City of Orlando Board of Zoning Adjustment — April 28, 2026

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (9 of 9 members present — full board) Duration: 2:00 PM – 3:08 PM (68 minutes — the longest BZA meeting in the February–July window) 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, Shawn Straight
• Absent: None
• Staff Present: Tim McClendon, Laura Eng, Jim Burnett, Sean Elordi, Raquel Lozano, Deidre Oge, Shannan Stegman (City Planning); John Groenendaal, Keith Grayson, Haider al Salihi, Michael Folts (Permitting Services); Stacy Fallon (City Attorney's Office). Mark Cechman, Executive Secretary; Ed Petersen, Recording Secretary.

Prior minutes: March 24, 2026 minutes approved as written (moved Roberts, seconded Hendren), unanimous voice vote 9-0.

Conflict declarations: Board member Linn declared a conflict on Item 2 (VAR2026-10015, 1627 Falcon Dr.) and filed the proper form.

Public comments: Five speakers spoke at the meeting — all on the regular-agenda item.

Agenda Items

Item 1 (Consent) → Regular Agenda Item 1: VAR2026-10007 — 2912 Lake Shore Dr.

• Type: Variance (4 requests; pulled from Consent to the Regular Agenda)
• Case Number: VAR2026-10007
• Location: 2912 Lake Shore Dr. (± 0.5 acres), District 3 — a vacant lakefront lot on Lake Sue with rear alley access
• Applicant/Owner: Paul Straubinger, 2214 Lucerne Ter., Ste. 200, Orlando
• Request: (A) 49 ft. to allow a 67 ft. wide rear driveway where a maximum 18 ft. is allowed; (B) allow no buffer between the rear parking spaces and the adjacent alley; (C) Design Variance to allow two second-floor balconies to extend 5 ft. into the 30 ft. front setback; (D) Design Variance to allow a front at-grade patio 22 ft. from the front lot line where a 30 ft. front setback is required.
• Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
• Action: Approved
• Vote: 7-2 voice vote (moved Linn, seconded Hendren; Hollinger and Ispass opposed) — the only divided vote of any Orlando BZA meeting between February and July 2026 other than the July denial
• Conditions: Thirteen, moved as part of the motion — a 3-ft. clear planted or improved side-yard area on north and south for potential emergency access per LDC Sec. 60.223; tree removal/encroachment permit if required; at-grade mechanical equipment screened from streets and public pathways to no more than 4 ft. above grade; overall and front-yard ISR documented at permitting, with artificial turf still counted as impervious "pending further guidance from the State of Florida (pending legislation)"; NAVD 88 topographic survey; drainage pattern unchanged by new construction, runoff directed east toward the street; grading plan signed and sealed; Low Impact Development capturing 1.25 × impervious area; broken or damaged sidewalk along Lake Shore Dr. replaced; a City Service Agreement if any existing sidewalk lies within private property.
• Notable Discussion:
  • The case was deferred from March 24 at the applicant's request; the request narrowed from five variances to four (the March version also sought parallel rather than perpendicular parking spaces, and a 19.4 ft. front patio setback rather than 22 ft.).
  • Jim Burnett addressed site grading, rear alley access and swales, noted the lot is smaller than all the others in the area but that the building as designed meets code, and that the riparian segment of the property was used in the impervious-surface-ratio calculation.
  • Kathy Hattaway (owner's representative) compared the previous structure to the proposal and argued that using the alley area for parking reduces on-street parking impact.
  • Yvonne Clayton (3300 Lake Shore Dr.) opposed, citing the generational character of the neighborhood and tree loss from large houses encroaching toward the walking paths: she "didn't want their neighborhood to start looking like Baldwin Park."
  • Jennifer Knopf (2900 Lake Shore Dr., immediate neighbor to the south) opposed all four variances, citing impact on her rear-loaded garage and rainstorm flooding, and claimed this was a self-created hardship by the applicant.
  • Jim Strates (1325 Beverly Ct., immediate neighbor to the west) supported, with no issue on alley access or driveway widening. Terry Irwin (project architect) supported.
  • Board discussion, as minuted: most letters in opposition addressed the mass and scale of the house, "which wasn't within the board's purview to change, since the building met the code"; the parking layout would be a benefit; the porch and balconies add interest to the front. "However, they also pointed out that it was a self-created hardship." The board then approved 7-2.

Item 2: VAR2026-10015 — 1627 Falcon Dr.

• Type: Variance
• Case Number: VAR2026-10015
• Location: 1627 Falcon Dr. (± 0.7 acres), District 3 — abutting Lake Cay Dee, in a Special Flood Hazard Area
• Applicant/Owner: Nicole Lehman
• Request: ±6.5 ft. to allow the one required parking space to encroach ±18.5 ft. into the 25 ft. front yard setback, due to a proposed garage enclosure.
• Current Zoning: R-1A
• Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
• Action: Approved (consent)
• Vote: Consent Agenda passed 8-0, Board member Linn abstaining (moved Hendren, seconded Ispass)
• Conditions: Sixteen, several of them enforcement-flavored — any expired permits for previous work on the property must be renewed, inspected and finalized before permits for the garage enclosure; rear-yard pavers abutting Lake Cay Dee require an Engineering permit; coquina rock placed in the right-of-way "was not permitted and must be replaced with Florida friendly sod"; total paved surface not to exceed 55% for R-1A; finished floor of livable space 1 ft. above Base Flood Elevation and 18 inches above crown of road; Elevation Certificates before slab and final; electrical and mechanical equipment in the floodplain elevated 1 ft. above BFE; compensating storage for any floodplain fill; Low Impact Development required "for any unpermitted or proposed impervious areas"; gravel/rock removed within 15 ft. of the right-of-way; front-setback ISR not to exceed 40%; driveway a minimum 18 ft. wide within the property.
• Notable Discussion: None recorded on the dais. Project planner Laura Eng.

