City of Mount Dora Planning and Zoning Commission — June 18, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (7 of 7 members present — full board) Duration: 10:25 AM – 12:33 PM (2 hours 8 minutes) Location: City Hall Board Room, 510 North Baker Street

Attendance

• Present: Chairman Miles Beach, Adrian Coombes, Barbara Tietmeyer, Tom Dring, Harris Turner, Andrea Lother, Suzanne Scheck
• Absent: None
• Staff Present: Michele Janiszewski, Senior Planner; Ryan Winkler, Senior Planner; Whitney Scott, Associate Planner; Andrew Hand, City Attorney

Presenters: Michele Janiszewski, Senior Planner; Kathleen Dial, Executive Director of Development Services, Lake County; Dr. Richard Levy, Levy Consulting; Randy Hawkins, One Oak Development; Leslie Worth, Worth's Property LLC; Andrew McPhee, Make Design Studios.

Prior minutes: March 19, 2025 minutes approved 7-0 (moved Coombes, seconded Tietmeyer). This was the first convened meeting since March — April 16 and May 21, 2025 were both canceled.

At the Chair's announcement, per staff request, the JPA item was taken first on the agenda.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Circle K (C-Store) — Site Plan (SP25-01)

• Type: Site Plan
• Case Number: SP25-01
• Location: 19110 US Hwy 441
• Applicant: One Oak MD Groves, LLC (owner); Bohler Engineering, FL LLC (applicant, engineer, landscape architect); RDC (architect)
• Request: Site plan approval for a Circle K convenience store.
• Current Zoning: [not available]
• Proposed Zoning: N/A
• Acreage: [not available]
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Approved
• Vote: 7-0 (moved Turner, seconded Coombes)
• Conditions: None recorded
• Notable Discussion:
  • Discussion of why Grandview and JW Simpson don't intersect at Fiddler Road — Janiszewski said it's "just how the properties were developed."
  • Janiszewski confirmed rear access connecting Fiddler Drive to JW Simpson, plus a frontage road on the north side, and one traffic light at the midpoint.
  • After the vote, Randy Hawkins stated the traffic signal would be installed in September, with finished construction estimated December/January.

Item 2: Worth's Property LLC — Minor Site Plan (SP25-02Minor)

• Type: Site Plan (minor)
• Case Number: SP25-02Minor
• Location: 620 N Highland Street
• Applicant: Worth's Property, LLC (owner and applicant); Make Design Studios (architect)
• Request: Minor site plan approval to convert the property to a behavioral health services business.
• Current Zoning: C-2A
• Proposed Zoning: No change
• Acreage: [not available]
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Approved
• Vote: 7-0 (moved Tietmeyer, seconded Coombes)
• Conditions: None recorded
• Notable Discussion:
  • Janiszewski confirmed the City does not provide notices for Site Plan applications, so no adjacent-owner input had been received; the abutting properties are already in non-residential use.
  • Owner Leslie Worth stated she will operate a behavioral health services business.
  • The board raised compatibility with the distance from Mount Dora High School. Janiszewski said there are no separation distances applicable and the C-2A zoning is already in place, so the non-residential use is there.
  • McPhee stated the minor site plan is all as of right with no variances requested, and that water and sewer demand is being reduced by moving to a commercial use.

Item 3: Ordinance 2025-11 — Land Development Code, Downtown Exempt Parking District

• Type: Text Amendment (Land Development Code)
• Case Number: Ordinance 2025-11
• Location: Downtown exempt district
• Applicant: City of Mount Dora (staff-initiated)
• Request: Remove the provision stating "existing improved parking areas shall not be developed; unless an equal number of parking spaces are provided within the district."
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Recommended for approval to City Council
• Vote: [tally not recorded — moved Coombes, seconded Scheck; recommended "as it's consistent with the city's code"]
• Conditions: None
• Notable Discussion: Discussion of the current MSL gravel lot on Alexander Street.

Item 4: Land Development Code Clean-Up Ordinance

• Type: Text Amendment (Land Development Code)
• Case Number: [not assigned in the record]
• Location: Citywide
• Applicant: City of Mount Dora (staff-initiated)
• Request: Clean-up items discussed at prior meetings — removing items from conceptual plans for straight zoning districts, allowing extended approval times for PUD ordinances, adjusting the FAR for office zoning districts, city setbacks, and related changes. Janiszewski stated it does not include accessory dwelling units.
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: Recommended for approval to City Council
• Vote: 7-0 (moved Dring, seconded Coombes) — found consistent with the Land Development Code and Comprehensive Plan
• Conditions: None
• Notable Discussion: None beyond the scope description.

