City of Orlando Municipal Planning Board — February 17, 2026

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (called to order at 9:04 a.m. after determination of a quorum) Duration: 9:04 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. (3 hours, 6 minutes) Location: Orlando City Hall, 400 S. Orange Ave., Council Chambers (hybrid — Zoom webinar 950 5432 5064)

Attendance

• Present (per minutes header): Ryan Seacrist (Chairperson), Carrie Read (Vice Chairperson), Marcos Bastian, Julie Kendig-Schrader, Yasmin Moreno; one seat vacant. Stefani Vitale, OCPS Representative (non-voting).
• Absent (per minutes header): Alfredo Barrott Jr., Carla Daly, Trevor Hall
• Staff Present: Jason Burton (Executive Secretary), Tim McClendon, Mark Cechman, Paul Lewis, Karl Wielecki, Michaëlle Petion, Doug Metzger, Richard Forbes, Colandra Jones, Jim Burnett, Yolanda Ortiz, Shannan Stegman, Sean Elordi, Michele Gibbs, Deidre Oge, Jacob Ballard, Betsy Brown, Tamira Farmer-Nawoola (City Planning); Melissa Clarke and Stacy Fallon (City Attorney's Office); Jacques Coulon, Gus Castro, Mike Zayas, Steve Greene (Transportation Planning); Commissioner Bakari Burns and Carolyn Austin (Executive Offices); plus Economic Development, Business Development, Clerk's Office, Housing & Community Development, Neighborhood Relations, Real Estate, and OPD Planning staff. Betsy Brown, MPB Recording Secretary.

Prior minutes: January 20, 2026 minutes approved as written (moved Kendig-Schrader, seconded Bastian), unanimous voice vote.

Conflict declarations: Kendig-Schrader on Item 1 (Principal Use EV Parking), Form 8B filed and attached to the minutes.

Agenda Items

Item 1: CUP2025-10026 — Principal Use EV Parking, 7855 N. Frontage Rd.

• Type: Conditional Use Permit
• Case Number: CUP2025-10026
• Location: 7855 N. Frontage Rd., north of SR 528, southeast of N. Frontage Rd., west of S. Semoran Blvd. (± 0.4 acres), District 2
• Applicant: Jacob Bubb — Kimley-Horn
• Owner: JBL Gateway Parcel E, LLC
• Request: Conditional Use Permit for an electric vehicle (EV) recharge parking lot.
• Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
• Action: Approved (consent)
• Vote: Consent Agenda passed by unanimous voice vote; Kendig-Schrader abstained on this item
• Conditions: As set out in the staff report
• Notable Discussion: None recorded. Project planner Jim Burnett.

Item 2: GMP2025-10018 — Starwood GMP Amendment, 13131 Wewahootee Rd.

• Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Future Land Use)
• Case Number: GMP2025-10018
• Location: 13131 Wewahootee Rd., north of Wewahootee Rd., east of SR 417, south of SR 528 (± 13.3 acres), District 1
• Applicant: City of Orlando
• Owner: Carlsbad Orlando, LLC
• Request: Change the Future Land Use designation from Office Low Intensity (OFFICE-LOW) to Conservation (CONSERV) within the Starwood Planned Development.
• Staff Recommendation: Indefinite deferral
• Action: Indefinitely deferred (consent)
• Vote: Included in the unanimous consent motion
• Conditions: None
• Notable Discussion: One public comment was received and posted to the MPB webpage. Project planner Yolanda Ortiz.

Item 3: MPL2025-10065 — RoseArts Phase 2, 4224 Clubhouse Rd.

