City of Minneola Planning & Zoning Commission — February 2, 2026

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 of 5 members present) Duration: Approximately 1 hour 31 minutes (6:30 PM – 8:01 PM)

Attendance

• Present: Commissioner Denise Calderon (Chairperson, presiding), Commissioner Nicole Martin, Commissioner Mendy Bacon, Commissioner William McCoy, Commissioner Ken Rose
• Absent: [none recorded]
• Staff Present: Jennifer Cotch (City Attorney), Thomas Grimms (City Planner), Julio Cueva (Planning Technician), Joyce Heffington (staff, introduced Items 2 and 3), Jacob (contract planner, Inspire Placemaking Collective)

Agenda Items

Item 1: Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes

• Type: Minutes approval
• Request: Approve prior meeting minutes with corrections.
• Action: Approved
• Vote: 5-0 (AYE: Martin, Bacon, Calderon, McCoy, Rose) — motion by Rose, seconded by Martin
• Notable Discussion: Commissioner Martin corrected the January 5 minutes, stating that the Chair and Vice-Chair appointment votes should be recorded as 3-0 rather than 5-0, because she and the outgoing Chair did not vote. She also noted that Commissioner O'Halloran had been incorrectly listed as seconding a motion despite not being present, and asked that the recording be checked to identify the correct maker and seconder.
• Source inconsistency (recorded as found): The item heading reads "Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes—February 2, 2026," the corrections discussed concern the January 5, 2026 minutes, and the motion as transcribed approves "the November 3, 2025 meeting minutes with noted correction." Three different dates appear in one item. The corrections themselves are unambiguous and are reflected in the January 5 minutes now posted to the city website.

Item 2: Site/Concept Plan — Chester Street Community Garden

• Type: Site Plan / Concept Plan Review — recommendation to City Council
• Location: Chester Street, Minneola (existing community garden and adjacent park area)
• Applicant: City of Minneola (city-initiated). Presented by Joyce Heffington and by Jacob of Inspire Placemaking Collective, the City's contract planner.
• Request: Recommend approval of a conceptual plan for the Chester Street Community Garden — describing existing conditions, community requests (shade, water capture, pollinator planting), proposed ADA parking and paths, plot layout, compost redesign, and rainwater cisterns.
• Staff Recommendation: Approve (presented for recommendation)
• Action: Approved — recommended to City Council
• Vote: 5-0 (AYE: Martin, Bacon, Calderon, McCoy, Rose) — motion by Martin, seconded by Rose
• Conditions: Clarify cistern capacities and irrigation needs; consider larger cisterns; plan for gravity-fed or solar-powered operation; add educational signage with Braille; construct the compost area with hardware cloth for animal protection and ensure its location supports easy access; confirm ADA path materials provide stable, accessible surfaces and include shaded, accessible seating; adjust parking — removing a space if needed — to maintain clear access between the shed and garden, add parking markers, and provide operational signage; verify no encroachment into FEMA storage areas and clearly define boundaries near neighboring properties; install clear rented-plot signage with contact information and labels for ADA and children's plots.
• Notable Discussion: Commissioner Martin drove the condition set — questioning cistern storage capacity against dry-season irrigation need, noting the smallest cistern would fill too quickly, recommending larger units with gravity-fed or pump-assisted operation and future solar compatibility; recommending hardware cloth beneath compost bins to prevent burrowing animals; questioning the long-term suitability of pavers for ADA paths and suggesting recycled-rubber alternatives; and asking staff to confirm the project would not encroach on FEMA storage operations. A discussion followed on whether to relocate the shed closer to the compost area or instead move compost closer to the existing shed and add wheelbarrow racks, given the shed's existing concrete pad.

