Town of Montverde Planning and Zoning Board — July 29, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (4 of 5 seats filled and present; one seat vacant) Duration: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM (90 minutes) Location: Town Hall, 17404 Sixth Street, Montverde, FL 34756

Attendance

• Present: Chairwoman Karin Arellano, Josie Weiss, Holly Broecker, Aaron Wadsworth
• Absent: None recorded. Thomas Johnson no longer appears on the roster; Larino reported at the close that the Town was "looking for replacement for Board Member Thomas Johnson."
• Staff Present: Paul Larino, Town Manager; Anita Geraci-Carver, Town Attorney; Sean Parks, Town Planner; Lisa Busto, Associate Town Planner; Caroline Trepanier, Administrative Assistant

Prior minutes: April 2, 2025 minutes approved 4-0 (moved Arellano, seconded Broecker).

Agenda Items

Item 1: Resolution No. 2025-182 — Parque Verde Minor Site Plan (Outdoor Boat/RV/Trailer Storage)

• Type: Site Plan Review (minor site plan, implementing a prior CUP)
• Case Number: Resolution No. 2025-182 (implementing conditions of Resolution 2023-87)
• Location: Site associated with applicant Grant Roberts, 16004 Ridgewood Avenue, Montverde
• Applicant: Parque Verde, LLC — Grant Roberts appearing
• Request: Minor site plan approval for an outdoor storage business for boats, RVs, and trailers.
• Current Zoning: [not stated in the minutes]
• Proposed Zoning: No change
• Acreage: [not stated in the minutes]
• Staff Recommendation: Not a clean approve — Busto stated some required items were still missing and would have to be satisfied before approval could be recommended
• Action: Recommended for approval, with conditions
• Vote: 4-0 (moved Wadsworth, seconded Weiss)
• Conditions: All outstanding staff comments to be resolved prior to the item going to Town Council — the condition written into the motion itself
• Notable Discussion:
  • Busto stated the application was submitted July 22, 2025, reviewing a site plan initially dated July 18, 2025, and that additional information had been requested. She tied the review to the conditions of approval in Resolution 2023-87 — the prior conditional use permit.
  • Roberts said the presentation slides showed the site plan carried over from the CUP approved at the December 2024 P&Z meeting and described himself as responsive throughout.
  • Broecker asked which items had to be addressed now versus later. Parks laid out the board's three options: approve the site plan with conditions, table it, or deny it.
  • Broecker asked about road concerns. Parks said staff, professional opinion, and engineers believe this traffic "will not be a wear and tear on the roads," but Lake County approval on access is still required — characterized as standard.
  • Weiss observed the site is "well hidden" and asked whether neighbors objected. Roberts said most neighbors "have been the biggest supporters," and the end goal is that the storage yard cannot be seen from the road.
  • Wadsworth pressed the enforcement question: what happens if the board approves and the parties then fail to agree on outstanding items? Parks: final zoning clearances and official Town sign-offs would not be issued until all conditions are met. Larino added that final approval would not be recommended to Council with conditions incomplete, and that some items — liability insurance among them — come due before a Certificate of Completion.
  • Public hearing: no one spoke for or against.

Item 2: Resolution No. 2025-179 — Osgood Preliminary Development Plan (137 Single-Family Lots, ±88 Acres)

