City of Tavares Planning and Zoning Advisory Board — July 16, 2026 (Agenda)

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Time: Thursday, July 16, 2026, 3:00 PM Location: Tavares City Hall Council Chambers, 201 E Main Street

Agenda-only record. Agenda posted July 6, 2026 at 2:39 PM. Minutes for this meeting had not been published to the Tavares CivicClerk portal as of the harvest date (2026-08-15); the August 20, 2026 meeting at which they would have been approved was canceled by public notice, so approval now falls to September 17, 2026 at the earliest. Actions, votes, attendance, and public testimony are unknown. Item detail below is drawn from the published agenda packet's staff-written agenda summaries.

This was the Board's first meeting in four months. April 16, May 21, and June 18, 2026 were all canceled by public notice. The March 19, 2026 minutes appear here as Tab 1, unapproved since March.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Approval of the March 19, 2026, Planning and Zoning Board Meeting Minutes

• Type: Other (administrative)
• Request: Approve the March 19, 2026 minutes as submitted or with corrections
• Staff Recommendation: For the Board's consideration
• Action: [not available — minutes not posted]
• Notable Discussion: The full March 19, 2026 minutes are attached to the packet (pages 4–9), covering the 1248 Wells Avenue laundromat Special Use Permit and the Community Development Director's report.

Item 2: Ordinance 2026-04 — Interlake Business Park, Annexation and Rezoning of 19.18 Acres

• Type: Annexation + Rezoning (Planned Development)
• Case Number: Ordinance 2026-04
• Location: East of County Road 561, approximately 200 feet north of the Frankies Road intersection. Presently in unincorporated Lake County and non-contiguous to the city boundary.
• Applicant: [not named in the agenda summary]
• Request: Annex approximately 19.18 acres of non-contiguous property into the City of Tavares and rezone from Lake County MP (Planned Industrial) and HM (Heavy Industrial) to City of Tavares PD (Planned Development)
• Current Zoning: Lake County MP (Planned Industrial) and HM (Heavy Industrial)
• Proposed Zoning: City of Tavares PD (Planned Development)
• Acreage: 19.18 +/-
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: [not available — minutes not posted]
• Conditions: The PD ordinance "establishes development standards including setbacks, building height limitations, impervious surface requirements, landscaping, lighting, access management, and utility service requirements" and a framework for compliance with City regulations on traffic, drainage, landscaping, lighting, concurrency, and public facility capacity.
• Notable Discussion:
  • The annexation mechanism is the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement. The staff summary states the property "is located within the Interlocal Service Boundary Area (ISBA) established through the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement between the City of Tavares and Lake County, which allows for the annexation of non-contiguous properties under specified conditions."
  • Present use: light industrial, warehousing, and vacant land.
  • The applicant's development plan is "a mix of light industrial, manufacturing, indoor/outdoor storage, retail commercial, professional service/offices and recreational commercial uses."
  • The City is concurrently processing the Future Land Use Map amendment at Tab 3.
  • Attachments listed as available on request include a Traffic Study and an Environmental Report — neither published to the portal.

Item 3: Ordinance 2026-05 — Interlake Business Park, Comprehensive Plan FLUM Amendment

• Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Future Land Use Map)
• Case Number: Ordinance 2026-05
• Location: Same 19.18 acres — east of CR 561, approximately 200 feet north of the Frankies Road intersection
• Applicant: [not named in the agenda summary]
• Request: Amend the Tavares Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map 2040 to change the designation from Lake County Industrial (I) to City of Tavares Industrial (I)
• Current FLU: Lake County Industrial (I)
• Proposed FLU: City of Tavares Industrial (I)
• Acreage: 19.18 +/-
• Staff Recommendation: Approve — "Staff recommends that the Planning & Zoning Board (acting as the LPA) moves to recommend approval"
• Action: [not available — minutes not posted]
• Notable Discussion:
  • The Board sits as the Local Planning Agency (LPA) for this item — the only place in the coverage period where that role is named explicitly.
  • Staff rationale: the amendment maintains the Industrial designation Lake County already assigned, "will provide continuity between the County and City future land use classifications and support future industrial and commercial economic development opportunities within the City."

Item 4: Ordinance 2026-06 — Fisherman's Cove Planned Development Amendment, 50 Acres

• Type: PUD / Planned Development Amendment
• Case Number: Ordinance 2026-06
• Location: West of North Eichelberger Road, south of Lane Park Road, northwesterly of State Road 19
• Applicant: [not named in the agenda summary]
• Request: Amend the Fisherman's Cove Planned Development, previously governed by Ordinances 2003-25 and 2013-21, replacing both with a newly stated PD ordinance establishing updated development standards and a revised Master Development Plan
• Current Zoning: Planned Development under Ordinances 2003-25 (annexation and rezoning) and 2013-21 (PD zoning)
• Proposed Zoning: Amended and restated Planned Development
• Acreage: 50 +/-
• Staff Recommendation: Approve
• Action: [not available — minutes not posted]
• Conditions: The PD amendment establishes standards for setbacks, building height, landscaping, buffering, architecture, lighting, signage, parking, tree preservation, and environmental protection, and "requires future site plan approval for all development activity" plus compliance with City regulations, environmental permitting, and concurrency standards.
• Notable Discussion:
  • Existing use: an approximately 50-acre recreational vehicle (RV) resort with supporting recreational facilities, marina uses, and dry boat storage.
  • The amendment authorizes expansion of the dry boat storage facility, construction of resort cottages for short-term rental accommodations, expansion of recreational facilities, and additional RV accommodations.
  • "No conventional residential dwelling units are proposed. All cottages are intended as short-term resort accommodations associated with the operation of the recreational vehicle resort."
  • Existing Future Land Use designations of Commercial and Mixed-Use are stated as consistent with the proposed development.
  • Utilities: "Utility service will continue to be provided through existing on-site potable water and wastewater systems, subject to regulatory capacity limitations and permitting requirements. Should the existing systems become inadequate, connection to City utility services will be required."
  • Attachments available on request include a Master Development Plan, Environmental Report, and Traffic Study — none published to the portal.