Item 5: Joint Planning Agreement (JPA) with Lake County — Discussion and Recommendation

• Type: Other (interlocal agreement; advisory recommendation to City Council)
• Case Number: N/A — draft JPA agreement, amending/replacing the agreement last amended in 2023
• Location: The joint planning area between Mount Dora and unincorporated Lake County
• Applicant: City of Mount Dora / Lake County
• Request: Staff sought board input on the draft JPA.
• Staff Recommendation: Input sought; no staff recommendation stated
• Action: Recommended to City Council that the JPA not be considered until a full financial cost-benefit analysis is conducted
• Vote: 7-0 (moved Coombes, seconded Scheck)
• Conditions: The motion, as recorded: recommend to City Council that the JPA with Lake County not be considered until a full financial cost-to-benefit analysis is conducted. "The analysis should weigh development revenues against costs associated with City provided services, required to support any future annexations. These include but are not limited to: utilities (in particular wastewater), police, fire, road maintenance, etc." In addition, the agreement will renew every five years, or will be terminated.
• Notable Discussion:
  • Hand framed the board's role: typically, making sure the agreement is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan; it's not out of the ordinary for the board to provide input to Council. Coombes produced a City Manager memorandum from the June 3, 2025 City Council meeting plus a copy of the 2023 amendment.
  • Dial (Lake County) gave an overview of the JPA's purpose.
  • Dr. Levy stated the primary benefit: the county can't contest annexations within the JPA boundaries if done consistent with state law. The agreement further acknowledges the city's exclusive utility rights, and adds structured communication language to coordinate development proposals. The trade: the county gets a limit on the city's annexation, and the city cannot annex outside that boundary — including, he confirmed, a property in Orange County. Levy said pre-existing language in the current JPA is constraining.
  • Roads were the second front. Under the 2023 road list agreement, more than half will be maintained by the county. Levy said the 50% standard is common in Florida JPAs — i.e., roads transfer to the city when 50% of frontage is within the city — and that the county agreed to make improvements on certain roadways before turning them over. Gas tax sharing is an issue but is not addressed in the agreement. The board's concern: taking on maintenance for county-impacted roads.
  • Janiszewski said staff looked at time frames and which segments made the most sense in city jurisdiction; where city properties sit on both sides of a road, city control makes sense. Staff's concerns were maintenance responsibility and road conditions. Levy said the city's cost review "went beyond just maintenance and weren't realistic."
  • Dora Circle: a county project the city agreed to maintain, to be built with county funds and turned over to the city. Janiszewski said the county pushed back the timeframe and she is unaware of the status. Levy said the city plans to participate in design to the extent of making recommendations, and that the board could recommend Council clarify the financial-responsibility language.
  • Employment Center / Wolf Branch Innovation District: Levy clarified there is not a new employment center — it's the same one in the comprehensive plan for the past fifteen years. Board members were concerned there may not be enough employment opportunities. Levy said the Richland project meets Comprehensive Plan standards for mixed use of employment and residential, and that the property is in unincorporated Lake County and can be voluntarily annexed at the owner's discretion.
  • Levy said the Board of County Commissioners had not formally heard the JPA item — the intent was to bring it to the city first. Dial said she believes a sixty-day extension had been implemented, which would require it to go to both City Council and the BCC.
  • Four residents spoke, all critical. Ms. Newton raised utility capacity, land use provisions, and outside-municipality utility providers. Ms. Breed, of Stoneybrook Hills, said the JPA isn't beneficial because of a lack of responsibility to citizens, and reported recurring problems with no reclaimed water and no notification for boil-water alerts or reclaimed outages. Mr. Hemingway said if the city doesn't intend to annex, the JPA isn't beneficial, and raised taxes and utility capacity. Ms. Brammer raised water capacity. Ms. Tillet said she'd like to see figures showing associated costs and impact.
  • Janiszewski responded that the agreement sets the groundwork for future annexations, that every land use amendment or rezoning gets a public-facilities impact review, and that the city obtains impact fees for new development in its jurisdiction — noting the Groves development is currently obtaining permits through the city and will be paying impact fees.
  • On exit: Janiszewski said roads must go through a separate acceptance process, and she doesn't believe the city can retroactively return roads once incorporated; there are termination provisions, and conditions would be disregarded for roads not yet taken on.

Item 6: Legislative Updates

• Type: Other (staff/legal update)
• Case Number: N/A
• Location: N/A
• Applicant: N/A
• Request: Update on the 2025 legislative session.
• Action: Informational; no motion
• Vote: [none]
• Notable Discussion:
  • Janiszewski: Bill 1118 was withdrawn. The accessory dwelling units bill did not pass. The bill referring to historic buildings did pass.
  • Hand discussed Bill 180, stating it was "currently being ordered, engrossed and enrolled" and had not been signed by the Governor as of that date. The session had ended, so movement was expected shortly. Hand said the bill has a retroactive effect, which addresses different emergency procedures and requirements.

