City of Groveland Planning & Zoning Board — August 6, 2026 (Agenda)

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Not applicable — agenda document; minutes will be produced after the meeting Scheduled: 5:00 PM, Thursday, August 6, 2026, E.L. Puryear Building, 243 S. Lake Avenue, Groveland, FL 34736 Virtual access: Watch/listen mode only; no public comment taken virtually Document: August 6, 2026 P&Z agenda packet PDF — 151 pages / 18.8 MB, containing three staff memoranda, three full ordinance texts with legal descriptions and exhibits, application support documents, land-use and zoning exhibit maps, and public notice materials

Listed Attendance (per agenda roster)

• Board Members: Chairman Zach Decker, Vice-Chairman Robin Hoover, Kerry Lambert, Michael Archer, Brandan Dixon, Marty Proctor, Alisha Kissee, Bill Mathias (non-voting)
• Other Attendees: Timothy Maslow, Interim City Manager; Andrew Landis, Interim Community & Economic Development Director; DeWayne Jones, Planning & Zoning Division Manager; Alan Booker, Senior Planner; Benjamin Schafer, City Attorney; Maria Ramirez, Recording Secretary

Agenda Items

Item 0: Consent Agenda — Approval of July 9, 2026 Minutes

• Type: Consent
• Request: Consideration of approval of the July 9, 2026 Planning & Zoning Board meeting minutes
• Action: Pending (August 6 meeting)
• Notable Details: The minutes document itself is not included anywhere in the 151-page packet — unusual for Groveland, whose consent minutes are normally embedded in the next month's packet. The July 9 minutes remain unpublished.

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; Application PLAN2606-0044
• Location: Sampey Road, north of State Road 50, east of Phelps Street and west of Beverly Drive, within the Groveland Interlocal Service Boundary Area (ISBA). Parcel ID 01-22-24-4205-003-00000 (Site Parcel 2); Alt. Key 1103193
• Applicant: Alex Stringfellow, on behalf of owner Jon Jones
• Request: Amend the Future Land Use designation from Established Neighborhood, Agriculture, and Conservation to City of Groveland Employment Center and Conservation
• Current Future Land Use: Established Neighborhood, Agriculture, Conservation
• Proposed Future Land Use: Employment Center, Conservation
• Acreage: 15.41 +/- acres
• Staff Recommendation: Approve (Alan Booker, Senior Planner, via Andrew Landis)
• Action: Pending Board recommendation
• Notable Details:
  • Proposed use: 12 light industrial flex office buildings totaling 90,000 square feet.
  • Parcel follows approval of Minor Lot Split application PLAN2606-0045, which splits a parent parcel into Parcel 1 (14.77 ac) and Parcel 2 (15.41 ac). The lot split is approved but not yet recorded with Lake County.
  • Inside the Community Redevelopment Area (CRA). Not in the Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern.
  • Majority of the property sits in FEMA Flood Zone A, within the Special Flood Hazard Area (FIRM Panel 12069C0555E, eff. 12/18/2012). Within the Palatlakaha River Basin per the City's 2020 CRA Watershed Study; the City has set a community-determined Base Flood Elevation of 96.6 feet NAVD88 near Node PR2000.
  • Most of the northwest portion is wetland per the National Wetlands Inventory; the southeast portion also features wetland.
  • Staff's core justification is a map-consistency cure: a portion of the property carries an Agriculture Future Land Use while being zoned Light Industrial, and the majority is already zoned Light Industrial.
  • Comprehensive Plan policies staff cite in favor: 1.1b, 1.1e (discourage urban sprawl), 1.1f, 1.1i (Employment Centers such as Christopher C. Ford Commerce Park), 1.1p (protect development from incompatible adjacent uses).
  • Policies staff mark neutral: 3.1b (low impact development), 3.1c (floodplain protection).
  • Policy staff mark not in favor: 2.1a — "The City shall promote agriculture as a viable land use." Staff analysis: "The amendment would remove the Agriculture Future Land Use designation from a portion of the property, reducing land planned for agricultural use."
  • Legal Note: None. Budget Impact: N/A.