• Type: Site Plan / Preliminary Development Plan (quasi-judicial, implementing an adopted PUD)
• Case Number: Resolution No. 2025-179
• Location: North of Osgood Road, east of County Road 455, west of Lake Apopka, within the Town of Montverde
• Applicant: Brian Ashby, Kimley-Horn & Associates, 6878 Marwick Lane, Orlando, FL 32827
• Request: Preliminary development approval for a ±88-acre, 137-lot single-family residential subdivision.
• Current Zoning: Planned Unit Development (PUD), previously approved by Town Council
• Proposed Zoning: No change — this is plan review against the adopted PUD
• Acreage: ±88 acres
• Staff Recommendation: Approve — Busto found the application consistent with the comprehensive plan and Land Development Code and recommended moving forward to final development plan per LDC § 8-8
• Action: Recommended for approval
• Vote: 4-0 (moved Wadsworth, seconded Weiss)
• Conditions: None added to the motion
• Notable Discussion:
  • Geraci-Carver framed the item as quasi-judicial and narrow: the PUD zoning was already approved by Council; the question is only whether the preliminary plat meets the conditions in the PUD and the LDC, and "if so, it is administrative and it would be approved." She invited ex parte disclosures.
  • Wadsworth disclosed a comment he had posted on Nextdoor Montverde on July 22, 2025, and provided a copy for the record.
  • Busto stated no letters of opposition or support had been received.
  • Geraci-Carver raised a state-law change with direct consequences for this board's jurisdiction: a new law effective in July 2025 makes final plats approvable administratively. She said a resolution would come to Council in August to determine who holds final approval, and that final plat approval "will no longer be going to the Planning and Zoning Board or to Town Council meetings for approval."
  • Wadsworth asked whether the notification distance was 300 or 600 feet. Busto: 300 feet for a preliminary development plan. Wadsworth also asked whether the mailed notices' higher home count required re-noticing; Geraci-Carver said noticing a larger number than approved is acceptable and does not require new legal notices.
  • Wadsworth raised the western swale by the wetlands and environmental impact. Ashby said the landscape diagram shows LID (Low Impact Development) areas rather than stormwater engineering, that they are working through the water management district process, and that state law requires meeting pre-/post-development discharge rates.
  • Weiss asked about green space. Ashby: the plan exceeds the open-space requirement "by almost eight (8) acres." A future community building and pool would consume roughly a quarter-acre of impervious area. Three main entrances.
  • Larino disclosed that the developers agreed to make a financial contribution to the Town to help fix roads.
  • Ashby said no boat ramp is proposed within the development, but dedicated right-of-way is being provided for future improvement to the existing boat ramp.
  • Lot sizes: Larino confirmed half-acre lots, and confirmed that wetlands are included in the half-acre measurement.
  • Wastewater: Larino corrected repeated resident references to septic — the system is an onsite system classified by FDEP as a wastewater treatment plant, underground, monitored and tested monthly, and shared.
  • Arellano asked about the road improvements on 8th, 9th and Temple Streets. Larino: Council decides, but the PUD hearing discussed extending the roads to 24-foot width per Town code with sidewalks on one side.

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 8 distinct residents on Item 2 (Pamela Cox, Mike Whidden, Kelly Moore, Christian Reyes, Megan Reyes, Marline Clark, George Ganzenmuller, plus Kelly Moore returning twice); 0 on Item 1.
• General sentiment: Concerned rather than oppositional. No speaker asked the board to deny the subdivision; every speaker asked how a specific impact would be handled.
• Key concerns:
  • Wastewater — the dominant theme. Kelly Moore (17029 Florence View Drive) asked twice about shared septic tanks and lift stations. Megan Reyes (17701 Eighth Street) raised the ecosystem, water supply, galvanized pipes, lake water quality, and the Florida ban on new septic tanks.
  • Traffic and road capacity — Marline Clark (17641 Neal Drive) on traffic and the number of new homes; Kelly Moore on speed bumps for Lake Street and police presence.
  • Wildlife and cultural resources — Mike Whidden (17635 Broad Street) on wildlife mitigation and possible Native American artifacts on the Osgood property; Parks committed to ensuring reports and gopher tortoise relocation permits are reviewed.
  • Boat ramp capacity — Pamela Cox (17705 Broad Street) on the need for an additional ramp and boat-trailer volume.
  • Sewage routing and construction timing — George Ganzenmuller (17740 Neal Drive).
  • Economic character — Christian Reyes (17701 Eighth Street), owner of a new business called "The Gathering," spoke on the town becoming a destination and gathering place.
  • Geraci-Carver twice steered the room back to scope, reminding the board that traffic and septic "have been addressed throughout the PUD zoning process" and that the focus should be the site plan.

Key Signals

• 137 houses cleared preliminary approval 4-0 in a town of roughly 2,000 people. At the ±2.5 persons-per-household typical of Lake County single-family product, the Osgood subdivision alone implies on the order of 340 new residents — a ~17% population increase from one resolution. It sits north of Osgood Road between CR 455 and Lake Apopka. Eight residents came to the podium and not one asked for denial; the questions were all about how, not whether. That gap between concern and opposition is the reason this passed unanimously in ninety minutes.

