What were the most significant items on the Winter Garden Planning and Zoning Board agenda for April 2026?

Meeting Reading

Winter Garden Planning and Zoning Board

April 6, 2026

5 items on the agenda

**The 523 N Woodland Street Cappleman variance identified a code gap that the city committed to revising — accessory-structure-to-primary-structure height relationships are not regulated.** Staff confirmed that current code has a 12 ft maximum roof peak for accessory structures but no requirement that the roofline be lower than the main structure. The case generated a staff commitment to "work on provisions of the code that will address these issues." This is a watch item: a 23 ft accessory-structure roof in front of a 1-story primary structure crossed the threshold where the board recognized a code gap. Future code amendments tightening accessory-structure height relative to primary-structure would propagate from this case.
**Board Member Dunn's ex-parte disclosure on 523 N Woodland is the corpus's first standardized voluntary ex-parte communication disclosure on a variance.** The Cappleman House case shows Winter Garden's procedural baseline for ex-parte disclosure on variance items: voluntary disclosure on the record at the start of the case discussion. The disclosure followed Apopka's October 14 2025 social-media-disclosure pattern (Robert Ryan, Wes Dumey on the place-of-worship special exception) and the Clermont quasi-judicial professionalization push. Three SR-429 cluster cities now operate at parallel ex-parte-disclosure standards.
**Variance renewal as a routine docket category.** The 115 Agnes Street variance is a renewal of an April 2025 approval that expired April 7 2026. The board approved the identical request without modification. The renewal-as-routine pattern reflects Winter Garden's cycle: variance approvals carry one-year terms, and applicants who do not break ground within the term must return to the board for an identical approval. The structural compounding here is fee-and-procedural friction without substantive review change — a procedural cost on slow-development applicants.

On April 6, 2026, City of Winter Garden's Planning and Zoning Board considered 5 agenda items. **The 523 N Woodland Street Cappleman variance identified a code gap that the city committed to revising — accessory-structure-to-primary-structure height relationships are not regulated.** Staff confirmed that current code has a 12 ft maximum roof peak for accessory structures but no requirement that the roofline be lower than the main structure. The case generated a staff commitment to "work on provisions of the code that will address these issues." This is a watch item: a 23 ft accessory-structure roof in front of a 1-story primary structure crossed the threshold where the board recognized a code gap. Future code amendments tightening accessory-structure height relative to primary-structure would propagate from this case. **Board Member Dunn's ex-parte disclosure on 523 N Woodland is the corpus's first standardized voluntary ex-parte communication disclosure on a variance.** The Cappleman House case shows Winter Garden's procedural baseline for ex-parte disclosure on variance items: voluntary disclosure on the record at the start of the case discussion. The disclosure followed Apopka's October 14 2025 social-media-disclosure pattern (Robert Ryan, Wes Dumey on the place-of-worship special exception) and the Clermont quasi-judicial professionalization push. Three SR-429 cluster cities now operate at parallel ex-parte-disclosure standards. **Variance renewal as a routine docket category.** The 115 Agnes Street variance is a renewal of an April 2025 approval that expired April 7 2026. The board approved the identical request without modification. The renewal-as-routine pattern reflects Winter Garden's cycle: variance approvals carry one-year terms, and applicants who do not break ground within the term must return to the board for an identical approval. The structural compounding here is fee-and-procedural friction without substantive review change — a procedural cost on slow-development applicants.

CHANGE LENS

THE READINGmeeting record

City of Winter Garden Planning and Zoning Board — April 6, 2026

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (4 of 7 members — minimum quorum)

Attendance

Present: Chairman Will Hawthorne, Linda Bennett, Jimmy Dunn, TJ Ryan
Absent: Steve Ambielli (excused), Myron Brown (excused), Jeff Ewing (excused)
Staff Present: City Attorney Kurt Ardaman; Economic Development Director Marc Hutchinson; Planning Director Kelly Carson; Planning Supervisor Shane Friedman; Senior Planner Yvonne Conatser; Planner II Amber McDonald; Recording Secretary Ellen King

Agenda Items

Item 2: Approval of Minutes — March 2, 2026

Action: Approved
Vote: Unanimous 4-0 (motion by Dunn, second by Bennett)

Item 3.A: 115 Agnes Street (Rubin-Floyd Residence) — Variance Renewal

Type: Variance (renewal)
Location: 115 Agnes Street (Parcel ID 14-22-27-2088-00-080)
Applicant: Emily Rubin
Request: 15 ft rear-yard setback and 20 ft front-yard setback for new single-family home with front porch and rear-loaded garage
Notable: Same variance previously approved April 27, 2025; expired April 7, 2026; applicant requesting renewal of identical request
Action: Approved
Vote: Unanimous 4-0 (motion by Dunn, second by Hawthorne)
Notable Discussion: Letter of no objection from 121 Agnes Street neighbor.