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

• Type: Rezoning
• Case Number: Ordinance 2026-14; Application PLAN2606-0044
• Location: Same parcel as Item 1 — Sampey Road, north of SR-50, east of Phelps Street, west of Beverly Drive
• Applicant: Alex Stringfellow, on behalf of owner Jon Jones
• Request: Rezone from City of Groveland Agriculture, Light Industrial, and Conservation to City of Groveland Light Industrial and Conservation
• Current Zoning: Agriculture, Light Industrial, Conservation
• Proposed Zoning: Light Industrial, Conservation
• Acreage: 15.41 +/- acres
• Staff Recommendation: Approve — "The rezoning would establish consistency between the zoning district and the proposed Future Land Use designation."
• Action: Pending Board recommendation
• Notable Details:
  • Contingent ordinance. Staff finding of consistency is expressly conditioned on Ordinance 2026-13 taking effect: "Pursuant to Section 163.3184(12), Florida Statutes, the rezoning shall not take effect unless and until the companion plan amendment becomes effective."
  • Compatibility deferred: "Specific compatibility issues, including buffering, landscaping, lighting, access, and operational impacts, will be addressed during subsequent site development review."
  • Adjacent designations: north Conservation; east Established Neighborhood & Conservation over Single Family Residential & Conservation; south Established Neighborhood & Conservation over Light Industrial, Conservation and Agriculture; west Employment Center & Conservation over Light Industrial & Conservation.
  • Legal Note: None.

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; Application PLAN2606-0044
• Location: Sampey Road, north of SR-50, east of Phelps Street, west of Beverly Drive; Site Parcel 1, ISBA, inside the CRA
• Applicant: Alex Stringfellow, on behalf of owner Jon Jones
• Request: Amend the Future Land Use designation from Established Neighborhood and Conservation to Agriculture, Employment Center and Conservation
• Current Future Land Use: Established Neighborhood, Conservation
• Proposed Future Land Use: Agriculture, Employment Center, Conservation
• Acreage: 14.77 +/- acres
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Pending Board recommendation
• Notable Details:
  • Stated reason for request: "To preserve a portion of the property that has an agriculture zoning for future agriculture use."
  • No companion rezoning ordinance accompanies Parcel 1 — its zoning (Agriculture, Conservation, Light Industrial) is unchanged.
  • Staff cite Policy 2.1a in favor here: "The proposed amendment supports this policy by restoring the Agriculture Future Land Use designation to land already zoned Agriculture." The same policy is cited not in favor in the Ordinance 2026-13 memo on the same night.
  • Most of Parcel 1 is wetland per the National Wetlands Inventory; majority in FEMA Flood Zone A with the same 96.6 ft NAVD88 community BFE.
  • Legal Note: None.

Presentations

Presentation A: EAR Update — Parks Levels of Service Review

• Type: Evaluation and Appraisal Review (EAR) amendment cycle, Levels of Service series
• Substance: Not detailed in the agenda; no backup materials for the presentation appear in the packet. Continues the sequence: EAR Amendment Update (April 2), Police and Fire LOS (May 7), Utilities and Transportation LOS (July 9), Parks LOS (August 6).

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: Not applicable (agenda only)
• Notice: All three ordinances are noticed together in a single Notice of Public Hearing: "The City of Groveland proposes to adopt Ordinance 2026-13, Ordinance 2026-14, and Ordinance 2026-15."
• Forward calendar: City Council public hearings are noticed for Monday, August 17, 2026 and September 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM, E.L. Puryear Building.
• Mailed notice: The certified property-owner list in the packet contains 65 owners. The list is dominated by single-family homeowners on Beverly Drive, Phelps Street, East Greenwood Street, and the Osprey Cove / Osprey Nest circles, alongside Crittenden Fruit Co. & Orange Blossom Fruit Co., Thyme Lane Trust, and Duke Energy.
• Posted notice: A verified affidavit of sign posting is included; the scanned handwritten sign count is not reliably legible in the extracted text.

