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Meetings · Winter Garden

Winter Garden Planning and Zoning Board — August 3, 2026 agenda

City of Winter Garden Planning and Zoning Board — August 3, 2026 (Agenda)

Agenda + packet reading. No votes recorded. Minutes for this meeting had not been published as of August 8, 2026. Item detail below is drawn from the agenda face (fileId 1573, "Agenda - UPDATED", posted July 21, 2026) and the 697-page agenda packet (fileId 1580), which carries the full staff reports, ordinance texts and Business Impact Estimates.

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting (agenda — forward signal) Quorum: TBD Posted: July 21, 2026 — the agenda face is marked "UPDATED", with the "- UPDATED" tag attached to Section 4 (City of Winter Garden Code & Comprehensive Plan Updates) and to the posting line. What the revision changed is not stated on the agenda face; a superseded earlier agenda is not published to the portal.

Roster (Agenda Listing)

  • Board Members: Chairman Will Hawthorne, Vice-Chairman Steve Ambielli, Linda Bennett, Myron Brown, Jimmy Dunn, Jeff Ewing, TJ Ryan
  • Other Attendees (staff): City Manager Jon C. Williams; City Attorney Kurt Ardaman; City Attorney Dan Langley; Planning Consultant Ed Williams; Planning Director Kelly Carson; Planning Supervisor Shane Friedman; Senior Planner Yvonne Conatser; Planner II Amber McDonald; Recording Secretary Colene Rivera / Ellen King

Agenda Items

Item 2.A: Approval of Minutes — July 6, 2026

  • Type: Other (procedural)
  • Action: Pending
  • Notable: Draft minutes are included in the packet at pages 2–5. They carry four variance approvals and the 615 S Boyd Street lot split, all 4-0.

Item 3.A: 772 Citrus Cove Drive (Davila Screen Room) — Variance

  • Type: Variance (public hearing)
  • Location: 772 Citrus Cove Drive, Orange Cove subdivision (Parcel ID 25-22-27-6415-00-470)
  • Applicant: Carmen Davila (owner)
  • Request: 10 ft rear-yard setback in lieu of the required 22 ft (Sec. 118-398(1)(c), rear = 20% of lot depth) to build a 16 ft × 16 ft 9 in (268 sq ft) screen room with an aluminum roof on an existing concrete patio
  • Current Zoning: R-2 (Residential District)
  • Current FLU: LR (Low Density Residential)
  • Acreage: 0.19 ± acres
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve subject to conditions (staff report by Planner II Amber McDonald, dated August 3, 2026)
  • Action: Pending
  • Conditions (proposed): (1) the screen room shall at no time be enclosed as air-conditioned space; (2) it shall be built in accordance with the applicant's elevations
  • Notable: Existing 2,361 sq ft home built 1995. The property to the south is a retention pond in the Amberleigh subdivision (R-1B) — staff leaned on that adjacency to find no interference with neighboring enjoyment.

Item 3.B: 1663 Markel Drive (Roberts Residence Accessory Building) — Variance

  • Type: Variance (public hearing)
  • Location: 1663 Markel Drive (Parcel ID 12-22-27-0000-00-019)
  • Applicant: William and JaCee Roberts (owners)
  • Request: 20 ft rear-yard setback in lieu of the required 40 ft (20% of lot depth), and a 16 ft 7 in roof-peak height in lieu of the 12 ft maximum (Sec. 118-1310(b) and (d)(2)(a); Sec. 118-308.c), to construct a 20 ft × 20 ft (400 sq ft) accessory building for shed/storage use
  • Current Zoning: R-1 (Residential District)
  • Current FLU: LR (Low Density Residential)
  • Acreage: 0.58 ± acres (approximately 124 ft × 200 ft)
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve subject to conditions (staff report by Senior Planner Yvonne Conatser, dated August 3, 2026)
  • Action: Pending
  • Conditions (proposed): (1) built consistently with the submitted site plan and elevations; (2) all required zoning reviews and building permits obtained before construction
  • Notable: Existing 2,284 ± sq ft single-family residence. Staff noted the applicant removed several trees in the last year due to condition but that no additional trees will be removed. Letters of No Objection are attached to the staff report.