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 5 members of the public recorded by name — Ms. Newton, Ms. Breed, Mr. Hemingway, Ms. Brammer, Ms. Tillet — all on the JPA. Plus 5 applicant-side or agency presenters.
• General sentiment: Uniformly opposed to the JPA as drafted. No public comment recorded on the Circle K or Worth's site plans.
• Key concerns: wastewater capacity and the city's ability to serve annexed growth; cost of maintaining transferred county roads; taxes; reclaimed water reliability and boil-water notification failures in Stoneybrook Hills; lack of any published cost figures; whether the JPA benefits the city at all if it doesn't intend to annex.

Key Signals

• Mount Dora's own planning board voted 7-0 to tell City Council to stop the Lake County JPA. Not to amend it — to not consider it until a full financial cost-benefit analysis weighs development revenue against the cost of serving annexations, "utilities (in particular wastewater), police, fire, road maintenance." An advisory board unanimously recommending against an interlocal agreement its own staff helped negotiate is the strongest signal Mount Dora emitted in 2025. It also tells you where the county-city growth boundary fight in north Lake County is actually being contested: not at the BCC, which hadn't formally heard it yet, but at a Wednesday-morning advisory meeting.

• The JPA trade is annexation certainty for annexation limits, and the board decided the price wasn't proven. Levy's summary is the clearest statement of the deal in the corpus: the county can't contest annexations inside the boundary, the city acknowledges exclusive utility rights — and the city can never annex outside that line. For homeowners in the unincorporated pocket between Mount Dora and Round Lake Road, that boundary decides which government they will eventually pay.

• Roads are the hidden cost, and the gas tax that would pay for them isn't in the agreement. Under the 2023 road list, more than half of the segments stay with the county; the rest transfer at a 50%-frontage trigger. Levy conceded gas tax sharing "is an issue but not addressed in the agreement." The board's July follow-up asks for 60/40 or higher and for a share of county gas tax. Anyone buying on a JPA-corridor road should know maintenance responsibility can change without the road changing.

• Residents brought utility failures, not zoning objections. The Stoneybrook Hills speaker's complaint — no reclaimed water, no notification of boil-water alerts — is the retail version of the wastewater story staff told in March. The capacity constraint has surfaced as a service-quality complaint from existing residents, which is what converts an infrastructure schedule into a political one.

• Two entitlements sailed through 7-0 while the JPA consumed the room. Circle K at 19110 US-441 was approved with a signal promised for September and construction finishing December/January; a behavioral health clinic at 620 N Highland was approved as-of-right in C-2A with no separation requirement from Mount Dora High School and — per Janiszewski — no mailed notice to neighbors, because the city does not notice site plan applications. The lesson for residents: in Mount Dora, if the use is permitted and the plan is a site plan, the first you hear of it may be construction.

• The clean-up ordinance quietly granted what the board fought about in February: "allowing extended approval times for PUD ordinances." Buried in a 7-0 consent-style motion alongside FAR and setback adjustments, Mount Dora moved to codify the longer PUD horizon that developers had been requesting one project at a time because of the wastewater freeze. The board declined to write the code around "specific timely circumstances" in February and then did it in June, as a clean-up item.

Raw Notes

• Source provenance: Standalone minutes retrieved as CivicClerk file ID 6155 (event ID 2030, agendaId 1212). The published PDF is a scanned image of the signed original and required OCR. An audio recording of this meeting is also published as CivicClerk file ID 6099 ("June 18 2025 Planning Zoning Commission Audio Recording"), the only audio file published for a P&Z meeting in the coverage window.
• The running headers on pages 2–8 of the signed minutes read "MINUTES FROM JUNE 16, 2025" while page 1 and the body read June 18, 2025. The CivicClerk event, the agenda, and the approval at the August 20, 2025 meeting all establish June 18, 2025. Treated as a scrivener's error in the source.
• Vote tallies are recorded for the Circle K site plan, the Worth's minor site plan, the clean-up ordinance, and the JPA motion (all 7-0). No tally is recorded for the Ordinance 2025-11 parking motion.
• A five-minute recess was called after the JPA motion.
• The board asked for future presentations on stormwater management from Public Works, and on potential development from staff. Short-term development moratoriums were again raised in this discussion.
• Board members' summarized JPA concerns as recorded: cost of maintaining roads, wastewater capacity, impacts on groundwater, automatic renewal of the JPA, public facilities, and the need for a JPA at all. These ten-plus concerns were formalized into a numbered list at the July 16, 2025 meeting.
• Hand clarified that more taxes are paid on non-homesteaded property, in response to a question about rental versus ownership tax income.
• Adjournment 12:33 PM, moved Turner, seconded Coombes. Attested by Whitney Scott, Associate Planner; signed by Chair Miles Beach.