Key Signals

• Groveland is converting 15.29 acres from farmland and neighborhood designation into Employment Center in one night — inside the CRA, not on the commerce-park rim. The applicant's own exhibit maps, dated July 15, 2026, put it plainly across the parent parcel: Employment Center goes from under 0.01 acres to 15.29; Established Neighborhood goes from 4.86 acres to zero; Agriculture goes from 11.09 acres to 0.63. Conservation stays flat at roughly 15.4. This is the second in-city Established Neighborhood conversion to Employment Center in this corpus, after MBSI Headquarters on November 6, 2025 — the mechanism the November reading identified as Groveland's other path to Employment Center, running alongside annexation. Sampey Road confirms that path is in regular use and is now operating at ten times MBSI's footprint.

• The same comprehensive plan policy appears in opposite columns of two memos filed the same day. Ordinance 2026-13's staff memo lists Policy 2.1a — promote agriculture as a viable land use — under "policies not in favor," conceding the amendment reduces land planned for agricultural use. Ordinance 2026-15's memo lists Policy 2.1a under "policies in favor," describing the companion amendment as "restoring the Agriculture Future Land Use designation." Read together against the exhibit acreages, the parent parcel sheds roughly 10.5 net acres of Agriculture future land use while one of the two ordinances is framed as agricultural preservation. The preservation is real but small: 0.63 acres.

• Ninety thousand square feet of light industrial is planned into a Special Flood Hazard Area with a wetland core. Twelve flex office buildings are proposed on ground where the majority sits in FEMA Flood Zone A, most of the northwest portion is mapped wetland, and the City has had to establish its own community-determined Base Flood Elevation of 96.6 feet NAVD88 because of the property's position in the Palatlakaha River Basin. Staff route every one of these constraints to a later stage: floodplain compliance to Chapter 121 at permitting, wetland treatment to environmental permitting, buffering and lighting to site development review. The land-use decision is being made first; the environmental conditions are being answered afterward.

• A 90,000 sq ft warehouse cleared traffic review by exemption, not by study. The companion site development plan (PLAN2606-0063) carried a Request for Exemption from a Tier 1 Traffic Impact Analysis, on the finding that the project generates fewer than 100 peak-hour trips. The City's Transportation Engineer recommended granting it with no comments on roadway capacity; the only outstanding item is confirming anticipated truck movements for vehicular tracking. Residents on Beverly Drive and Phelps Street asking what this does to their road will find no traffic study in the record to answer them.

• Sixty-five property owners were mailed notice, and the designation being erased is literally called "Established Neighborhood." The notice list is a street map of who lives next to this: Beverly Drive, Phelps Street, East Greenwood Street, Osprey Cove Circle, Osprey Nest Circle. Ordinance 2026-13 removes the Established Neighborhood future land use from Parcel 2 entirely and Ordinance 2026-15 removes it from Parcel 1. Staff's compatibility answer is Policy 1.1p and deferred site-plan buffering. This is the industrial edge moving inward into an existing residential fabric rather than outward into vacant county land.

• Three ordinances again — but the template has changed shape, and the clock has halved. Groveland's annexation-flavored three-ordinance package (annex + small-scale plan amendment + rezone) ran Gadson Street in November 2025 and Langley Industrial in May 2026, roughly six months apart. August 6 arrives three months after Langley with a different composition: two comprehensive plan amendments plus one rezoning, no annexation, because the land is already in the city. It is closer kin to the MBSI Headquarters package of November 2025 than to Gadson or Langley. Two distinct three-ordinance templates are now in rotation — one for absorbing county land at the edge, one for reclassifying land already inside — and the interior variant is the one accelerating.

• The rezoning is a contingent instrument, and the effective date is a challenge window. Ordinance 2026-14 cannot take effect unless Ordinance 2026-13 becomes effective, per F.S. 163.3184(12). The plan amendments become effective on the 31st day after adoption unless timely challenged, in which case effectiveness waits on a final order from the Department of Commerce or the Administration Commission. Council hearings are set for August 17 and September 8, 2026 — that pair of dates, plus the 31-day window that follows, is the real decision calendar.

