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Tavares Planning and Zoning Advisory Board — November 20, 2025 minutes

City of Tavares Planning and Zoning Advisory Board — November 20, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 of 7 members present) Duration: 3:00 PM – 3:34 PM (34 minutes) Location: Tavares City Hall Council Chambers, 201 E. Main Street

Attendance

  • Present: Gary Santoro (Chairman), Deborah Murphy (Vice-Chairperson), Bruce Peterman, Jay Cunningham, James Sweezea
  • Absent: Brooke Matthews, Dara Treadwell
  • Staff Present: Antonio Fabre (Community Development Director), Amanda Boggus (City Attorney), Michelle Winegard (Deputy City Clerk), Chris McCormick (Code Enforcement Officer)

Prior minutes: October 16, 2025 minutes approved without correction (moved Murphy, seconded Peterman), 5-0.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Approval of the October 16, 2025, Planning and Zoning Board Meeting Minutes

  • Type: Other (administrative)
  • Request: Approve the October 16, 2025 minutes
  • Action: Approved
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Murphy, seconded Peterman)
  • Notable Discussion: No corrections offered.

Item 2: Ordinance 2025-10 — Garage Sale Permit Requirement and Penalties

  • Type: Text Amendment (Code of Ordinances)
  • Case Number: Ordinance 2025-10
  • Location: Citywide — every residence and household
  • Applicant: City of Tavares Police Department (request originated July 2, 2025); presented by Community Development Director Antonio Fabre with Code Enforcement Officer Chris McCormick
  • Request: Amend Chapter 10.5, Article IV, §§ 10.5-152 and 10.5-156 to require a no-cost permit before holding a garage sale, retain the existing limit of four sales per residence per calendar year, retain the three-consecutive-day, daylight-hours (not past 7:00 PM) duration limit, and add penalties
  • Current Zoning: N/A (citywide code)
  • Proposed Zoning: N/A
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve
  • Action: Recommended for approval
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Sweezea, seconded Cunningham)
  • Conditions: None added
  • Notable Discussion:
    • Penalty schedule as drafted: warning for a first violation, $150 for a second offense, $250 for any subsequent offense. The stated objective is to make the existing four-per-year cap enforceable.
    • McCormick said approximately two to three properties routinely violate the current ordinance — the whole enforcement problem, quantified.
    • Permits may be obtained online or in person, at no fee. Online applicants can print a confirmation to post, allowing McCormick to verify the permit from the street without contacting the resident; he also receives automatic email notification when permits issue. Displaying the permit is not a requirement.
    • Sweezea said he preferred that display be required and raised garage-sale parking blocking garbage collection. McCormick explained the parking rules and said obstruction of City work vehicles or emergency access becomes a police matter requiring an officer to respond and cite.
    • Santoro asked about HOA-organized sales. McCormick: a sale held solely at a community clubhouse needs one permit for that parcel; if individual parcels participate, each homeowner must obtain their own permit.
    • Santoro asked how the change would be communicated to residents. Fabre offered newsletter, utility bill mailing, or HOA distribution. Santoro emphasized the importance of clearly informing residents that a permit is now required.
    • Peterman asked whether estate sales are covered. McCormick: no. Boggus clarified the ordinance applies to sales occurring outside the home, so estate sales are not included.

Item 3: Ordinance 2025-11 — LDR Chapter 21 § 21-17, Flagpoles on HOA-Owned Parcels

  • Type: Text Amendment (Land Development Regulations — Sign Regulations)
  • Case Number: Ordinance 2025-11
  • Location: Citywide; applies to parcels designated, owned, and maintained by a homeowners' association
  • Applicant: City of Tavares Community Development, at City Council direction following a resident request
  • Request: Amend Chapter 21 § 21-17 "Miscellaneous Signs" to allow additional flagpoles on HOA-owned and maintained parcels, above the base standard of three flags per parcel, 50 square feet maximum size, 35-foot maximum flagpole height
  • Current Zoning: N/A (citywide code)
  • Proposed Zoning: N/A
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve
  • Action: Recommended for approval
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Sweezea, seconded Murphy)
  • Conditions: None added
  • Notable Discussion:
    • Origin on the record: "On September 17, 2025, during the Audience to be Heard portion of the City Council meeting, a resident from Lake Francis Estates submitted a request to allow six (6) flagpoles for a proposed Veterans Memorial. Following discussion, City Council directed staff to prepare a text amendment ... to allow up to seven (7) flagpoles on parcels of land that are designated, owned, and maintained by a HOA."
    • Fabre noted the City regulates the number and size of flags but not their content.
    • Boggus requested clarification on the number of poles permitted, applicable flag sizes, and the permit requirement. McCormick confirmed a permit is required to install a flagpole.
    • Santoro asked whether banner-type flags are included. Fabre: no. McCormick: such flags are defined as wind flags and regulated separately.
    • Cunningham asked whether the ordinance should specify the number of permitted flagpoles rather than the number of flags. Fabre recommended leaving the amendment as drafted. Boggus noted the provision applies only to HOA-owned and managed parcels, not residential lots; Fabre confirmed individual residential properties are limited to a single flagpole.
    • Before the vote, Boggus sought clarification that the amendment would allow seven flagpoles rather than seven flags. Fabre corrected his earlier statement: the amendment would allow an HOA to install up to four flagpoles, with each pole permitted to display up to three flags, subject to building code and setback requirements. Santoro confirmed with Sweezea and Murphy that they wished to proceed with the original motion and second; both affirmed.

