City of Minneola Planning & Zoning Commission — January 5, 2026

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 voting members recorded on every roll) Duration: Approximately 59 minutes (6:30 PM – 7:29 PM)

Attendance

• Present: Chairperson Oscar Trujillo (outgoing — chaired the full meeting, resigned effective its close), Commissioner Denise Calderon (elected Chairperson during the meeting), Commissioner Nicole Martin, Commissioner Mendy Bacon, Commissioner William McCoy, Commissioner Ken Rose
• Absent: [not stated]
• Staff Present: Jennifer Cotch (City Attorney), Thomas Grimms (City Planner), Kelly Wilson (City Clerk Assistant), Eric Raasch (contract planner, Inspire Placemaking Collective)

Source inconsistencies (recorded as found, not resolved): The attendance paragraph names Denise Calderon as calling the meeting to order, while the CALL TO ORDER section states "Chairperson Oscar Trujillo called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m." Commissioner Bacon is listed in the attendance paragraph but appears in none of the eleven vote rolls, each of which records exactly five voters (Trujillo, Calderon, Rose, McCoy, Martin). The Item 6 heading reads "Variance 2807 Top Hill Court" while the Item 6 motion reads "2801 Top Hill Court."

Note on document provenance: At the February 2, 2026 meeting, Commissioner Martin submitted corrections to the January 5 minutes — that the Chair and Vice-Chair appointment votes should read 3-0 rather than 5-0, and that Commissioner O'Halloran had been listed as seconding a motion despite not being present. The version posted to the city website and harvested here already reflects both corrections (3-0 appointment votes; no O'Halloran). This is the corrected record, not the draft the February board reviewed.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes — December 1, 2025

• Type: Minutes approval
• Request: Approve the December 1, 2025 P&Z meeting minutes as presented.
• Action: Approved
• Vote: 5-0 (AYE: Trujillo, Calderon, Rose, McCoy, Martin) — motion by McCoy, seconded by Martin

Item 2: Appointment of the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson

• Type: Other (board leadership)
• Request: Elect a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson for the Planning & Zoning Commission.
• Notable Discussion: Chairperson Trujillo announced his resignation from the Planning & Zoning Commission effective at the end of the meeting, and clarified that he would facilitate the meeting in full before stepping down. Nominations were solicited; Commissioner Calderon volunteered for Chairperson and Commissioner McCoy volunteered for Vice-Chairperson.
• Action: Approved — Calderon appointed Chairperson; McCoy appointed Vice-Chairperson
• Vote: 3-0 on each appointment (AYE: Calderon, Rose, McCoy) — Chairperson motion by Calderon, seconded by Rose; Vice-Chairperson motion by McCoy, seconded by Rose

Items 3–11: Nine Retaining-Wall Variances — Del Webb (Pulte Homes)

Nine separate resolutions, each heard as its own item and voted individually. Grouped here because staff presented them together and the facts are common to all nine.

• Type: Variance (setback)
• Case Numbers: Resolution 2025-26 (2790 Top Hill Court); 2025-27 (2793 Top Hill Court); 2025-28 (2797 Top Hill Court); 2025-29 (2807 Top Hill Court per heading / 2801 Top Hill Court per motion); 2025-32 (2683 Twilight Vista Court); 2025-33 (2687 Twilight Vista Court); 2025-34 (2691 Twilight Vista Court); 2025-35 (2695 Twilight Vista Court); 2025-36 (2699 Twilight Vista Court)
• Location: Nine lots on Top Hill Court and Twilight Vista Court within the Del Webb community
• Applicant: Pulte Homes (Aaron Struckmeyer, representative; Bill Wycombe, engineer)
• Request: Variances from minimum setback requirements for retaining walls already constructed on nine lots.
• Staff Recommendation: Approve, with the condition that applications be updated for completeness and staff edits
• Action: Approved (all nine)
• Vote: 5-0 on each of the nine (AYE: Trujillo, Calderon, Rose, McCoy, Martin). Commissioner Martin moved all nine motions; seconds came from Rose (Items 3, 5, 8, 10), Calderon (Items 4, 6, 7), and McCoy (Items 9, 11).
• Conditions: Varied slightly per lot; the recurring set was shallow-planted or vegetated drainage swales in place of bar channels (nolli grass or native sedges named), native deep-root vegetation, permeable transitions near the walls (gravel bands, pavers, or planted buffer), terraced step grading where wall height justifies, drainage performance verification, explicit non-precedent language applying only to the identified lot, mandatory HOA maintenance responsibility, confirmation that future phases will not use this design, and inclusion of all staff recommendations. The Item 6 motion added a recommendation that Council review PUD drainage standards.
• Notable Discussion: Eric Raasch explained that the retaining walls were built after initial site grading revealed a need for them mid-construction — original plans had not required stem walls — leaving the walls non-conforming to minimum setbacks. He characterized them as low structures, approximately 30 inches tall, serving stormwater drainage compliance rather than acting as large or imposing walls. Aaron Struckmeyer of Pulte attributed the problem to a construction oversight: the requirement for stem walls was missed, and the error surfaced only after completion because walls under 30 inches are commonly not treated as structures in other jurisdictions. He stated all current walls had full permitting and certificates of occupancy before the issue was flagged, and that revised procedures are in place for future lots. Struckmeyer assured the board the HOA would maintain the retaining walls and that legal documents would be amended and recorded to that effect; the process for HOA assumption of responsibility, fencing policies and privacy-fence restrictions, and implications for future homeowners were debated. The board raised concern over the precedent set by approving multiple similar post-construction variances, and specifically whether these arise from self-created hardship due to developer error. Alternatives were discussed — vegetated swales, deep-rooted native vegetation, terracing, reduced concrete, infiltration over runoff — and Bill Wycombe responded that substandard slopes, code restrictions, and site width constraints precluded viable alternatives other than retaining walls.