• Still no CDC V5. Two consecutive agendas published after SB 180's stated June 2026 expiration carry no code update, no form-based code reading, and no legislative briefing. Meanwhile the city keeps processing small-scale comprehensive plan amendments — 2026-6 in May, 2026-13 and 2026-15 in August. Development entitlement is moving under the existing code while the defensive rewrite that was supposedly waiting on the statute has not appeared on a docket.

Raw Notes

• Source: https://groveland-fl.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_08062026-1447, retrieved 2026-08-08 with plain curl -A "Mozilla/5.0" (HTTP 200, 18,825,239 bytes, 151 pages). Text extracted with tools/fetch-pdf.py.
• The July 9, 2026 minutes are not in this packet. All 151 pages were searched; "July 9" appears exactly once, in the consent agenda line on page 2. This breaks Groveland's usual pattern of embedding the prior meeting's minutes in the next packet. Expect them in the September 2026 packet.
• All three ordinances share a single application number, PLAN2606-0044, and both memos cite the same alternate key, 1103193, for Parcel 1 and Parcel 2 alike — because the Minor Lot Split (PLAN2606-0045) is approved but not yet recorded with Lake County. Parcel ID 01-22-24-4205-003-00000 is assigned to Site Parcel 2 in the ordinance text.
• Exhibit acreage figures are taken from the applicant's Existing/Proposed Land Use and Existing/Proposed Zoning exhibits, each stamped "JULY 15, 2026 GROVELAND, FLORIDA SAMPEY ROAD 1" = 200'". Existing land use: Conservation 15.39, Established Neighborhood 4.86, Agriculture 11.09, Employment Center <0.01. Proposed land use: Conservation 15.42, Agriculture 0.63, Employment Center 15.29. Existing zoning: Conservation 15.39, Agriculture 4.74, Light Industrial 11.21. Proposed zoning: Conservation 15.42, Agriculture 0.63, Light Industrial 15.29.
• The exhibit totals sum to 31.34 acres, while the two ordinance acreages sum to 30.18 (14.77 + 15.41). The exhibits carry the disclaimer that they are "intended for general location and zoning-context purposes only" and that the signed and sealed survey controls. The 1.16-acre difference is not explained in the packet and is likely mapped right-of-way; it is recorded here rather than reconciled.
• The proposed-zoning shift (Agriculture 4.74 → 0.63, Light Industrial 11.21 → 15.29) is consistent with the rezoning being confined to Parcel 2, since no rezoning ordinance accompanies Parcel 1.
• Legal description for Parcel 2 is a portion of Tracts 3, 4 and 14, Groveland Farms (Plat Book 2, Pages 10–11), in the NE 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of Section 19, Township 22 South, Range 25 East.
• Ordinance signature blocks list Keith Keogh as Mayor and Virginia Wright as City Clerk, with Council Members Amy Jo Carroll, Barbara Gaines, Michael C. Jaycox, Keith Keogh, and Stephen Skylkofski (spelled "Shylkofsky" elsewhere in this corpus). The "Approved as to form and legality / City Attorney" line is unsigned in the draft.
• The public notice text as printed contains OCR-visible typos in the source ("Te City of Groveland," "CONSERVATOIN," "SAMPEY ROAFD"). Ordinance 2026-15's notice title is truncated mid-clause after "PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY," in the published notice.
• Packet structure: pages 1–2 cover and agenda; pages 4–9 Ord 2026-13 memo; 11–16 ordinance text and exhibits; 18–40 application support and maps; 42–52 notice materials; 55–57 Ord 2026-14 memo; 59–64 ordinance text; 66–90 support; 91–101 notice; 102–105 Ord 2026-15 memo; 107–112 ordinance text; 114–137 support; 139–151 notice and affidavits. Several attachment pages (21–32, 44–49) contain image-only content with no extractable text; the affidavit pages (147–151) are scanned and OCR-garbled.
• No backup materials were included for the Parks Levels of Service presentation.