City of Mount Dora Planning and Zoning Commission — December 17, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 members present; one absent, one seat vacant) Duration: 10:01 AM – [adjournment time not recorded] Location: City Hall Board Room, 510 North Baker Street

Attendance

Present: Chairman Miles Beach, Tom Dring, Harris Turner, Adrian Coombes, Andrea Lother
Absent: Suzanne Scheck; "Open seat will be filled in January 2026"
Staff Present: Michele Janiszewski, Deputy Planning Director; Whitney Scott, Associate Planner; Alexandra Stevens, Administrative Coordinator; Andrew Hand, City Attorney

Prior minutes: September 17, 2025 and November 19, 2025 minutes approved together, 5-0 (moved Coombes, seconded Dring).

Agenda Items

Item 1: Sabatini Law Firm, P.A. — Conditional Use Permit (CUP25-02)

Type: Conditional Use Permit (CUP)
Case Number: CUP25-02
Location: 1601 E. 1st Avenue
Applicant: Sabatini Law Firm, P.A. (applicant and owner)
Request: Conditional use permit for the law firm at 1601 E. 1st Avenue.
Current Zoning: [not stated in the minutes]
Proposed Zoning: No change
Acreage: [not available]
Staff Recommendation: [not stated in the minutes]
Action: Approved as presented
Vote: 5-0 (moved Coombes, seconded Dring)
Conditions: None recorded
Notable Discussion: Janiszewski summarized the project. Discussion about parking requirements is the only substantive item recorded.

Item 2: Round Lake Charter — Future Land Use (FLUM25-03)

Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Future Land Use Map)
Case Number: FLUM25-03
Location: 31333 Round Lake Rd.
Applicant: Lake County Schools (applicant and owner)
Request: Future Land Use Map amendment, returning after being tabled November 19, 2025.
Current Zoning: [not stated]
Proposed Zoning: N/A (land use item)
Acreage: [not available]
Staff Recommendation: [not stated]
Action: Approved as presented
Vote: 5-0 (moved Dring, seconded Coombes)
Conditions: None recorded
Notable Discussion:
- "City Council did indeed pass annexation unanimously." The board's November concern — that Council would annex before the planning review concluded — is confirmed on the record.
- Discussion of the benefits of the annexation.
- Discussion about traffic issues and road repairs. Todd Rome, Principal of Round Lake Charter, appeared and stated he understands there is congestion and hopes the road repairs will help.

Item 3: Round Lake Charter — Rezoning (Z25-03)

Type: Rezoning
Case Number: Z25-03
Location: 31333 Round Lake Rd.
Applicant: Lake County Schools (applicant and owner)
Request: Rezoning, returning after being tabled November 19, 2025.
Current Zoning: [not stated]
Proposed Zoning: [not stated]
Acreage: [not available]
Staff Recommendation: [not stated]
Action: Approved as presented
Vote: 5-0 (moved Coombes, seconded Lother)
Conditions: None recorded
Notable Discussion: Janiszewski summarized the project; no separate discussion recorded.

Item 4: Stormwater Presentation — George Marek, Stormwater Director

Type: Other (staff presentation)
Case Number: N/A
Location: Citywide
Applicant: City of Mount Dora Public Works
Request: Stormwater presentation, requested by the board since August 2025.
Staff Recommendation: N/A
Action: Presented; no motion
Vote: [none]
Conditions: None
Notable Discussion:
- Marek presented on stormwater and on the October 26, 2025 storm.
- Discussion about a reinforced concrete spillway for the new Public Works Pond.
- The board made a recommendation about adding requirements for concrete spillways — a code change flagged from the dais rather than by staff.

Item 5: 2026 Meeting Dates

Type: Other (administrative)
Case Number: N/A
Location: N/A
Applicant: City of Mount Dora
Request: Adopt the 2026 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting calendar.
Action: Approved
Vote: 5-0 (moved Coombes, seconded Dring)
Conditions: None
Notable Discussion: None recorded. The adopted calendar places meetings on the third Wednesday of each month at 10:00 AM.

Public Hearings Summary

Number of speakers: 1 member of the public in non-agenda participation — Samuel Arts, who raised the JPA, the Wekiva Innovation Trail causing traffic issues, and removing the railways. Applicant-side appearance by Todd Rome, Principal of Round Lake Charter.
General sentiment: No opposition recorded on any agenda item.
Key concerns: Traffic on Round Lake Road; the Wekiva Innovation Trail and railway removal; parking at the Sabatini CUP site.

Key Signals

The Round Lake Charter package cleared 5-0 a month after being tabled, with a school principal in the room and the annexation already done. The difference between November and December was attendance, not analysis: the board tabled twice for want of a representative, Council annexed on December 2, and the FLUM and rezoning passed once someone appeared to answer for traffic. If you want a Mount Dora land use item to move, send a person.
Anthony Sabatini's law firm took a conditional use permit at 1601 E. 1st Avenue in a five-minute item, and came back seven months later for a minor site plan. The December CUP (CUP25-02) is followed by SP26-02Minor on the July 15, 2026 agenda for the same address, listed as a third submittal with Anthony and Francheska Sabatini as owners of record. A named Lake County political figure converting a 1st Avenue property to law-office use, across two applications and three submittals, is the kind of entity thread worth tracking across the corridor.
Stormwater joined wastewater as a named constraint, and the trigger was a storm. The board had been asking Public Works for a stormwater briefing since August. It landed in December, anchored on the October 26, 2025 storm, and produced an immediate board recommendation to add concrete spillway requirements to the code. Mount Dora's 2026 variance docket then turns on flooding — the 110 N Clayton applicant's entire hardship argument in March 2026 is water damage from a City-owned stormwater conveyance.
The city that has no sewer capacity approved a school, a law office, and a land use change in seventy-odd minutes. None of the December items load Plant 2 meaningfully: Round Lake Charter is on a well and onsite treatment, the Sabatini CUP is a use change in an existing building. This is the shape of Mount Dora's 2025 docket — capacity-neutral entitlements move, sewered subdivisions wait.
"Ask the Staff" became a standing agenda item. Turner requested it in September, the board withheld approval of minutes in November until it was added, and it appears as Section VI on this agenda with "None" recorded. A board that has spent the year discovering it wasn't told about wastewater commitments, borrow-pit conditions, and road-transfer costs built itself a standing slot to ask.
Five members carried the last meeting of 2025, with one absence and one seat vacant since October. The 2026 board that convenes in January adds Lynn Tipton and David Hoops and loses Miles Beach as chair by March. Mount Dora's planning commission turned over roughly a third of its membership across the coverage window.

Raw Notes

Source provenance: Standalone minutes retrieved as CivicClerk file ID 6452 (event ID 2036, agendaId 1218). The published PDF is a scanned image of the signed original, three pages, and required OCR.
The CivicClerk event name for this meeting is recorded simply as "Planning and Zoning Commission" without a date, unlike neighbouring months — a metadata inconsistency in the tenant, not a document problem.
The signed page bears multiple signatures and initials; the OCR renders the coordinator's name variously as "Alexandra Givens" and "Alexandra Stevens." "Stevens" is the form used consistently in the staff roll of this and adjacent meetings.
The minutes record Section VI as "Ask the Staff — None," the first appearance of the standing item Turner requested at the September 17, 2025 meeting.
Adjournment moved by Coombes, seconded by Dring, 5-0; adjournment time not recorded.
Attested by Alexandra Stevens, Administrative Coordinator; signed by Chairman Miles Beach.

Mount Dora Planning and Zoning Commission — December 17, 2025 minutes