Item 3: Ordinance 2026-01 — Architectural Design Guidelines (First Reading)

• Type: Text Amendment (Land Development Code — architectural design guidelines)
• Case Number: Ordinance 2026-01
• Applicant: City-initiated. Presented by Joyce Heffington; read by title by City Attorney Jennifer Cotch.
• Request: Amend architectural design guidelines to allow screened TPO roofs and to restrict illuminated signage facing residential, with a P&Z recommendation requested.
• Staff Recommendation: Recommend approval (recommendation requested by staff)
• Action: Approved — recommended "in principle" to City Council
• Vote: 4-1 (AYE: Martin, Bacon, Calderon, McCoy · NAY: Rose) — motion by Martin, seconded by Bacon
• Conditions: Recommended to City Council: consider delaying adoption to address public concerns about timing; clarify minimum parapet or screening requirements to ensure TPO roofs are not visible from public areas or nearby homes; specify that screening compliance will be verified during site plan review using line-of-sight documentation; maintain the prohibition on illuminated signage facing residential properties; and reinforce that all building lighting must comply with existing no-spillover standards.
• Notable Discussion: Chairperson Calderon clarified that the ordinance addresses only roof materials and illuminated signage and does not approve any specific development, while acknowledging the concerns raised. Public speakers connected the ordinance to a pending large-format retail decision (see Public Hearings Summary).

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 11 across two items (7 on the community garden, 4 on Ordinance 2026-01)
• General sentiment: Supportive on the community garden with operational requests; opposed or skeptical on the timing of Ordinance 2026-01
• Key concerns:
  • Chester Street Community Garden — Kandi Alexander (872 Meadow Park Dr.) voiced strong support, described interim ADA paver efforts, and requested Braille and clear rented-plot signage while stressing that front/ADA/children's plots are not free-pick and that neighbors' property lines be protected. Kevin Carey (20237 Sugarloaf Mountain Rd.) noted the ADA path stops at a corner of the shed rather than its doors, warned that parked cars could block wheelbarrow access from shed to garden, questioned how gravel parking spaces will be marked and maintained, and urged extending irrigation to ADA-accessible beds. Lisa Bishop (549 East Ave., Clermont) reported that visitors assume the garden is free for public picking, resulting in taken produce, damaged plants, and vandalism including broken soaker hoses and disturbed beds, and requested fencing and rented-plot signage. Eric Gonzalez (325 E. Chester St.) asked where his late wife's memorial bench would be relocated and requested it remain near his side of the park, reported continued suspicious or drug-like activity around the bench and tree area, and asked that his plantings and a passive edge along his property line be preserved. Cheryl Pavlacka (1808 Kerry St.) sought clarification on wheelbarrow access and suggested removing a parking space to maintain a clear circulation lane. Kelly Price (327 E. Chester St.) reported that although gardeners have keys to the shed the lock does not function, leaving them without tool access, and asked that it be repaired. Aisha Rivera (1865 Sundance Chase Rd.) raised concern that the cisterns could become mosquito breeding grounds and asked what mitigation would be implemented.
  • Ordinance 2026-01 — Sylvia Crowley (1732 Hamlin Ridge Road) requested delaying the ordinance until after the Walmart/Sam's decision for transparency, suggested green roofs as an alternative, and proposed allowing TPO only on buildings under 18,000 sq ft while excluding structures over 20,000 sq ft. Aisha Rivera (1865 Sundance Chase Road) supported those comments and expressed concern about traffic impacts from large box stores. Rachel (637 Big Pine Avenue) questioned why the guidelines cannot remain unchanged until major pending proposals are decided and asked the Commission to recommend that City Council consider delaying. Eric Gonzalez (325 East Chester Street) noted the ordinance references standards for projects 20,000 sq ft and larger, which he believes signals support for bigger stores, and stated that he and many residents do not want Walmart/Sam's due to existing traffic concerns.

Key Signals

• A Walmart/Sam's Club proposal is live in Minneola, and it surfaced only through public comment. Four residents referenced a pending "Walmart/Sam's decision" as the reason to delay Ordinance 2026-01, and one asked that the guidelines remain unchanged "until major pending proposals are decided." No such application appears on this agenda or on any Minneola P&Z agenda in the harvested record. The residents are tracking something the board's own docket has not yet shown, and they read a roofing-materials ordinance as the procedural groundwork for it. For anyone watching US-27 retail, this is the first corpus appearance of a large-format anchor in Minneola.

