50 priorities identified by residents, while open space and walkable areas rank much higher. He said the current plan's emphasis on large parks conflicts with the strategic plan's focus on neighborhood parks, which were included to avoid adding traffic on Highway 19, and suggested asking whether Cherry Lake Park is truly at capacity and whether Gaffney Park, which has room for a dock for kayak access, should be expanded instead.
- Funding and maintenance: He said impact fees, which come only from new housing and development, are not a sustainable long-term funding source, and encouraged the board to consider asking Council to increase park impact fees. He asked that every project answer who will maintain it, how, and who will be accountable, and urged a focus on uses such as grocery stores and commercial development that can generate long-term tax revenue.

Board and Staff Comments

Board Member Hoover raised businesses displaying flags and asked that the City either enforce the current code or have the board consider revising it to allow them. She said she will share the Florida statute related to the Planning Board at the next meeting.
Board Member Dixion recommended that the City consider monitoring residential water use and remain mindful of overall water consumption.
Chair Decker emphasized emergency services, noting that first responders recently took 11 minutes to arrive at his home, and encouraged continued focus on improving response times. He asked for an update on Avalon Park; Mr. Landis confirmed that one will be provided at the next Council meeting.
Staff: DeWayne Jones, Planning and Zoning Manager, gave development activity updates on Wawa, Brighthill, Cypress Reserve, Groveland Commerce Center and Groveland Business Plaza. The minutes list the projects without detail.

Key Signals

Sampey Road cleared this board with no public speaker, then drew four at Council. The five members present voted aye on all three ordinances, and the minutes record no public comment on any of them. Board Members Hoover and Kissee put traffic toward SR 19 and SR 50 and flooding near existing homes on the record, then voted aye. At the City Council's August 17 first reading, four residents spoke on Ordinance 2026-13, three of them raising children's safety, truck and cut-through traffic on Phelps Street, sewage, drainage and flooding (groveland/2026-08-meeting-CC.md); the Council approved all three on second reading September 8 (groveland/2026-09-meeting-CC.md).
The applicant's case was jobs and tax base. Alex Stringfellow, the applicant's representative, described future employment opportunities and additional tax revenue, and confirmed that Parcel 1 is fully vacant.
The parks standard may rise, and what counts as parkland may widen. Mr. Booker's proposed amendment would raise the Level of Service from six to eight acres per 10,000 residents, and he discussed counting privately owned recreation areas that are open to the public as qualifying parkland. The second change decides what the city can count toward the first, so the two are worth reading together as the EAR moves forward.
The Mayor argued that the city's own code pushes density up. Mayor Keith Keogh said the rear-entrance and rear-garage requirement on 65-foot lots may drive developers toward more units, and that front-loaded garages and larger lots could cut about 300 homes from a project like Brighthill. He tied the question to "Amendment 3," saying every new house could become more of a liability than an asset if it passes.
Service capacity came up again from the dais. Chair Decker cited an 11-minute first-responder arrival at his own home, and Board Member Dixion asked the City to watch residential water use. On May 7 Decker had put Fire's need for two more stations on the record (groveland/2026-05-meeting-PZB.md).

Raw Notes

Source: the August 6, 2026 minutes, https://groveland-fl.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_08062026-1446 (564,980 bytes, 8 pages, a scan with no text layer), retrieved 2026-09-27 and read by OCR (Tesseract 5.3.4). Names, motions and figures were checked against the page images.
Approval status: the file carries the attest signatures of Chairman Zach Decker and Recording Secretary Maria Ramirez, but no later minutes record a vote approving it. The city's 2026 Planning & Zoning listing, retrieved 2026-09-27, holds no meeting after August 6. This record is therefore marked pending approval.
City Attorney: these minutes list "City Attorney Benjermin Schafer" present. The agenda roster for this meeting lists Benjamin Schafer, City Attorney (groveland/2026-08-agenda-PZB.md). The July 9, 2026 minutes list Kurt Garber as City Attorney (groveland/2026-07-meeting-PZB.md).
Scrivener's issue as found: under Item 3 (Ordinance 2026-15) the minutes print the motion as "Board Member Robin Hoover motioned to approve Ordinance 2026-14; Seconded by Board Member Brandan Dixion." Ordinance 2026-14 carries its own motion under Item 2 (Kissee, seconded by Hoover).
Units as recorded: Mr. Booker's figures are acres "per 10,000 residents"; the Mayor's comment speaks of "eight to ten acres per thousand residents." This record keeps each as the minutes give it.
Spellings in the minutes: "Samey Road" once, in Board Member Hoover's traffic concern; "Phelp Street" in the Ordinance 2026-14 headnote; both "Bright Hill" and "Brighthill" in the Mayor's comment; "Brandan Dixion," where the agenda roster spells "Brandan Dixon."
The Mayor refers twice to "Amendment 3"; the minutes do not say which measure he means.
The file's eighth page, after the signature block, is a printed text headed "Constitutional Amendment, Article VII, Sections 4, 6, and 9, Article XII," on an increased homestead exemption and a lower cap on non-homestead assessment increases. The minutes do not say who supplied it or tie it to an agenda item.
Each Sampey Road headnote was read into the record by Recording Secretary Maria Ramirez. The headnotes of Ordinances 2026-13 and 2026-15 provide for forwarding the ordinance to the State of Florida Department of Commerce.
Neither SB 180 nor the CDC V5 code update appears in these minutes.
Adjournment: motion by Robin Hoover at 7:02 PM, seconded by Alisha Kissee.

Groveland Planning & Zoning Board, August 6, 2026 minutes