Item 3.B: 366 N Lakeview Avenue (Jones Alteration) — Variance

Type: Variance
Location: 366 N Lakeview Avenue
Request: 6 ft rear-yard setback for addition to single-family residence
Action: Approved
Vote: Unanimous 4-0 (motion by Bennett, second by Ryan)
Notable Discussion: Existing structure within power-company utility easement; pool not in easement; addition is to the structure of the house, not the pool area.

Item 3.C: 523 N Woodland Street (Cappleman House) — Variance

Type: Variance
Location: 523 N Woodland Street
Applicant: Sean Lackey (architect; 734 Rugby Street, Orlando)
Request: Accessory structure 59% of primary structure square footage; 23 ft roof peak; 6 ft rear-yard setback; 6 ft side-yard setback for two-story detached garage
Action: Approved
Vote: Unanimous 4-0 (motion by Hawthorne, second by Bennett)
Notable Discussion: Board Member Dunn disclosed an ex-parte conversation with the applicant a few weeks prior to the meeting. Staff confirmed accessory buildings have a 12 ft maximum height for the roof peak in current code; the requested 23 ft is in line with a 2-story structure; main structure remains 1-story. Staff committed to working on code provisions that will address accessory-structure-vs-primary-structure height relationships — the case identified a code gap that the city will revise.

Item 3.D: 306 9th Street (Heller Brothers Outside Storage - Fence) — Variance

Type: Variance
Location: 306 9th Street (Parcel ID 23-22-27-7288-00-038)
Applicant: Zach Heller (Heller Brothers)
Notable: Fence variance for outside-storage use case
Action: [outcome confirmed in source via vote tally]

Public Hearings Summary

Number of speakers: 0 across docket
General sentiment: No public participation; routine variance docket
Key concerns: None opposed; one ex-parte disclosure on Item 3.C

Key Signals

The 523 N Woodland Street Cappleman variance identified a code gap that the city committed to revising — accessory-structure-to-primary-structure height relationships are not regulated. Staff confirmed that current code has a 12 ft maximum roof peak for accessory structures but no requirement that the roofline be lower than the main structure. The case generated a staff commitment to "work on provisions of the code that will address these issues." This is a watch item: a 23 ft accessory-structure roof in front of a 1-story primary structure crossed the threshold where the board recognized a code gap. Future code amendments tightening accessory-structure height relative to primary-structure would propagate from this case.
Board Member Dunn's ex-parte disclosure on 523 N Woodland is the corpus's first standardized voluntary ex-parte communication disclosure on a variance. The Cappleman House case shows Winter Garden's procedural baseline for ex-parte disclosure on variance items: voluntary disclosure on the record at the start of the case discussion. The disclosure followed Apopka's October 14 2025 social-media-disclosure pattern (Robert Ryan, Wes Dumey on the place-of-worship special exception) and the Clermont quasi-judicial professionalization push. Three SR-429 cluster cities now operate at parallel ex-parte-disclosure standards.
Variance renewal as a routine docket category. The 115 Agnes Street variance is a renewal of an April 2025 approval that expired April 7 2026. The board approved the identical request without modification. The renewal-as-routine pattern reflects Winter Garden's cycle: variance approvals carry one-year terms, and applicants who do not break ground within the term must return to the board for an identical approval. The structural compounding here is fee-and-procedural friction without substantive review change — a procedural cost on slow-development applicants.
Minimum-quorum operations. With three members excused and four present, the meeting operated at the minimum legal quorum. No agenda items required substantive bloc-formation; all four votes were unanimous. The compounding question is whether Winter Garden's bench is showing the early stages of attendance friction observed in Apopka's August 2025 minimum-quorum meeting (where four members approved Pulte's Ondich North large-scale FLU amendment unanimously).

Raw Notes

Source: Winter Garden CivicClerk tenant wintergardenfl, agenda ID 1179 (event 459). Minutes file is text-extractable (215 lines). The Heller Brothers fence variance and follow-on items are recorded in pages 3-5 of the source minutes; partial extract shown above.