• Type: Master Plan (Specific Parcel Master Plan within an existing PD)
• Case Number: MPL2025-10065
• Location: 4224 Clubhouse Rd., north of Golfside Dr., southeast of Lake Orlando, west of Villa Rose Ln. (± 10.9 acres), District 3
• Applicant: Andrew McCown — GAI Consultants, Inc.
• Owner: Lake Orlando Land Owner, LLC
• Request: Master Plan for 2,500 dwelling units in five multifamily buildings with attached parking garages and 79,600–100,000 sq. ft. of non-residential uses.
• Staff Recommendation: Approve with conditions
• Action: Approved (pulled to Regular Agenda for public comment)
• Vote: 6-0 unanimous voice vote (moved Bastian, seconded Read)
• Conditions: As set out in the staff report
• Notable Discussion:
  • Three public comments were filed in advance. Burnett presented and answered board questions on stormwater attenuation and purification.
  • Applicant's counsel Becky Wilson stated no changes to the existing PD were requested — the specific parcel master plan complies — that this is an inclusionary zoning project, and that the applicant provides more open space than the Wekiva Overlay requires.
  • Vicki Vargo (Rosemont Reserve, Inc.) asked for a continuance, citing the absence of a transit agreement with Lynx, park design and neighborhood connectivity, wastewater, stormwater and flooding, and cypress-tree removal. She asked the board to require the developer to donate the golf-course maintenance-shop land to expand the lift station.
  • Richard Stiskin stated the St. Johns River Water Management District had not approved construction because of flooding concerns; Charlotte Kendall, a 25-year resident, raised traffic congestion, flooding, and bird-population impacts.
  • Wilson declined the continuance. She said the applicant is working with an independent transit provider and is not required to work with Lynx, and would fund the transit circulator itself; that a transit agreement is a City Council-stage requirement, not within the board's purview; that SJRWMD had not denied any permit and the applicant is coordinating with SJRWMD and FEMA; that construction has not begun and no trees have been removed; and that the applicant is already dedicating land for the lift-station expansion.
  • Aimee Shields confirmed lift-station construction would run concurrently with Phase 1 and that Phase 2 includes lift-station upgrades and expansion. Stephanie Shealy answered questions on signal timing and Intelligent Transportation Systems.
  • Wilson said the project is modeled after the Baldwin Park neighborhood, with private parks dedicated for public use.

Item 4: GMP2025-10017 & ZON2025-10010 — 1600 Aaron Ave.

• Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment + Planned Development Rezoning
• Case Number: GMP2025-10017 (Future Land Use); ZON2025-10010 (PD rezoning)
• Location: 1600 Aaron Ave., north of Cassius St., east of S. Ivey Ln., south of Columbia St., west of Aaron Ave. (± 4.2 acres), District 6
• Applicant: Jose J. Venegas — JJV Studio
• Owner: Florida Conference Association of Seventh-Day Adventists
• Request: (A) Change the Future Land Use designation from Public-Recreational-Institutional to Residential Low Intensity; (B) Planned Development rezoning to convert the former Quest site to a Community Assembly Public Benefit Use (a church).
• Current Zoning: Public-Recreational-Institutional future land use; former Quest facility
• Staff Recommendation: Approve both, subject to staff-report conditions (staff described the recommendation as a 250-seat church reusing a secular building as a religious institution)
• Action: Both approved — the rezoning only after a motion to deny failed.
• Vote:
  • GMP2025-10017 — approved 5-0 (moved Moreno, seconded Kendig-Schrader).
  • Motion to DENY ZON2025-10010 — FAILED 2-3 (moved Moreno, seconded Bastian; Moreno and Bastian aye; Seacrist, Read and Kendig-Schrader nay).
  • ZON2025-10010 — approved 3-2 (moved Bastian, seconded Seacrist; Seacrist, Read and Kendig-Schrader aye; Bastian and Moreno nay).
• Conditions: Staff-report conditions plus two added on the dais: (1) Phase 1 is capped at 200 seats; (2) any subsequent phases or changes must be heard by the Municipal Planning Board as a Master Plan request.
• Notable Discussion:
  • Twenty-four speakers appeared in opposition; one appeared in support (Jackeline Guevara Pontons of the Orlando Brazilian Church, who explained the scheduling and notice of the community meetings). Three written public comments were filed.
  • Opponents included the presidents of three neighborhood associations — Andre Howard (Roosevelt Park), Dionne Turner (Richmond Heights), Reshon Moore (McFall) — and Vicky Elaine Felder, an Orange County School Board member for District 5.
  • Recurring objections: traffic volume and pedestrian safety for children; the adequacy of the applicant's traffic study; scale and seat count; infrastructure and flooding capacity; construction noise and health impacts on medically compromised residents; property values; the sufficiency and notice of the applicant's community meetings; and, from multiple long-tenured residents (58 years, 67 years, 50 years), that the neighborhood had been treated differently than others. Cynthia Harris raised gentrification and said the elected official representing the community had been disregarded at the January meeting. Lawanna Gelzer noted the applicant's 501(c)(3) status would leave infrastructure improvements to be funded by neighboring property owners' taxes.
  • Margaret Franklin asked to yield her speaking time to Cynthia Harris and was told that Robert's Rules of Order did not allow it. An audience member later stood and objected aloud to a statement by the applicant; Planning Division Manager Jason Burton reminded the audience that the hearing operates under Robert's Rules and that outbursts were not permitted.
  • Ryan Amos, for the Florida Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, said three additional community meetings were held within a thirty-day window and that community feedback indicated no modification would make the project acceptable to the neighborhood. Venegas said the traffic study found no significant increase in traffic, the building is not a mega-church, and there was no intention of seating 750.
  • Jacques Coulon, Transportation Planning Division Manager, explained the citywide level-of-service standards and confirmed the traffic study was completed at full build-out. Burton noted the report showed no degradation of level of service and that Phase 1 is essentially reuse of the existing building.
  • Assistant City Attorney Melissa Clarke asked Burton to explain to the board the consequences of denying GMP2025-10017 — leaving the site with no city zoning designation. Burton asked the board to take the two requests as separate votes.
  • Board positions: Read found the applicant had complied with the board's January outreach directive but that the parties were at an impasse, and that the board lacked cause to deny. Bastian said 200 seats or fewer would be compatible but that the Phase 1 request exceeded a neighborhood-use threshold and the ultimate build-out far exceeded that scale. Kendig-Schrader supported approving the future land use because the parcel must carry a designation, and would approve Phase 1 as a neighborhood assembly use with a return trip required for expansion. Moreno favored denial, citing distrust between community and church and the strife that would follow continued expansion requests. Bastian asked the applicant on the record whether it accepted a 200-seat cap; Amos agreed.

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 28 across two items — 3 opponents on RoseArts Phase 2; 24 opponents and 1 supporter on 1600 Aaron Ave. (excluding applicant representatives).
• General sentiment: Strongly opposed on both regular-agenda items. No speaker supported RoseArts Phase 2; a single speaker supported 1600 Aaron Ave.
• Key concerns:
  • Traffic volume, intersection safety, and child pedestrian safety (both items)
  • Flooding, stormwater, and wastewater/lift-station capacity (both items)
  • Adequacy and honesty of applicant-run community meetings, and notice to residents (1600 Aaron Ave.)
  • Scale and seat count relative to a residential neighborhood; whether the use is a "neighborhood" or "community" facility (1600 Aaron Ave.)
  • Tree removal, open space, and wildlife (RoseArts)
  • Absence of a Lynx transit agreement (RoseArts)
  • Property values, gentrification, and unequal treatment of the neighborhood (1600 Aaron Ave.)

Key Signals

• A 2,500-unit master plan cleared Orlando's planning board 6-0 in a single hearing. RoseArts Phase 2 on 10.9 acres beside Lake Orlando is the largest residential entitlement in this harvest window by an order of magnitude — five multifamily buildings, attached garages, and up to 100,000 sq. ft. of non-residential space. It passed because the applicant needed nothing: no PD change, no variance, no comp-plan amendment. Counsel told the board the specific parcel master plan simply complies. When the entitlement work was done years earlier at the PD stage, the public hearing that follows is procedural, and neighbors arrive to discover the decision space is already closed.