Item 5: Community Development Director Report

• Type: Other (staff report)
• Applicant: City of Tavares Community Development
• Request: Inform the Board on development-related matters
• Staff Recommendation: N/A
• Action: [not available — minutes not posted]

Public Hearings Summary

Three items are noticed as public hearings — Ordinances 2026-04, 2026-05, and 2026-06 — each with a newspaper advertisement listed among the attachments. Testimony, speaker count, and dispositions are unavailable; minutes for the July 16, 2026 meeting had not been posted as of the harvest date, and the August 20, 2026 meeting that would have approved them was canceled.

Key Signals

• Tavares is annexing land it does not touch, and the ISBA is the instrument. The staff summary says it in the open: the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement with Lake County "allows for the annexation of non-contiguous properties under specified conditions." Interlake Business Park sits east of CR 561, roughly 200 feet north of Frankies Road, unconnected to the city limits. For anyone mapping where the county seat can grow, contiguity is not the constraint — the ISBA boundary is. The same agreement already lets the City write park rules for county-owned Lake Gem and Lake Idamere, and drove the Alfred Street utility extension planned to Bay Road at the ISBA line.

• The July 2026 agenda is the heaviest land-use docket in the coverage period, and it landed after four consecutive cancellations. March to July with no meetings, then three ordinances covering 69 acres — an industrial annexation, its companion FLUM amendment, and a 50-acre resort PD rewrite. Tavares does not spread applications across its calendar; it accumulates them and clears them in a single sitting.

• Fisherman's Cove is being converted from an RV park into a cottage resort, and the record insists it is not housing. The amendment authorizes short-term rental cottages, expanded dry boat storage, more RV accommodations, and expanded recreation on 50 acres between Lane Park Road and SR 19. The staff summary states twice that no conventional residential dwelling units are proposed and that all cottages are short-term resort accommodations. That distinction is what keeps a 50-acre lakefront parcel out of the residential concurrency and school-capacity conversation. It is also the parcel adjacent to Lane Park Road, where a resident testified against Far Reach Ranch density in October 2025.

• Fisherman's Cove runs on its own water and wastewater, and the City wrote the trigger for taking it over. "Should the existing systems become inadequate, connection to City utility services will be required." An expansion approved on private on-site systems, with a conditional obligation to connect later, transfers a capacity liability to the City at an unspecified future date. Utility Director Clark told this Board in April 2025 that SR 19 corridor capacity already involves lift-station relocation and reuse conflicts.

• The Board sits as the Local Planning Agency for the FLUM amendment — the only item in the record where that statutory role is named. For Ordinances 2026-04 and 2026-06 it is an advisory recommending body; for 2026-05 it is the LPA under Chapter 163, F.S. The distinction governs what standard applies and what the record must contain, and it appears in a staff recommendation line rather than in any procedural instruction.

• Two traffic studies and two environmental reports exist for these 69 acres and none of them are public. All four appear in the "Attachments Available to the Public Upon Request" lists. Tavares publishes the agenda summary and withholds the technical file behind a records request — the same posture that left Far Reach Ranch's October 2025 staff comments unpublished, and the same one that will leave anyone assessing the CR 561 corridor's traffic loading dependent on the City Clerk's office.

Raw Notes

• Source: July 16, 2026 agenda PDF, CivicClerk file ID 2895, and web agenda packet file ID 2897 (16 pages), published on event 543 (agendaId 458). Agenda posted July 6, 2026 at 2:39 PM.
• Minutes status: GET /v1/Meetings/458 returns exactly two published files — Agenda (2895) and Agenda Packet (2897). No minutes file existed as of 2026-08-15. The August 20, 2026 meeting was canceled by public notice (file ID 2915, event 544), which named September 17, 2026 as the next scheduled meeting. March 19, 2026 minutes and July 16, 2026 minutes are both awaiting approval.
• Neither Tab 2/3 nor Tab 4 names the applicant in the published summary. The agenda packet contains only the five agenda summaries plus the March 19, 2026 minutes; the ordinances, maps, traffic studies, environmental reports, master development plan, and newspaper advertisements are listed as available on request and are not in the published packet.
• Ordinance 2026-04's attachment list includes an ISBA Boundary Map — the reference document for which non-contiguous parcels Tavares may annex.
• Fisherman's Cove ordinance history: Ordinance 2003-25 (annexation and rezoning) and Ordinance 2013-21 (PD zoning), both listed as attachments and both superseded by the proposed ordinance.
• Contact for the agenda is City Clerk Susie Novack, Susie.Novack@TavaresFL.gov, (352) 742-6209. The agenda's format changed with this meeting — items are numbered as "Tab" entries on the agenda face and a Request to Speak instruction was added.