City of Tavares Planning and Zoning Advisory Board — October 16, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (7 of 7 members present) Duration: 3:13 PM – 4:25 PM (72 minutes; start delayed by technical difficulties) Location: Tavares City Hall Council Chambers, 201 E. Main Street

Attendance

• Present: Gary Santoro (Chairman), Deborah Murphy (Vice-Chairperson), Bruce Peterman, Jay Cunningham, Brooke Matthews, Dara Treadwell, James Sweezea — full board
• Absent: None
• Staff Present: Antonio Fabre (Community Development Director), Amanda Boggus (City Attorney), Michelle Winegard (Deputy City Clerk), James Dillon (Public Works Director), Traci Anderson (Parks Operations Manager); Fire Division Chief Michael Willis addressed the Board at the close

Prior minutes: August 14, 2025 minutes approved without correction (moved Peterman, seconded Treadwell), recorded 6-0.

Note: This meeting is the September 18, 2025 meeting rescheduled, per the City's public notice. There was no separate September meeting.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Approval of the August 14, 2025, Planning and Zoning Board Meeting Minutes

• Type: Other (administrative)
• Request: Approve the August 14, 2025 minutes
• Action: Approved
• Vote: Recorded 6-0 (moved Peterman, seconded Treadwell) — see Raw Notes on the tally
• Notable Discussion: No corrections offered. The minutes approved here contain the Board's 4-2 denial of the Palm Gardens rezoning.

Item 2: Integrating America in Bloom with Planning & Zoning Initiatives

• Type: Other (staff presentation — Public Works)
• Applicant: City of Tavares Public Works Department (Director James Dillon; presented by Parks Operations Manager Traci Anderson)
• Location: Citywide
• Request: Explain how the America in Bloom (AIB) program aligns with Planning and Zoning Board goals
• Action: No action (presentation)
• Notable Discussion:
  • Anderson framed AIB's seven areas of impact — Overall Impression, Floral Impact, Urban Forestry, Environmental Initiatives, Landscaped Areas, Celebrating Heritage, and Community Vitality — as mirroring comprehensive planning goals, and named the planning mechanisms AIB is intended to support: "increasing walkability in neighborhoods through the encouragement of mixed-use developments," "reducing sprawl and expenses through the revitalization of underused spaces with the promotion of infill development," and "embracing rising trends such as form-based codes that focus on the physical form of the built environment and encouraging small-scale, often more attainable development."
  • Tavares enrolled in 2017 as a Level 3 participant. Recognitions listed: Coolest Place for Kids 2017, Overall Impression 2017, Environmental Efforts 2018, Overall Impression 2019, Best Innovative Project or Program 2019, Champion Community 2019 (population 18,000–23,000), Overall Impression nominee 2022, Coolest Downtown 2023, Champion Community 2023 (population 20,000–25,000), Overall Impression 2023, Coolest Place for Kids 2024, Overall Impression 2024, Community Involvement 2025, Innovation in Action 2025 for the Tavares Public Works Transportation Training and Operations Center partnership with Lake Technical College, and Champion Community 2025 (population 20,000–25,000). Tavares did not participate in 2020–2021.
  • Tavares was instrumental in establishing the first America in Bloom chapter in the country — the Lake County Chapter, facilitated through Keep Lake Beautiful — now being replicated nationwide. Three Lake County cities participated at Level 3 in 2025: Eustis, Leesburg, and Tavares, with Eustis and Tavares attending the National Symposium in Orion Township and Rochester, Michigan in September.
  • Advisor visits cost approximately $1,100 each and occur between April and June. The City's program rating rose from 7 to 8 since 2024.
  • Murphy asked how the Board could assist; Anderson welcomed a meeting to share ideas. Santoro noted that if more than three board members attended such a meeting, it would need to be advertised as a public meeting.
  • Peterman asked whether the program had been covered in the City newsletter; Anderson said the biggest challenge had been bridging communication with local homeowners' associations.
  • Treadwell asked about the YMCA Regional Park project; Dillon said it is under the direction of Mr. Scott Aldrich. Treadwell raised the importance of separate bike and walking trails; Anderson suggested "Walk Your Wheels" signage used by other cities.
  • Peterman raised e-bike speeds. Dillon said future trail projects such as the Wekiva Trail would follow standards in the City's Land Development Regulations.
  • Cunningham asked how AIB aligns with native-plant ordinances; Anderson said the City has been commended for Florida-friendly principles and native plantings.

Item 3: Community Development Director Report

• Type: Other (staff report)
• Applicant: City of Tavares Community Development
• Action: No action
• Notable Discussion:
  • Anarquis Frias earned his CNU accreditation and was promoted to Planning Manager, leaving the City Planner position vacant.
  • AdventHealth Center received a certification of completion for its exterior construction; no estimated date for the interior opening.
  • The Far Reach Ranch application was routed to all City departments, including the City Attorney, City Engineer, Lake County, and other review agencies. Staff comments were compiled and sent to the developer on October 9, 2025, and are public record available through the City Clerk's office.
  • The November agenda would include two advertised public hearings for Land Development Regulations amendments requested by the City Council.