• The neighbors' strongest argument was infrastructure, and the applicant's answer was sequencing. Rosemont Reserve asked the board to condition approval on a land donation for lift-station expansion; the applicant answered that it was already dedicating land, that lift-station construction runs concurrent with Phase 1, and that Phase 2 itself carries the upgrades. Whether the sewer capacity precedes or trails 2,500 units is now a construction-schedule question rather than a zoning condition. That is the shape of the capacity fight in Orlando: it is settled inside the phasing plan, not on the dais.

• The board voted to deny a church, failed 2-3, then approved it 3-2 — and capped it at 200 seats. 1600 Aaron Ave. produced the only split votes of the entire February–July window on either Orlando board, and it produced two of them in succession. Twenty-four speakers opposed; one supported. Staff recommended a 250-seat approval. The board landed on 200 seats with a condition that any subsequent phase return as a Master Plan. This is the mechanism to watch: when an Orlando board cannot deny, it entitles at the smallest workable scale and forces the applicant to come back for the rest in public.

• The City Attorney's office told the board what denial would cost — and the vote moved. Assistant City Attorney Melissa Clarke asked staff to explain the consequence of denying the future-land-use amendment: the site would be left with no city zoning designation. Burton then asked for two separate votes. The land use passed 5-0 immediately afterward, including votes from both members who would move and second denial of the rezoning minutes later. A procedural warning about legal exposure separated the two questions and made unanimity on the first one possible.

• "No modification would make this acceptable" is now on the record — and it went to appeal. The applicant's representative told the board that after three additional community meetings in a thirty-day window, feedback indicated no change would satisfy the neighborhood. The board approved anyway. GMP2025-10017 and ZON2025-10010 were subsequently appealed; City Planning reported on the appeal's status as Other Business at the April 21, June 16, and July 21 MPB meetings. Five months on, the Aaron Avenue file is the longest-running open item in Orlando's planning record.

• Orlando is retiring entitlement, not just granting it. The Starwood GMP amendment would move 13.3 acres inside a Planned Development from Office Low Intensity to Conservation — a City-initiated downzoning between SR 417 and SR 528. Staff recommended indefinite deferral and got it on consent. The conservation redesignation of privately held PD land is alive but parked; the deferral is indefinite, not withdrawn.

Raw Notes

• Access provenance: Laserfiche Cloud public portal, City Clerk repository r-b158fc8c. Direct PDF: https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/ElectronicFile.aspx?docid=1084391&repo=r-b158fc8c (10 pages). This is the only fully scanned-image document in the Orlando February–July 2026 set — pdfplumber returns zero characters. Recovered by OCR (tools/ocr-pdf.py, 300 DPI, psm 1). Names and figures in this document carry OCR risk and were cross-checked against vote arithmetic and against the April/June/July minutes where the same cases recur.
• Attendance discrepancy in the source. The header lists Barrott, Daly and Hall as absent, but page 5 records a Secretary Note that "Board Member Hall left the meeting at 10:36 am," and the RoseArts vote carried 6-0 — one more vote than the five voting members named as present. The arithmetic reconciles if Hall was present from the opening through 10:36 a.m.: 6-0 on RoseArts (before), then 5-0, 2-3 and 3-2 on 1600 Aaron Ave. (after). The document is marked "Revised 2/23/2026."
• The February conflict-declaration block reads "Item #1 — Principal Use EV Parking — Kendig-Schrader," and the standard abstention paragraph follows. Form 8B is reproduced as pages 9–10 of the minutes PDF; the OCR of the handwritten form is not reliable enough to transcribe.
• One MPB seat was vacant in February and remained vacant through the March, April and May meetings; Eric Jackson appears as a seated member by June 16.
• The Feb. 17 minutes were approved as written at the March 17, 2026 meeting.
• Betsy Brown served as MPB Recording Secretary; her departure was acknowledged by the board at the April 21, 2026 meeting, with Ed Petersen signing "for Betsy Brown" on the April minutes.
• Adjournment 12:10 p.m.