• The town attorney told the board, on the record, that final plats were about to leave its jurisdiction. Geraci-Carver flagged a state law effective July 2025 making final plat approval administrative, said a resolution would come to Council in August to name who holds that authority, and stated plainly that final plats "will no longer be going to the Planning and Zoning Board or to Town Council meetings for approval." A five-member volunteer board in a town of 2,000 lost a review stage without a vote of its own. Watch which staff position inherits it.

• The wetlands count toward the half-acre. Larino confirmed that lot sizes are half-acre and that wetland area is included in that measurement. For a buyer comparing a Montverde half-acre lot to a half-acre lot elsewhere, this is the sentence that matters: the deed acreage and the usable acreage are not the same number on wetland-adjacent lots, and the difference is not disclosed by the lot-size standard.

• "Not septic" was the night's most-repeated correction, and it is a marketable fact. Three separate residents asked about septic tanks and shared drainfields; Larino corrected each time that the system is an FDEP-classified onsite wastewater treatment plant, underground, monitored and tested monthly. Montverde is simultaneously pursuing a town wastewater treatment plant Larino described as 100% grant-covered. A town that has run on septic is converting to package plants one subdivision at a time — a capital story hiding inside a plat review.

• The developer is paying for roads, and the amount was never stated. Larino disclosed that "the developers have agreed to make a financial contribution to the town to help fix roads." No figure, no agreement reference, no condition in the motion. Separately, 8th, 9th and Temple Streets are slated for widening to 24 feet with sidewalks on one side, with Council making the call. The contribution and the road program are the same story, and the public record connects them only by proximity.

• The board self-policed its ex parte exposure before anyone asked. Wadsworth volunteered that he had posted a comment on Nextdoor Montverde on July 22 and produced a copy. In a town this size, board members are neighbors of every applicant; the disclosure discipline being visible in the minutes is the procedural signal worth tracking, because it is what makes these quasi-judicial approvals durable on appeal.

Raw Notes

• Source provenance: The published minutes PDF is a scan of the signed paper record with no text layer; content recovered by OCR (tools/ocr-pdf.py, 300 DPI, PSM 1). Signed Karin Arellano, Chairwoman; attested Caroline Trepanier, Town Clerk — Trepanier's title changed from Administrative Assistant (April) to Town Clerk here.
• The published minutes contain an error corrected at the next meeting: at the November 12, 2025 meeting Wadsworth moved to approve these minutes as amended, noting Grant Roberts's address was wrong and that "Consumptive Use Permit" should read "Conditional Use Permit." Arellano also found a typo in her own name. The corrected minutes were approved 3-0 on November 12. The PDF published at the URL above is the version carrying those corrections' subject matter; readers should treat the Roberts address and any CUP/consumptive-use phrasing as the flagged fields.
• Meeting cadence stated on the record: Larino announced there would be no August 2025 P&Z meeting, with a meeting in September. Geraci-Carver confirmed the next meeting was to be scheduled for September 23, 2025 — that meeting was subsequently cancelled and the board did not sit again until November 12, 2025.
• Board vacancy: Thomas Johnson departed after the April 2, 2025 meeting; the seat was filled by Michael Whidden, sworn in November 12, 2025. Whidden had been appearing as a public speaker at both the April and July meetings before his appointment.
• Parks committed to reviewing gopher tortoise relocation permits and wildlife reports on the Osgood property.
• Adjourned 8:00 PM (moved Weiss, seconded Broecker).
• Companion documents: amended agenda https://mymontverde.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/00-P-Z-Agenda-07-29-2025-Amended-1.pdf ; revised agenda packet https://mymontverde.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/00-P-Z-Agenda-Packet-Rev-07-29-2025.pdf (82 pp.).
• Canonical per-meeting record page: https://mymontverde.com/town-meetings/planning-zoning-meeting-tuesday-july-29-2025-at-630-pm-at-town-hall/