Item 4.A: Ordinance 26-24 — Winter Garden 2050 Comprehensive Plan

  • Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (public hearing) — EAR-based amendments under Sections 163.3177, 163.3184 and 163.3191, Florida Statutes; the P&Z Board sits as the Local Planning Authority under Section 163.3174
  • Applicant: City of Winter Garden
  • Request: Amend the Comprehensive Plan to address statutory changes, extend the planning horizon to 2050, amend the Future Land Use Map series, and amend various elements to implement the community vision. The City last completed an Evaluation and Appraisal Review in 2009 and adopted EAR-based amendments in 2010, establishing a horizon through 2020.
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve Ordinance 26-24 and authorize transmittal (staff report by Planning Director Kelly Carson, dated July 24, 2026)
  • Action: Pending
  • Next Steps: First reading by City Commission scheduled August 13, 2026; if approved, transmittal to FloridaCommerce and other reviewing agencies under Section 163.3184(3)(b); the adoption hearing date is left blank in the ordinance draft
  • Major changes per the staff report:
    • Future Land Use (Ch. 1): two new land use categories for the Historic East Winter Garden Neighborhood — Neighborhood Residential (greater housing diversity plus civic, nonprofit and institutional uses on the east side) and Neighborhood Mixed-Use (residential plus neighborhood-oriented commercial in traditional neighborhood form on the west side); a Density Bonus Program awarding development bonuses for affordable/workforce housing and high-quality contextual design in East Winter Garden; maximum permitted densities increased in four categories — Medium Density Residential (MR), Multi Use Development (MUD), Commercial (COM) and Medium/High Density Residential (M/H); the Future Land Use designation of 644 parcels amended to Traditional Downtown (TD), Residential Neighborhood Commercial (NC), Neighborhood Mixed-Use (NMU) or Neighborhood Residential (NR); two new Activity Centers — Dillard Street (office/commercial/institutional/mixed-use/residential gateway to downtown) and Historic East Winter Garden Neighborhood; historic-preservation policies including National Register nominations and incentive-based techniques; compatibility and buffering factors covering density/intensity, building height, scale, buffering and urban design
    • Multimodal Transportation (Ch. 2): incorporates the City's Vision Zero Safety Action Plan targeting zero traffic fatalities and a 50% reduction in serious injuries 2025–2050, with Orange County and MetroPlan Orlando support; Safe Routes to School; Complete Streets policies and a Traffic Calming Toolkit; development of a Mobility Plan, an interim Mobility Plan, and a Mobility Fee Schedule in the Land Development Code; traffic impact studies required for development generating 50 or more net new trips; a Trail Level of Service and support for the Healthy West Orange Trails Initiative
    • Housing (Ch. 3): consider additional housing types in appropriate districts; consider expanding districts where Accessory Dwelling Units are allowed (twice — for affordability and for aging-in-place / multi-generational housing); an affordable-housing incentive program; LDC revisions to limit barriers to retirement communities and elderly care facilities; housing-resiliency policies identifying at-risk units and retrofit funding
    • Public Facilities (Ch. 4): incorporates the City's 2024 Wastewater Plan and septic-to-sewer conversions; PFAS and "forever chemicals" monitoring and risk minimization; options for re-establishing a City recycling program
    • Conservation (Ch. 5): incentivize preservation of existing live oaks and planting of new ones; low-impact and water-efficient development; wetland banking priority near or within city limits; updated Lulu Creek provisions
    • Recreation and Open Space (Ch. 6): tree-canopy expansion; waterbody access at Lake Apopka, Johns Lake and Black Lake; ADA compliance and retrofit for all city parks and playgrounds; native/Florida-Friendly planting, Integrated Pest Management, low-impact stormwater methods; community gardens, edible plantings and interpretive signage
    • Public School Facilities (Ch. 7): financial feasibility language removed; OCPS interlocal compliance retained
    • Intergovernmental Coordination (Ch. 8): reiterates elimination of enclaves within the City's JPA and coordination with Orange County, Oakland and Ocoee
    • Capital Improvements (Ch. 9): revised mobility standards; new trail level-of-service standard
    • Property Rights (Ch. 10): a new element required by state statute, re-transmitted to the State via the EAR process
  • Ordinance Section 3 — new Policy 1-1.1.1, "Relief Concerning Declared Emergency": a comprehensive-plan-level policy addressing Section 28 of Chapter 2025-190, Laws of Florida (SB 180). It permits an authorized applicant for a development order who believes any city-initiated amendment to the land development regulations or Comprehensive Plan adopted after August 1, 2024 is "more restrictive or burdensome" than the pre-August-2024 version to apply to have the August 1, 2024 version govern their application. The policy expressly ratifies Ordinance 25-23 (adopted September 8, 2025) as the implementing land development regulation. It sunsets and expires October 1, 2027 unless Section 28 is extended, and expires simultaneously if Section 28 is repealed or expires as to the city. If Section 28 is substantially amended, or if a court enjoins or invalidates it, the Planning & Zoning Director may freeze use of the policy and any implementing regulation until the policy is amended.
  • Statutes Matrix (packet pages 652–672): a chapter-by-chapter reconciliation of Florida Statutes Chapter 163 Part II and related law against the Comprehensive Plan, color-coded for "plan amendment needed" / "address in the LDR" / "no action needed." Notable entries: Section 112.231 Hyperscale Data Centers — "No change to the Comprehensive Plan is necessary however may want to amend LDC to establish site standards"; Section 125.022 Local Land Planning and Development (preapplication consultation programs with automatic approval on missed deadlines, a mandatory registry of qualified contractors, expedited permits allowing up to 50% or more of building permits before final plat, standardized refund schedules, vested rights for approved preliminary plats) — "may need to amend LDC"; Section 163.2525 Infill Redevelopment Act and Section 163.3162 Agricultural Enclaves — LDC amendments flagged; Sections 553.382 / 553.385 manufactured buildings preemption — Housing Element Policy 3-1.3.2 removed from the plan; Section 403.086 PFAS biosolids sampling — no plan change; 9J-5 references removed throughout the goals, objectives and policies
  • Public engagement: three public workshops, stakeholder interviews, community pop-up events, department-director meetings, an interactive project website, online surveys and mapping activities. The survey drew 193 contributions, 91.71% from respondents living within the City. Over 50% of respondents named growth concerns, with infrastructure (roadways, utilities) at 59.38%. Recurring themes: preserving small-town character and the historic downtown; pedestrian, bicycle and golf-cart connectivity; housing options and affordability; stormwater, sidewalks, trails and parking; and revitalizing East Winter Garden and the Dillard Street corridor. Named traffic pain points include the SR-429 / Daniels Road intersection, the Turnpike-to-SR-429 movement, Avalon Road at rush hour and Foundation Academy car line, Tildenville Road's lack of sidewalks, and Plant Street parking. Chairman Will Hawthorne appears on the stakeholder advisory committee attendee list.