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 0
• General sentiment: [no public comment offered]
• Key concerns: None raised by the public. Public comment was called at the opening, on the variance block, and at the close; no speakers came forward at any point.

Key Signals

• The Trujillo-era board ended in a single meeting. Chairperson Oscar Trujillo announced his resignation effective at the meeting's close, chaired it to the end, and handed the gavel to Denise Calderon, with William McCoy as Vice-Chair. Trujillo chaired through the August–September 2025 gas-station sequence at Hancock/CR-561A — the only formal denial in Minneola's recent record — and through the Crooked Can approvals. Both appointment votes carried 3-0 with only Calderon, Rose, and McCoy voting, meaning the leadership of Minneola's growth-review board was set by three commissioners. Every subsequent 2026 meeting in this harvest runs with Calderon in the chair and a shrinking roster.

• Nine post-construction variances for one builder, approved in one sitting, with non-precedent language attached to each. Pulte Homes built retaining walls on nine Del Webb lots that did not meet minimum setbacks, and the error surfaced only after full permitting and certificates of occupancy had issued. The board approved all nine 5-0 rather than requiring removal — but wrote "explicit non-precedent language applying only to the identified lot" into the motions and required confirmation that future phases will not repeat the design. This is Minneola's "shape, don't deny" posture applied to a developer's own construction error, and it is the cleanest instance in the corpus of the board legalizing completed work while formally refusing to let the approval travel.

• The board named self-created hardship out loud and approved anyway. The minutes record concern over "whether these variances arise from self-created hardship due to developer error" — the standard legal test that ordinarily defeats a variance. The board articulated the objection, extracted conditions, and voted 5-0 nine times. For anyone reading Minneola's variance practice, the operative constraint is not the hardship test; it is what the applicant will accept as conditions.

• Retaining-wall maintenance was transferred to the HOA by amended and recorded legal documents. Pulte committed the HOA to maintaining nine stormwater-compliance retaining walls in perpetuity, with the transfer to be effected through amended and recorded instruments. Drainage infrastructure that exists because of a builder error now sits on the homeowners' association balance sheet. Buyers in Del Webb inherit that obligation through their assessments.

• Commissioner Martin authored all nine motions, and every one carried ecological conditions. Native deep-root vegetation, vegetated swales replacing bar channels, permeable transitions, terraced grading, infiltration over runoff — the template appears here in January, fully formed, on a routine setback variance. It recurs on every substantive item through the June and July meetings in this harvest and reaches the August 3 agenda as a formal "Voluntary Conservation Design Checklist" discussion item. January 5 is the origin point of that regime.

Raw Notes

• Source: 01-05-2026_pz_minutes_ada.pdf, 6 pages, ADA-formatted with line numbers, downloaded via Playwright from the city website minutes page. First download attempt returned a Cloudflare "Performing security verification" interstitial; a retry with --wait 30 cleared the challenge and produced the PDF.
• The PDF has OCR artifacts consistent with the rest of the Minneola series: "Thomas Grim.ms" for Grimms, "w1animously" for unanimously, "ofltem" for "of Item", "A YE" for AYE, and a garbled signature block ("Denise Cald ,. e .> ro ' n , Chra irpers - on").
• Meeting ran 59 minutes for eleven items — the shortest meeting in the 2026 series. By contrast, June 1 ran to 9:35 PM and July 6 to 8:56 PM.
• Councilor Flinn (City Council representative) reported: thanked long-serving commissioners, presented remaining commissioners with materials to assist new and experienced board members, and mentioned plans for the City's centennial. Note that at the June 1, 2026 meeting Commissioner Martin requested Councilor Flinn's name be removed from the report section of the agenda going forward.
• Resolution numbering skips 2025-30 and 2025-31 between Items 6 and 7; those resolutions are not on this agenda and their subject is unknown from this document.
• Roster note for downstream synthesis: this meeting seats six commissioners in total (Trujillo, Calderon, Martin, Bacon, McCoy, Rose). February 2 seats five (Trujillo gone). June 1 and July 6 seat four (Bacon also gone). The board contracts across this harvest window.