Consent motion: Board member Hendren moved approval of the Consent Agenda; Board member Ispass seconded; passed by unanimous voice vote (8-0, Board member Linn abstained).

Old/New Business & Announcements: Jim Burnett provided an update on CUP2026-10003, 3219 Chelsea St. — the Conditional Use Permit for accessory uses to a church recommended for approval by the Municipal Planning Board on April 21, 2026 — noting that the case "had originated with the BZA as VAR2025-10047, but was converted to the CUP process."

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 5, all on VAR2026-10007 (2912 Lake Shore Dr.) — two in opposition (Yvonne Clayton, Jennifer Knopf), three in support (Kathy Hattaway for the owner, Jim Strates as immediate western neighbor, Terry Irwin as project architect).
• General sentiment: Split, with the two nearest lakefront neighbors divided — the neighbor to the south opposed all four variances; the neighbor to the west supported.
• Key concerns:
  • Mass and scale of new lakefront construction, and tree loss along the walking paths ("looking like Baldwin Park")
  • Rainstorm flooding and interference with an existing rear-loaded garage
  • Whether the hardship was self-created — raised by a neighbor and then adopted as a finding by the board, which approved anyway
  • Written opposition addressed building mass, which the board recorded as outside its purview because the structure met code

Key Signals

• Orlando's variance board found a self-created hardship and granted the variance anyway, 7-2. The minutes record the board acknowledging that the 2912 Lake Shore Dr. request arose from the applicant's own design choices, immediately before voting to approve four variances including a 67-foot rear driveway where 18 feet is the maximum. Self-created hardship is the classic disqualifier in variance law. Recorded on the face of the minutes and overridden in the same paragraph, it tells anyone contesting a variance in Orlando that the hardship test is not where the case will be won.

• "The mass isn't within the board's purview" is the sentence that decides lakefront redevelopment. Neighbors' written opposition addressed the size of the house; the board's stated reason for setting that aside was that the structure met code. The variances requested were all about the ground plane — driveway width, buffers, patio and balcony encroachments — so the board's jurisdiction never reached the thing the neighborhood was actually objecting to. On established Orlando lakefronts, the scale fight has no forum: by the time a case reaches the BZA, the building envelope is already lawful.

• The riparian strip counted toward the impervious-surface ratio. Staff confirmed the riparian segment of the lot was included in the ISR calculation, which raises the denominator and makes a given amount of pavement compliant on a lot that is otherwise smaller than every neighbor's. For lakefront parcels, how much of the submerged or shoreline land counts as "site" is worth more than most setback variances.

• Artificial turf is impervious in Orlando — for now, and by explicit reference to pending state legislation. Condition 4 counts artificial turf as impervious surface "pending further guidance from the State of Florida (pending legislation)." A city writing its conditions in anticipation of a preemption it expects is a city that has read the pattern. Homeowners planning synthetic lawns to hit an ISR number should treat the current answer as provisional.

• The variance calendar is also a code-enforcement calendar. The 1627 Falcon Dr. conditions require expired permits to be renewed and finalized before any new permit, unpermitted coquina rock in the right-of-way to be replaced with sod, and Low Impact Development for "any unpermitted or proposed impervious areas." The applicant asked for a 6.5-foot parking encroachment and received a compliance schedule for work already done. Applying for a variance in Orlando invites a full review of the property's permit history.

• The BZA-to-MPB conversion closed its loop in the same week. Jim Burnett reported back to the BZA on April 28 that the Chelsea Street case it had released in February had been recommended for approval by the Municipal Planning Board on April 21. Orlando's two land-use boards track cases across the forum change on the record, which makes the conversion path auditable — and confirms it as a repeatable staff tool rather than a one-off.

Raw Notes

• Access provenance: Laserfiche Cloud public portal, City Clerk repository r-b158fc8c. Direct PDF: https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/ElectronicFile.aspx?docid=1092757&repo=r-b158fc8c (6 pages, born-digital text layer, no OCR required).
• Only two cases were noticed for this meeting — the lowest case count of any BZA meeting in the window — and the meeting still ran 68 minutes, roughly seven times the February and March durations. Duration on this board tracks public participation, not caseload.
• The March version of VAR2026-10007 sought five variances; four were carried forward in April. Variance B in March (parallel rather than perpendicular parking adjacent to the alley) does not appear in the April request, and the front at-grade patio setback moved from 19.4 ft. to 22 ft.
• Board member Linn moved approval of the item on which the board split 7-2, and abstained on the consent item — the only member to do both in one meeting.
• The same five standing conditions apply to all approved cases (site-plan conformance; all permits before commencing; the Fla. Stat. § 166.033(6) state/federal permit disclaimer; one-year variance expiration; discretionary six-month administrative extension).
• Bracketed attendance counters as of April: Slavens [7/0], Linn [7/0], Patel [7/0]; Roberts, Haugdahl, Hendren, Hollinger, Ispass and Straight all [6/1].
• Adjournment 3:08 PM. Attested by Mark Cechman, Executive Secretary, and Ed Petersen, Recording Secretary.