Item 4.B: Ordinance 26-25 — Code Amendment, Artificial Turf Requirements

  • Type: Text Amendment (public hearing) — City Code Chapter 114, Article II, Section 114-38 ("Turf areas")
  • Applicant: City of Winter Garden
  • Request: Establish standards for installation, maintenance and regulation of artificial turf. The ordinance states its purpose as clarifying existing regulations and ensuring compliance with Section 125.572, Florida Statutes.
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve Ordinance 26-25
  • Action: Pending
  • Next Steps: First reading by City Commission August 13, 2026; second reading and adoption anticipated August 27, 2026. Effective immediately upon adoption, applying to all permit applications received on or after the effective date.
  • Key provisions: a permit is required to install artificial turf; turf must replicate St. Augustine, Bahia or Bermuda grass in color and appearance; no heavy metals or intentionally added PFAS, with single-family properties of 1 acre or less limited to no more than 50 parts per million of total fluorine or total organic fluorine and the owner required to produce manufacturer PFAS testing; turf must be disposable at a Chapter 62-701 F.A.C. permitted landfill; infill limited to clean silica sand, rock, shell or natural material, with rubber or synthetic infill allowed only within playground-equipment footprints; permeable backing and pervious subgrade required, with soil beneath not compacted to the point of impairing percolation; the first inch of stormwater runoff must be retained on site under Chapter 106-7 unless the property is covered by an SJRWMD permit; in-ground irrigation may not be used on turf areas; no installation under or within the drip line of any tree canopy absent a certified arborist's certification (noxious weeds excepted); prohibited in public and private rights-of-way, in drainage features such as retention ponds and swales, and within 5 ft of side or rear property lines and drainage/utility easements; prohibited in front yards and within 10 ft of a side-street property line; waterbody buffers of 10 ft (single-family ≤1 acre) and 50 ft (all other properties, including commercial); owner responsibility for repair or replacement if utility or drainage work damages turf in an easement; artificial turf counts as an impervious surface for impervious surface ratio (ISR) calculations; maintenance obligations apply retroactively to all turf already installed in the city, whether or not it was permitted at the time; all city-owned properties and public recreational facilities are exempt
  • Business Impact Estimate: no direct negative economic impact, no compliance costs and no new fees estimated; regulatory cost to the city described as minimal additional staff review time

