City of Orlando Board of Zoning Adjustment — February 24, 2026

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (8 of 9 members present) Duration: 2:00 PM – 2:09 PM (9 minutes) Location: Orlando City Hall, City Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, One City Commons, 400 South Orange Avenue (hybrid — Zoom webinar 851 9808 8494)

Attendance

Present: Robert Slavens (Chairperson), Jill Roberts (Vice Chairperson), Keith Haugdahl, Carol Hendren, Hannah Hollinger, Marc Ispass, Chad Linn, Minesh Patel
Absent: Shawn Straight
Staff Present: Tim McClendon, Karl Wielecki, Raquel Lozano, Laura Eng, Jim Burnett, Sean Elordi, Michele Gibbs, Jacob Ballard, Doug Metzger, Richard Forbes, Courtney Karins (all City Planning); Keith Grayson (Permitting Services); Stacy Fallon (City Attorney's Office). Mark Cechman, Executive Secretary; Ed Petersen, Recording Secretary.

Prior minutes: January 27, 2026 minutes approved as written (moved Hollinger, seconded Ispass), unanimous voice vote 8-0.

No conflicts declared. No speakers appeared.

Agenda Items

All seven items were placed on the Consent Agenda and disposed of in a single motion. No item was pulled to the Regular Agenda.

Item 1: VAR2025-10047 — 3219 Chelsea St.

Type: Variance (withdrawn — converted to Conditional Use Permit)
Case Number: VAR2025-10047
Location: 3219 Chelsea St. (± 0.2 acres), District 3
Applicant: Alexander Luna, IDEAS for Us (applicant/owner of record)
Request: Three variances — (A) allow dirt and mulch piles in the front yard, where not allowed; (B) 2 ft. variance to allow a 6 ft. front-yard fence where 4 ft. is the maximum; (C) allow a second 120 sq. ft. shed inside the front-yard fenced area, where accessory structures are not allowed in the R-1A district.
Current Zoning: R-1A
Proposed Zoning: No change
Acreage: ±0.2 acres
Staff Recommendation: Withdrawal of the case by City staff
Action: Withdrawn
Vote: Included in the 8-0 consent motion
Conditions: None
Notable Discussion: The minutes record that the case "has been converted to a Conditional Use Permit (CUP2026-10003), which will be heard by the Municipal Planning Board on April 21, 2026." Project planner Jim Burnett.

Item 2: VAR2025-10050 — 1026 Vassar St.

Type: Variance
Case Number: VAR2025-10050
Location: 1026 Vassar St., District 3
Applicant: Andrew Lockwood (applicant/owner)
Request: Four variances for an accessory structure — (A) ±9.2 ft. to allow a ±5.8 ft. rear setback where 15 ft. is required; (B) ±2.4 ft. to allow a ±3.6 ft. side setback where 6 ft. is required; (C) ±12.9 ft. to allow an outdoor staircase ±2.1 ft. from the rear property line where 15 ft. is required; (D) ±18% to allow a 65% impervious surface ratio where 55% is the maximum.
Current Zoning: [not stated in minutes]
Acreage: listed as "±03.2 acres" in the source (apparent typographical error)
Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
Action: Approved
Vote: Included in the 8-0 consent motion
Conditions: Seven staff conditions, including: all fenestration on the south-facing second story shall be opaque and the entry door replaced with a solid door; all exterior lighting shall comply with the Orlando Lighting Code, with rear lighting fully shielded to prevent light trespass onto adjacent properties; the rear decking shall be truncated, "sufficient for entry access and not designed or sized to accommodate seating or other activities"; if Variance D is denied, the site must be shown at 55% or less impervious surface at building permit.
Notable Discussion: None recorded. Project planner Sean Elordi.

Item 3: VAR2025-10051 — 1010 Bryn Mawr St.