Item 4: Audience to be Heard — Far Reach Ranch opposition and a Fire Department grant

• Type: Other (public comment)
• Location: Shirley Shores area / Lane Park Road vicinity
• Action: No action
• Notable Discussion:
  • Don Kehr, a Shirley Shores area resident, spoke on Far Reach Ranch. He said he wanted to discuss ways for residents to collaborate with the City on the project, noted that he had participated in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan process and felt the current application differed significantly from that plan, and expressed concerns about the density of housing proposed by D.R. Horton. He asked about the next step in the zoning process and why zoning codes were not established before application submission.
  • Santoro explained the Board had not yet received or reviewed any materials on the project because it was still under staff review. Boggus advised that the Board should not review any information before staff completes its review, and Santoro concurred. Boggus explained that zoning review occurs concurrently with application review and the project was not final. Kehr reiterated his opposition and said he would submit a public records request for the staff comments.
  • Darold Diamond, of 11605 Lane Park Road, said he had served on a planning commission for 14 years and urged Tavares to manage growth carefully, recommending a compromise for lower-density development and referencing the Cresswind project as an example.
  • Division Chief Willis reported a $270,000 grant funding a mobile training trailer for on-site fire training at schools and community events, and said he planned to bring the trailer to a future P&Z meeting.

Public Hearings Summary

• Number of speakers: 2 members of the public, both under Audience to be Heard — Don Kehr (Shirley Shores) and Darold Diamond (11605 Lane Park Road).
• General sentiment: Opposed to the Far Reach Ranch application as proposed. Both speakers questioned density; neither addressed an agendized item.
• Key concerns: Housing density proposed by D.R. Horton; divergence between the application and the 2040 Comprehensive Plan process residents participated in; the sequencing of zoning determination relative to application submission; and growth management generally, with Cresswind offered as the lower-density benchmark.

Fabre stated there were no public hearings scheduled for this meeting; Boggus confirmed no quasi-judicial matters were on the agenda.

Key Signals

• Far Reach Ranch is the D.R. Horton project that organized Tavares residents, and it surfaced in public comment before the Board ever saw a file. Staff had routed the application to every City department plus the City Attorney, City Engineer, and Lake County, and sent compiled comments to the developer on October 9, 2025. Residents of Shirley Shores and Lane Park Road came to the podium a week later. The Board's answer — Boggus advising that members should not review anything until staff review completes — is procedurally correct and leaves neighbors with a public records request as their only access. The application was withdrawn by February 19, 2026, with no reason given.

• A resident who worked on the 2040 Comprehensive Plan told the Board the application did not match the plan he helped write. Kehr's specific claim — that he participated in the 2040 process and the current application "differed significantly" — is the sharpest civic-legitimacy challenge in the Tavares record. It arrives in the same period the City is citing the 2040 "Taking Flight" Plan as the justification for the Palm Gardens rezoning and the Interlake Business Park land use amendment. The plan is doing heavy work as a warrant, and at least one participant disputes what it warrants.

• Cresswind is now the local density benchmark residents cite against new proposals. Diamond, a 14-year planning commission veteran, named it directly as the compromise model. Cresswind also appears in the SR 19 Horizon Team discussion as the driver of future Woodlea Road improvements and, by March 2026, as preparing Phases II and III. When a project becomes the reference standard opponents invoke, it has stopped being a development and started being a policy position.

• The planning department lost its City Planner in October 2025 and did not fill the seat until January 2026. Frias's promotion to Planning Manager left the City Planner position vacant; James Frye, formerly of Lake County, was introduced to the Board on January 15, 2026. A three-month planner vacancy in the county seat overlaps exactly with the Far Reach Ranch review, the December meeting cancellation, and the LDR amendments Council had requested.

• The full seven-member board showed up for the meeting with no decisions on it. Every seat filled, first and only time in the coverage period — for a parks-beautification presentation and a director's report. Two months earlier a six-member board denied a rezoning 4-2. Attendance in Tavares does not track the stakes on the agenda.

• Trail e-bike rules are deferred to the LDRs, and the LDRs do not yet address them. Peterman raised e-bike speeds; Dillon answered that future trail projects such as the Wekiva Trail would follow LDR standards. The July 2025 Board consensus on e-bikes — barred from parks, permitted on designated trails — was folded into Ordinance 2025-02 pending legal drafting. Anyone counting on enforceable e-bike rules on the Tavares trail network should confirm the adopted language rather than the consensus.

Raw Notes

• Source: October 16, 2025 minutes PDF, CivicClerk file ID 1721, published on event 462 (agendaId 379). Agenda is file ID 1671; web agenda packet is file ID 1674.
• The minutes PDF is a scanned document run through OCR; section headers render imperfectly ("lll. APPROVAL OF MINUTES", "Vi. OTHER BUSINESS"). Body text is clean. "James Dillon" appears throughout as "James Dillion" in the staff-present block and most body references; "Dillon" is used here.
• Source discrepancy: the minutes-approval motion is recorded as carrying "unanimously 6-0" although all seven members are listed present and no arrival or departure is noted. The tally appears to be a clerical error.
• September 2025 provenance: the City's public notice (CivicClerk file ID 1651, event 461) states that "the regularly scheduled Planning & Zoning Board meeting originally set for September 18, 2025, has been rescheduled to October 16, 2025." This is a reschedule, not an additional meeting — the October meeting carries the September business.
• Meeting start delayed to 3:13 PM by technical difficulties.
• Far Reach Ranch staff-comment package: compiled and sent to the developer October 9, 2025; public record obtainable from the City Clerk's office. Not published to the portal.
• Minutes attested by Michelle Winegard, Deputy City Clerk. Page count: 7.