Item 4.C: Ordinance 26-26 — Code Amendment, New Zoning Compliance Review Process

  • Type: Text Amendment (public hearing) — City Code Chapter 118 "Zoning," Article II "Administration," creating Division 6, Sections 118-167 through 118-180
  • Applicant: City of Winter Garden
  • Request: Create a uniform administrative Zoning Compliance Review to verify that identified development activities comply with the Land Development Regulations, Comprehensive Plan and applicable law before permits issue or work begins
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve Ordinance 26-26
  • Action: Pending
  • Next Steps: First reading by City Commission August 13, 2026; second reading and adoption anticipated August 27, 2026
  • Activities requiring review (Sec. 118-169): new residential or commercial buildings including modular and manufactured buildings, and building additions; accessory structures and buildings including those under 160 sq ft; swimming pools and spas; signs under Chapter 102 including temporary banner signs; docks and shoreline or lakefront alterations; temporary tents; fuel systems, generators and ground-mounted solar arrays; communication towers and antennas; demolition, re-roofing and exterior door/window modifications within the Historic Downtown District (in addition to, not in place of, any Certificate of Approval); fences including those 6 ft and under (pool-safety barriers excepted); retaining walls including those under 24 in; driveways, sidewalks, paver patios and concrete patios; sheds under 160 sq ft; gazebos and pergolas; wood or composite decks under 120 sq ft and under 18 in high; removal of trees or other vegetation regulated under Chapter 114; keeping of backyard hens or other animals and related accessory structures; any change of use of a building; and interior buildout or tenant improvement of nonresidential space associated with a change of use
  • Mechanics: review applies whether or not a building permit is also required; for activities that need a building permit, the Zoning Compliance Review approval must be obtained first and the city may not issue the building permit until it does; for activities that do not need a building permit, the Zoning Compliance Review approval is the city's approval; it is in addition to and not in lieu of site plan, plat, special exception, variance, historic-preservation and state or regional approvals, and does not waive concurrency or impact fees; exemptions cover ordinary repair and maintenance and interior residential work that does not change use, footprint, height, location or intensity; advisory land-use determinations are available, nonbinding and may carry a fee; approvals expire 365 days after issuance if the activity does not commence (or the building permit does not issue), with one 365-day extension available on written request 14 days before expiry and a showing of good cause; appeals run to the Planning and Zoning Board under Division 5, with the Director as the administrative official; fees are set by City Commission resolution, must reasonably relate to review and inspection cost, and may not be based on a percentage of construction cost or project valuation; after-the-fact review is required within 15 days of notice where work has commenced without approval, and does not excuse the violation; enforcement runs through Chapter 162 code enforcement, citations, Section 1-15 penalties, injunctive relief, stop-work orders and withholding of permits and certificates of occupancy, with each day a separate violation
  • Two hooks worth noting: Section 118-173(e) provides that an applicant may satisfy submittal and completeness requirements through "any development preapplication consultation, qualified contractor review, precertification, or similar program the City establishes or recognizes under applicable law," and requires the city to accept a precertification where state law compels it — the acceptance channel for the Section 125.022 / HB 927 registry pathway, built before the registry itself. Section 118-180 is a blanket state-law-supremacy clause stating the Division may not be applied to require any approval, impose any standard or condition, charge any fee or cause any delay prohibited by or inconsistent with state law, and that controlling state law governs any conflict.
  • Business Impact Estimate: regulatory costs will be assessed and used to establish the Zoning Compliance Review fee schedule

