Development discussion dominates city meeting

Winter Garden commissioners offered differing views regarding development in the city during their Thursday, June 22, meeting.

The commission first performed a second reading and public hearing of an ordinance to rezone 0.73 acres at 11 W. Smith St. and 186 S. Main St. from City Central Commercial District and Residential District to Planned Commercial Development.

The approval would permit the development of a new two-story, 12,000-square-foot commercial building.

The site also would include the development of a parking area with 38 spaces — with both on-site and street parking — as well as streetscape amenities and a green open area to preserve the existing large live oak tree.

The building would feature a second-floor restaurant patio oriented toward Smith Street. 

Since the first reading of the ordinance, Planning Director Kelly Carson said language was added to address concerns regarding noise in the outdoor dining areas.

The language clarifies no outdoor bars are permitted and sit-down service is the only dining type permitted outdoors; last seating for the outdoor areas shall occur no later than 9 p.m.; the decibel levels at the boundaries of the property adjacent to a property zoned for residential use shall not exceed the maximum permissible sound level limits for residential properties as required by city code; no live amplified entertainment is permitted, and only atmospheric music may be played at levels that meet the noise regulations.

Commissioner Ron Mueller asked why city staff recommended the approval of the plan if the area is all residential surrounding the property.

However, Carson said the property is not completely surrounded by residential.

“There actually is a commercial office to the north of this property… there is multi-family to the east of it… and to the west there is going to be an office building,” she said. “So, there is a lot of residential to the south. … But given this type of use we felt like these additions kind of mitigated the noise concerns and we think that it’s compatible in the downtown district where there’s a lot of mix of uses that are located close to each other.”

Mueller inquired whether the recommendations made are in the best interest of the city.

“It concerns me,” he said. “I’m not in favor of it going forward, but if it was going to go forward, I would remove the restrictions you put in there and let it operate like every other business that runs up and down Plant Street and the other ones that are on Main Street just immediately north of there.”

Carson said the majority of the property already is zoned C-1, so it has commercial zoning and is permitted to be developed with a commercial use.

“That property to the west is zoned R-2 where they’re putting their parking area,” she said. “So, that is currently zoned residential, but the majority— that corner piece — they can currently do commercial there by right. The reason why we requested that they zone it PCD is because of their proximity to the residential (area). We wanted the ability to on a case-by-case basis; and that’s what the PCD process is intended to do is consider special cases and then mitigate for them with additional regulations as needed.”

City Manager Jon C. Williams said there is no other commercially zoned or PCD zoned property this close in proximity to the residential neighborhood, which is why the city staff felt it was important to come back and add the additional restrictions.

“To allow them to operate and have the outdoor dining area, but also to minimize the impact that it would have to those residential homes,” he said. 

Commissioner Mark A. Maciel also provided his input.

“The way it was explained to me was Plant Street was going to be the more intense commercial,” he said. “We talked about Plant Street being the heavy commercial — the restaurants, the intense entertainment… And then Smith Street was kind of that transition, so we were going to do Smith Street with some light commercial, some office, transitioning into the residential neighborhood.”

Mueller asked what happened between the first reading to the current meeting that caused staff to reevaluate how the business should operate when the project already made its way through analysis before the first reading. 

Mayor John Rees said he met with Williams before the last meeting regarding his concerns about the upstairs and outside dining area.

“I brought that up because I said, ‘Something has to be restricted if we’re going to allow them to sit upstairs and drink,’” Rees said. “If you’re going to have a meal, OK, and if you’re going to limit the hours, OK. But not until 11 or 12 o’clock at night. That’s not fair to the people on the south side.”

The ordinance was passed 3-1, with Mueller dissenting.

RESOLUTION REVIEW

The commission also discussed an ordinance establishing PCD zoning on certain real property that sits on 1.25 acres located at 304, 310 and 314 West Bay Street; and 419, 429, 439 and 455 W. Plant Street on the north side of West Plant Street; west of North Central Avenue and south of West Bay Street.

The resolution would approve a minor amendment to extend the PCD for three additional years and clarify the character and setback requirements for Bay Street oriented properties, as well as add a certain hours of operation requirement for Plant Street oriented properties. 

Carson presented the resolution that would affect a total of seven properties. 

Carson said the properties were rezoned from C-1 and R-2 to PCD through Ordinance 17-22 in 2017.

“After approval, a few of the projects started to make their way through the approval channels and then COVID hit and a lot of them were kind of put on hold for a while,” she said. “The PCD required the projects break ground within three years of PCD adoption, and that deadline has since passed. The property owners requested a PCD extension.”

The city has included some additional provisions, which include noise restrictions, as well as clarifications about character and setback requirements, and added certain hours of operation.

Mueller asked what the developer has the intention of building in the area.

Carson said currently there are two proposed projects, although they are not yet ready to be presented to the commission. 

“The first project is proposed to be a live-work, where you would have one residential unit on a top floor of a two-story building and some professional office on the first floor,” she said. “The second proposed project is a commercial mixed-use on the corner there, and then two townhome buildings that wrap around Bay Street and Central.”

Carson said the PCD establishes two different sets of regulations, depending on the properties orientations.

“The intention was to provide a nice, soft transition from the more commercial uses on Plant Street to those more single-family, you know, residential neighborhoods to the north,” she said. 

Commissioner Lisa Bennett, representing the downtown district, said none of the adjacent neighbors did not support the project. She said the concerns voiced were with traffic, but a lot of it was addressed with parking in the rear, although the project has not yet been presented to the commission.

The resolution was approved 3-1.