Type: Variance
Case Number: VAR2025-10051
Location: 1010 Bryn Mawr St. (± 0.2 acres), District 3
Applicant: Katherine Ramsberger (applicant/owner)
Request: (A) ±19 ft. to allow an addition ±6 ft. from the rear property line where 25 ft. is required; (B) ±2.5 ft. to allow the addition ±3.5 ft. from the side lot line where 6 ft. is required.
Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
Action: Approved
Vote: Included in the 8-0 consent motion
Conditions: Four, including a landscape plan meeting LDC Sec. 60.223 if the work is deemed a substantial improvement, and an arbor permit if a 10-inch-DBH tree is encroached upon or removed.
Notable Discussion: None recorded. Project planner Sean Elordi.

Item 4: VAR2025-10053 — 1235 N. Orange Ave.

Type: Variance (deferred)
Case Number: VAR2025-10053
Location: 1235 N. Orange Ave. (± 0.3 acres), District 3
Applicant: Max Furth, Hyperbolic Brewing Co., 2725 Walnut St., Orlando
Owner: Lake Ivanhoe Capital Group LLC, 103 Commerce St., Ste. 160, Lake Mary
Request: ±12 ft. variance to allow mechanical equipment ±8 ft. from the rear yard property line, where 20 ft. is required.
Staff Recommendation: Deferral to the March 24, 2026 BZA meeting, by request of staff
Action: Deferred (to March 24, 2026)
Vote: Included in the 8-0 consent motion
Conditions: None
Notable Discussion: None recorded. Project planner Sean Elordi.

Item 5: VAR2026-10000 — 220 S. Hampton Ave.

Type: Variance
Case Number: VAR2026-10000
Location: 220 S. Hampton Ave. (± 0.2 acres), District 4
Applicant: Bailey Truett, Cooney Homes LLC
Owner: Tyler Pyle
Request: Allow the one required parking space to encroach into the 25 ft. front yard setback.
Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
Action: Approved
Vote: Included in the 8-0 consent motion
Conditions: Two parking spaces must meet 9 ft. × 18.5 ft. and be located in the existing driveway only.
Notable Discussion: None recorded. Project planner Michele Gibbs.

Item 6: VAR2026-10001 — 600 Delaney Park Dr.

Type: Variance
Case Number: VAR2026-10001
Location: 600 Delaney Park Dr. (± 0.2 acres), District 4
Applicant: Alex Wilde (applicant/owner)
Request: ±1.1 ft. to allow an in-line second-story addition ±4.9 ft. from the side property line, where 6 ft. is required.
Current Zoning: R-1/T/AN (Traditional City overlay)
Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
Action: Approved
Vote: Included in the 8-0 consent motion
Conditions: Sixteen, the most extensive on the agenda — architectural consistency across both sections of the home; 55% ISR, 0.5 FAR, 30 ft. maximum height for the non-conforming lot per Sec. 58.1153; mechanical equipment relocated to interior or rear yard and screened; side and rear facades visible from a public street to carry front-facade-comparable detail; at least 15% transparency on the front façade under the Traditional City overlay; landscape plan per Sec. 60.223; tree removal/encroachment permit if applicable.
Notable Discussion: None recorded. Project planner Raquel Lozano.

Item 7: VAR2026-10002 — 2508 Windward Ct.

Type: Variance
Case Number: VAR2026-10002
Location: 2508 Windward Ct. (± 0.2 acres), District 6
Applicant: Eric Gray, Designer Trade Services
Owner: Seth Whipple
Request: ±7 ft. to allow a rear addition to encroach into the 25 ft. rear yard setback.
Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
Action: Approved
Vote: Included in the 8-0 consent motion
Conditions: Thirteen, dominated by Public Works floodplain requirements: the property lies in the FEMA 100-year floodplain (Zone AE); compensating storage "cup for cup for each unit of floodplain impact," signed and sealed; finished floor elevation a minimum of 18 inches above the crown of the roadway and at least 1 foot above Base Flood Elevation; Low Impact Development capturing 1.25 inches × impervious surface area; an Elevation Certificate before slab and final inspection.
Notable Discussion: None recorded. Project planner Laura Eng.

Consent motion: Vice Chairperson Roberts moved approval of the Consent Agenda; Board member Hendren seconded; passed by unanimous voice vote (8-0).