Public Hearings Summary

  • Number of speakers: [pending — agenda only]
  • General sentiment: [pending]
  • Key concerns: All five substantive items are noticed public hearings. The Comprehensive Plan item carries the city's own survey record of resident concern: infrastructure at 59.38%, over half of respondents naming growth concerns generally.

Key Signals

  • Winter Garden is rewriting its comprehensive plan for the first time since 2010 — extending the horizon from 2020 to 2050 and re-designating 644 parcels in one ordinance. Ordinance 26-24 raises maximum density in four future-land-use categories (Medium Density Residential, Multi Use Development, Commercial, and Medium/High Density Residential), creates two new land use categories and two new Activity Centers (Dillard Street and the Historic East Winter Garden Neighborhood), and adds a Property Rights element newly required by state statute. The plan the city has been administering had a planning horizon that expired six years ago. Anyone holding property in East Winter Garden or along Dillard Street should read the 644-parcel amendment list — this is a map change made wholesale rather than parcel-by-parcel through the rezoning docket.
  • The corpus's SB 180 defensive architecture just moved from the land development code into the comprehensive plan — and it carries an October 1, 2027 self-sunset that confirms the corrected statutory timeline. New Policy 1-1.1.1 lets a development-order applicant demand that the pre-August-1-2024 version of the LDRs and Comprehensive Plan govern their application if a city-initiated amendment is "more restrictive or burdensome," expressly ratifying Ordinance 25-23 as the implementing regulation. It expires October 1, 2027 unless Section 28 of Chapter 2025-190 is extended, and it grants the Planning & Zoning Director authority to freeze the policy if the statute is substantially amended or a court enjoins it. Winter Garden was already the corpus's first city to build a city-side SB 180 reversion process; it is now the first to embed one at the plan level, with a sunset clause that independently corroborates the corrected reading — the moratorium runs to October 1, 2027, not June 2026.
  • The comprehensive plan is being adopted into the very freeze it is written to survive. Every tightening in Ordinance 26-24 — the compatibility and buffering factors, the trail level-of-service standard, the 50-net-new-trip traffic study threshold, the mobility fee schedule, the housing-resiliency LDC requirements — is a post-August-2024 city-initiated amendment and therefore exposed to a "more restrictive or burdensome" challenge through mid-2028. Ordinance 26-26's Section 118-180 state-law-supremacy clause and Ordinance 26-25's compliance framing against Section 125.572 read as the same defensive drafting posture applied item by item. This is a city adopting an entire generation of code into an active preemption window and pre-building the escape hatch for each piece.
  • Ordinance 26-26 puts a mandatory city review in front of sheds, fences, driveways, patios, decks, backyard hens and tree removal — nineteen activity classes, many of which need no building permit at all. The new Zoning Compliance Review must be obtained before any building permit issues, carries its own fee set by resolution, expires in 365 days, appeals to this board, and imposes after-the-fact review within 15 days plus daily-accruing fines for work started without it. For homeowners this is the single largest expansion of the permitting surface in the Winter Garden record; for the city it closes the gap the board named repeatedly through 2025 and 2026 — that dimensional, impervious and drainage compliance was being deferred to the city engineer with no gate in front of construction. Note the sequencing: the city legalized ADUs city-wide in June, then built the administrative review that will process them in August.
  • The HB 927 acceptance channel is built before the registry, and the data-center question is logged but unanswered. Section 118-173(e) of the new review division already accepts "qualified contractor review, precertification, or similar program" submittals and commits the city to honoring a precertification where state law requires it — while the Winter Garden 2050 statutes matrix separately flags Section 125.022's mandatory qualified-contractor registry as an LDC amendment still to be made. On the other side, the same matrix logs Section 112.231 Hyperscale Data Centers with the note that no plan change is needed but the city "may want to amend LDC to establish site standards." Winter Garden has therefore acknowledged the data-center siting question in a formal planning document within the cross-corpus propagation window, without filing an ordinance — the neighboring signal to Minneola's Ordinance 2026-05 and to Winter Garden's own May 2026 Ordinance 26-16, which already gates high-ERU industrial water users behind a Special Exception.
  • Artificial turf becomes impervious, and that reprices infill lots across the city. Ordinance 26-25 counts artificial turf as impervious surface for ISR calculations, requires on-site retention of the first inch of runoff, bans it from front yards, rights-of-way, drainage features and tree drip lines, and caps PFAS at 50 ppm total fluorine for single-family properties of an acre or less — with maintenance obligations reaching retroactively to turf already installed without a permit. Winter Garden's variance docket already turns on impervious ratios at the margin (99 N Boyd Street stalled at 49.1%, the February 2026 Resurrection Catholic grass-parking approval was explicitly stormwater-rule-driven). Reclassifying turf removes what had been a common way to add usable yard without adding impervious area.