Item 4: Community Development Director Report

  • Type: Other (staff report)
  • Applicant: City of Tavares Community Development
  • Action: No action; Board agreed by consensus not to meet in December 2025
  • Notable Discussion:
    • The January meeting would include election of Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson and a Sunshine Law review presentation by Attorney Lindsay Holt.
    • Construction updates: AdventHealth Trail — located behind Waterman Hospital, proposed to extend around Lake Etowah. Gray Whale Office Warehouse — approximately 6,000 square feet of office and warehouse space at the corner of West Alfred Street and North Ingraham Avenue.
    • Santoro asked whether the Board would meet in December. Fabre said the decision was at the Board's discretion. Following brief discussion, the Board agreed not to meet in December and to reconvene in January 2026.

Public Hearings Summary

  • Number of speakers: 0. Both items were noticed public hearings; no member of the public spoke on either, and no one spoke under Audience to be Heard.
  • General sentiment: No public participation recorded. Attorney Boggus stated there were no quasi-judicial matters on the agenda.
  • Key concerns: None from the public. All discussion originated from the dais and staff.

Key Signals

  • Holding a garage sale in Tavares now requires a permit, and the enforcement problem it solves is two or three houses. McCormick quantified it on the record. The Police Department requested the change, Council directed the drafting, and the Board recommended it 5-0 with no public present. The permit is free and obtainable online, display is not required, and the penalty ladder is warning / $150 / $250. Every household in the city acquired a new filing obligation; the ordinance's own stated cause is a handful of repeat violators.

  • Estate sales are outside the ordinance. Boggus drew the line where it matters for anyone liquidating a property: the ordinance reaches sales conducted outside the home, so estate sales are not covered. That exemption is the practical boundary between a regulated garage sale and an unregulated estate sale in Tavares.

  • The flagpole ordinance passed 5-0 while the dais was still correcting what it actually permits. Council directed staff to allow "up to seven (7) flagpoles"; Fabre first described it as seven flags; the City Attorney intervened before the vote; Fabre then corrected the answer to four flagpoles at three flags each. The motion proceeded unamended. Anyone reading the adopted text should confirm whether the operative number is seven poles, four poles, or three flags — the record contains all three, and the Board voted without resolving it.

  • One Lake Francis Estates resident at a Council podium produced a citywide code amendment in nine weeks. September 17, 2025 public comment for a Veterans Memorial → Council direction → drafted ordinance → P&Z recommendation November 20. That is the fastest cause-to-code path in the Tavares record, faster than the downtown setback amendment. The mechanism is Council direction at Audience to be Heard, and it works.

  • The Board voted itself out of December, and the City later canceled four more meetings. Fabre said the December decision was at the Board's discretion and the Board took it. December 2025 was the first of a run: December 2025, April 2026, May 2026, June 2026, and August 2026 all canceled by public notice. The November decision is the only one the record attributes to the Board rather than to staff.

  • Two construction items name specific addresses worth tracking. The AdventHealth Trail behind Waterman Hospital, proposed to extend around Lake Etowah, and the Gray Whale Office Warehouse, roughly 6,000 square feet at West Alfred Street and North Ingraham Avenue — on the Alfred Street / Old 441 corridor the City is master-planning for Complete Street treatment and a utility extension to the ISBA boundary.

Raw Notes

  • Source: November 20, 2025 minutes PDF, CivicClerk file ID 1753, published on event 472 (agendaId 389). Agenda is file ID 1698; web agenda packet is file ID 1699.
  • The minutes PDF is a scanned document run through OCR. The struck-through code text in the § 10.5-152 and § 10.5-156 excerpts renders as garbled characters ("shall be pumena' aerorganee with secon Fie this seetion of"); the readable portions are reproduced above. The section heading "Section 10.5-152 Ne Permit Required" preserves a strikethrough of "No."
  • The agenda cites the garage-sale sections as "Section 10-15-152 and Section 10.5-156"; the staff report text uses 10.5-152 and 10.5-156. The latter is correct.
  • Downstream discrepancy: the January 15, 2026 minutes refer to this meeting throughout as "November 19, 2025." The meeting was held Thursday, November 20, 2025 per the agenda, the notice, the minutes header, and the CivicClerk event record.
  • The December 2025 cancellation notice (CivicClerk file ID 1724, event 490) states the next meeting would be January 15, 2026 and "will include the election of Officers."
  • Minutes attested by Michelle Winegard, Deputy City Clerk. Page count: 7.

Connected records

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