• Ordinance 2026-01 legalizes the roof system big-box retail actually uses. TPO is a low-slope membrane roofing material — the standard covering for large-footprint retail boxes, and precisely what Minneola's code prohibited by requiring tile or metal as the dominant roof material. The ordinance permits it where screened. Residents connected the change to the retail proposal directly, and Eric Gonzalez noted that the ordinance's own reference to standards for projects "20,000 sq ft and larger" signals which buildings it was drafted for. Sylvia Crowley's counter-proposal — permit TPO under 18,000 sq ft, exclude over 20,000 — was an attempt to write the exemption so it could not carry a box store.

• The board invented a hedge: recommend the ordinance "in principle," then ask Council to delay adopting it. The motion advanced Ordinance 2026-01 while simultaneously recommending that City Council "consider delaying adoption to address public concerns about timing." The Commission neither blocked the code change nor let it proceed clean — it forwarded the substance and handed the political timing question upstairs. It is a procedural move with no precedent in the harvested Minneola record and a workable template for a board that does not deny.

• Rose casts the meeting's only NAY, and it is a solo dissent on a conditions package. Commissioner Rose voted against recommending Ordinance 2026-01 with its five recommendations, after voting AYE on the community garden's much longer condition list minutes earlier. Read against the March 2 Whispering Winds 3-2 (Rose and McCoy NAY) and the May 4 golf-cart ordinance 3-1 (Rose NAY), Rose is the board's most frequent dissenter across this window — and he dissents alone here, without McCoy, three weeks before the vote that made the Rose/McCoy pairing look like a bloc.

• The screening standard was made verifiable, not aspirational. The board's recommendation specifies that TPO screening compliance be confirmed "during site plan review using line-of-sight documentation," and that parapet or screening minimums be stated explicitly. That converts a subjective "not visible from public areas" standard into a document an applicant must produce and staff can check. It is the same instinct visible in the January retaining-wall conditions ("drainage performance verification") — this board attaches a verification mechanism to the conditions it writes.

Raw Notes

• Source: 02-02-2026_pz_minutes_ada.pdf, 5 pages, ADA-formatted with line numbers, downloaded via Playwright from the city website minutes page.
• OCR artifacts throughout, consistent with the Minneola series: missing inter-word spaces ("ofthe", "Commission& Zoning", "andclarifying thatfront/ADA/kids' plots arenotfree-pick"), "P& Z" for P&Z, and a garbled clerk signature line ("Knstme T ompson, C1 ty Cle r k" for Kristine Thompson, City Clerk).
• Only three agenda items — the lightest substantive docket in the 2026 series, and the only 2026 meeting in this harvest with no rezoning, annexation, plat, or private site plan.
• Reports: Councilor Flinn explained that she attends P&Z meetings as a City Council representative to observe but does not participate in deliberations, to avoid influencing the board's recommendations; she credited former Councilmember Kelly Price with originating the Chester Street Community Garden, and announced the Minneola Library's online event calendar and an MS Awareness 5K Run/Walk on March 14 at the Minneola Athletic Complex. Commissioner Martin described a "Recycling-to-Benches" program in which residents collect soft plastics converted into recycled-material park benches at no cost to the City.
• Kelly Price appears twice in this record in different capacities — as a public speaker at 327 E. Chester Street, and (per Councilor Flinn) as the former Councilmember whose vision started the garden.
• Kevin Carey continues as the recurring technical public commenter, here on ADA path alignment and parking circulation. He appears again in the June 1 and July 6 records in this harvest.
• Ordinance 2026-01's disposition after this first reading is not established by any document in this harvest. Note that the August 3, 2026 agenda carries Resolution 2026-10, a variance request for Ace Hardware seeking "the use of TPO roofing material in lieu of the required tile or metal as the dominant roof material" — indicating the tile-or-metal requirement in LDC 94-3(g)(10)(c)4 was still being applied and varied case-by-case as of August 2026. Confirm Ordinance 2026-01's adoption status at City Council on next harvest.