City of Leesburg Planning Commission — April 16, 2026

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes — 4 of 9 members present (thinnest voting panel in the Leesburg corpus) Duration: 18 minutes (4:30 PM – 4:48 PM)

Attendance

• Present: Tim Sennett (Chairman), Nathaniel Sanders (Vice-Chairman), Ted Bowersox, John O'Kelley
• Absent: Frazier Marshall, Shaun Robertson, Ze'Shieca Carter, Ken Simeone, Darin Akkerman
• Staff Present: Dan Miller (Planning & Zoning Director), Kandi Harper (Deputy Director), Sabrina Mitchell (Executive Assistant I), Max Van Allen (Senior Planner), Melissa Medders De Los Santos (Planner), Mel Ortiz (Planner), Jennifer Cotch (Attorney)

Note: Both cases were discussed together and voted separately, on Chairman Sennett's direction. Every member present voted YES on both — including Bowersox and O'Kelley, two of the three commissioners the corpus identifies as the operating core of the denial bloc.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Perry-Smith — Small Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment

• Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Small Scale)
• Case Number: SSCP-26-878
• Location: Generally west of U.S. Hwy 27 and south of the Florida Turnpike (Section 7, Township 21 South, Range 25 East, Lake County)
• Applicant: Represented by Mike Rankin, President, Land Planning Group of Tavares
• Request: Change the Future Land Use designation on 7.53 +/- acres from Lake County Urban Low Density to City of Leesburg General Commercial
• Current Zoning: Lake County A (Agriculture) — see Item 2
• Acreage: 7.53 +/-
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: APPROVED — recommendation forwarded to City Commission
• Vote: 4-0 (motion O'Kelley, second Bowersox; roll call: Sennett Yes, Sanders Yes, O'Kelley Yes, Bowersox Yes)
• Notable Discussion: Staff cited consistency with Chapter 163.3187 Florida Statutes for small-scale amendments, compatibility with adjacent Lake County Regional Office / Urban Low Density and City General Commercial / Neighborhood Mixed Use designations, and consistency with Future Land Use Element Goal I, Objectives 1.6 and 1.8. Department review drew no comments from City departments, Lake County Public Works, or the Lake County School Board (the School Board noting it as a commercial project). No public responses were received under State of Florida and City notice requirements (posted signs, newspaper, mailed letters).
• City Commission readings: Tentatively first reading Monday, June 8, 2026; second reading Monday, July 27, 2026

Item 2: Perry-Smith — Small Planned Unit Development

• Type: Rezoning (Small Planned Unit Development)
• Case Number: SPUD-26-879
• Location: Same 7.53-acre parcel as Item 1 — west of U.S. Hwy 27, south of the Florida Turnpike
• Applicant: Represented by Mike Rankin, Land Planning Group of Tavares
• Request: Rezone 7.53 +/- acres from Lake County A (Agriculture) to City SPUD (Small Planned Unit Development) to allow commercial and office development
• Current Zoning: Lake County A (Agriculture)
• Proposed Zoning: City of Leesburg SPUD (Small Planned Unit Development)
• Acreage: 7.53 +/-
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: APPROVED — recommendation forwarded to City Commission
• Vote: 4-0 (motion O'Kelley, second Bowersox; roll call: Sanders Yes, O'Kelley Yes, Bowersox Yes, Sennett Yes)
• Conditions: PUD design and zoning standards read into the record, including building architectural requirements; a single primary access point built to boulevard standard (wide lanes, bi-directional turning options, landscaped median between lanes); and a developer obligation to provide any and all expansions or upgrades to access points and roadways as needed and required by FDOT and/or Lake County. Applicant's representative confirmed thirteen prohibited uses negotiated with staff, a family-style restaurant among the permitted uses, dark sky lighting, open space, and signage standards.
• Notable Discussion: Rankin stated he had no issues with the PUD standards and supported the staff recommendation. Commissioners and Dan Miller discussed storage for Royal Highlands and RVs. Staff cited compatibility with surrounding City SPUD and PUD and Lake County PUD and A zoning, and consistency with "the existing patterns of development in the US Highway 27 and Ronald Reagan Turnpike area."
• City Commission readings: Tentatively first reading Monday, June 8, 2026; second reading Monday, July 27, 2026

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 0 members of the public (only the applicant's representative spoke)
• General sentiment: No public participation
• Key concerns: None raised. The City received no responses to newspaper advertisement, posted signs, or mailed notice on either case.

Key Signals

• The denial bloc does not filter commercial. Bowersox and O'Kelley — two of the three commissioners the corpus identifies as the structural core of Leesburg's denial bloc — moved and seconded the approval of both Perry-Smith cases and voted YES on each. Eleven staff-recommended residential projects have been denied by this body in 24 months; a county-to-city commercial conversion on the US-27 frontage cleared unanimously in 18 minutes with no discussion of traffic, density, or fit. The operative filter is the use type and the residential unit count, not the annexation itself or the arterial location.
• The conditioning happens before the hearing on commercial SPUDs, which is why they move fast. Thirteen prohibited uses, dark sky lighting, open space, signage standards, and a boulevard-standard access requirement were all negotiated between the applicant and Dan Miller before the meeting. Rankin arrived with nothing to contest. Compare the residential cases in the same window, where conditions get argued on the dais. For anyone underwriting Leesburg commercial land, the entitlement cost is front-loaded into staff negotiation, not board risk.
• A four-member panel disposed of a 7.53-acre land use conversion. Five of nine commissioners were absent — the thinnest voting panel in the Leesburg corpus. Both cases carried 4-0. The composition of who shows up materially determines outcomes on this board, and the April panel was the Sennett/Sanders leadership pole plus two denial-bloc members, a combination that produces consensus.
• The road-cost obligation is being pushed onto the developer as standard PUD language. The requirement that the developer provide "any and all expansions and or upgrades to the access points and roadways; as needed and required by FDOT and/or Lake County" now appears as boilerplate in Leesburg PUD conditions. This is the same mechanism that carried $2.3M of intersection capital on Lake Bright-Brighurst — the City is systematically externalizing arterial improvement costs to applicants rather than coding thresholds.
• Staff flagged the May quorum problem on the record — and it materialized. Bowersox asked about the May docket; Miller replied "it's pretty busy." Sennett and Sanders then announced they would both be out for the May meeting, and Miller said the City would send a notice about the May quorum to determine whether the meeting date needed to move. The meeting went ahead on May 21 without either the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman — and produced the first Leesburg denial of 2026 not authored by Bowersox.

Raw Notes

• Minutes from the March 19, 2026 meeting approved 4-0 (Bowersox moved, O'Kelley seconded).
• Sabrina Mitchell swore in staff and anyone wishing to speak. Invocation by Commissioner Bowersox.
• Dan Miller informed the audience that the City Commission meeting dates announced for these cases are tentatively scheduled.
• Source artifact: the ordinance title block for Item 2 (SPUD-26-879) in the posted minutes contains a stray trailing fragment — 23, 2026) (Cronin-Dewey Robbins Residential SSCP) — a copy-paste remnant from a prior meeting's template. It does not indicate that Cronin-Dewey Robbins was heard at this meeting; that case was denied on January 22, 2026 and does not appear on the April docket.
• Source URL detail: the April minutes PDF contains a double space between "16" and "Summary" in the filename. Single-space variants 404.
• These minutes were approved at the May 21, 2026 meeting (Carter moved, O'Kelley seconded, 5-0).
• Meeting adjourned at 4:48 p.m. — the shortest Planning Commission meeting in the Leesburg corpus.