Raw Notes

Schedule change worth recording: the agenda's closing line sets the next regular meeting for Monday, September 14, 2026 — the second Monday, not the first. Winter Garden's documented cadence is the first Monday of each month. September 7, 2026 is Labor Day, which accounts for the shift; the September meeting also carries agendaId 0 on the portal, meaning no agenda has been generated yet.

The "UPDATED" agenda. The agenda face carries "- UPDATED" in two places: appended to the Section 4 heading ("City of Winter Garden Code & Comprehensive Plan Updates (Public Hearing) - UPDATED") and to the posting line ("Posted: July 21, 2026 - UPDATED"). The superseded version is not retained on the portal, so what changed cannot be determined from the published record. The placement suggests Section 4's ordinance list was the revised element.

Packet structure (fileId 1580, 697 pages): pages 1 agenda; 2–5 draft July 6 minutes; 6–15 Davila variance staff report; 16–26 Roberts variance staff report; 27–31 Ordinance 26-24 cover and ordinance text; 32–560 Attachment A (Goals, Objectives and Policies, all ten elements, in strike-through/underline form) and Attachment B (Data & Analysis); 561–641 Attachment C (Public Engagement Summary, including stakeholder attendees, presentations, survey responses and mobility-issue mapping); 642–651 Attachment D (Comprehensive Plan staff report); 652–672 Statutes Matrix; 673–675 Business Impact Estimate; 676–683 Ordinance 26-25 and its Business Impact Estimate; 684–697 Ordinance 26-26 and its Business Impact Estimate.

Attachment A is a redline. The Goals, Objectives and Policies document is presented with additions underlined and deletions struck through, and the extracted text shows old and new policy numbers side by side (for example "Policy 1-1.3.2: Policy 1-1.2.2: Suburban Residential"). Policy renumbering is extensive across every element; the pairs in the extracted text are the old/new numbering, not duplicate policies.

City Commission calendar named in the packet: first reading of all three ordinances August 13, 2026; second reading and adoption of Ordinances 26-25 and 26-26 anticipated August 27, 2026. The Ordinance 26-24 adoption hearing date is left as "[ENTER DATE]" pending the state review round; Mayor John Rees and City Clerk Ronisha Martin appear on the execution blocks.

Staff bench: City Attorney Dan Langley and Planning Consultant Ed Williams remain on the agenda's "Other Attendees" roster, as they have since the June 1, 2026 agenda, though neither appeared in the June or July minutes' Staff Present lines. Colene Rivera, CSR, is now the contact of record and appears alongside Ellen King as Recording Secretary.

Sources: Agenda PDF (fileId 1573, "2026-08-03 Planning and Zoning Board Meeting Agenda - UPDATED") and Agenda Packet PDF (fileId 1580), CivicClerk tenant wintergardenfl, agendaId 1215 / event 463. Packet pages 1–31 and 642–697 extracted in full; pages 32–641 indexed by page heading and read selectively. Text extracted cleanly; no OCR required.

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