Regular Agenda: No items.

Old/New Business & Announcements: No items.

Public Hearings Summary

Number of speakers: 0 — "No speakers spoke at the meeting."
General sentiment: No public participation recorded.
Key concerns: None raised. Seven land-use cases across five council districts were disposed of without a single member of the public appearing.

Key Signals

Orlando's variance board decided seven cases in nine minutes without a spoken word from the public. The February BZA convened at 2:00 PM and adjourned at 2:09. Every item — including a 65% impervious-surface variance, a 100-year-floodplain addition, and a front-yard fence-and-shed case that had drawn a code enforcement history — moved as a single consent motion. In the largest city in the region, the practical venue for a homeowner-scale zoning dispute is the staff report, not the hearing. By the time a case reaches the dais the outcome is written; the board's function in this posture is ratification.
Staff can move a contested case off the variance track entirely. VAR2025-10047 at 3219 Chelsea St. was withdrawn by staff and converted to CUP2026-10003, routed to the Municipal Planning Board for April 21. The conversion changes the standard of review from the variance test (hardship) to the conditional-use test (compatibility with conditions) and moves the hearing from a nine-minute afternoon consent calendar to a morning board that takes public testimony. Anyone tracking a neighborhood dispute in Orlando should watch for this reassignment — the case does not disappear, it changes forums and gets louder.
Floodplain engineering is now the binding constraint on Orlando infill, not zoning. The 2508 Windward Ct. rear addition — a routine ±7 ft. setback request — carried thirteen conditions, ten of them Public Works items: cup-for-cup compensating storage, NAVD 88 topographic survey, finished floor 18 inches above crown of road and 1 foot above Base Flood Elevation, Low Impact Development capturing 1.25 inches of runoff, and an Elevation Certificate before slab. The zoning relief was granted in seconds. The cost and schedule live in the engineering conditions, and they attach to modest single-family work.
The Traditional City overlay is doing design review by condition. At 600 Delaney Park Dr., a 1.1-foot side-setback variance produced sixteen conditions governing façade transparency (15% minimum), material consistency between old and new construction, screening of mechanical equipment from the right-of-way, and porch depth. Orlando is regulating the appearance of individual houses through the variance conditions rather than through a separate design ordinance. Buyers in R-1/T/AN districts should expect the renovation they are planning to be shaped by conditions written at the staff level.
1235 N. Orange Ave. was deferred at staff's request, not the applicant's. Hyperbolic Brewing Co.'s mechanical-equipment variance was pushed to March 24 by City staff. Staff-initiated deferrals typically signal an unresolved technical review rather than an applicant's scheduling problem, and the case returned in March in materially changed form.

Raw Notes

Access provenance: Laserfiche Cloud public portal, City Clerk repository r-b158fc8c. Direct PDF: https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/ElectronicFile.aspx?docid=1084601&repo=r-b158fc8c (8 pages, born-digital text layer, no OCR required).
Attendance entries carry a bracketed running attendance record — e.g. "Robert Slavens [5/0]", "Jill Roberts [4/1]" — appearing to track meetings attended vs. missed over a rolling period. These counters increment by one at each subsequent 2026 meeting.
Item 2's acreage is printed as "±03.2 acres"; every comparable single-family lot on the agenda is ±0.2 acres. Recorded here as printed with the discrepancy flagged.
The minutes carry five standing conditions applied to all approved cases: strict conformance with the approved site plan (minor modifications administratively approvable by the Zoning Official, major modifications returning to the BZA); all other permits obtained before commencing development; the Fla. Stat. § 166.033(6) disclaimer that a municipal development order confers no right to a state or federal permit; a one-year expiration on the variance if no building permit is received; and a discretionary six-month administrative extension by the Zoning Official.
Zoom participation is offered at every meeting (webinar ID 851 9808 8494) alongside six dial-in numbers.
Meeting attested by Mark Cechman, Executive Secretary, and Ed Petersen, Recording Secretary.

Orlando Board of Zoning Adjustment — February 24, 2026 minutes