Windermere Town Council approves Town Hall renovations, Chaine du Lac annexation referendum

Although all Windermere Town Council members agree renovations need to be done on Town Hall, there remained a point of contention for one member.

Council Member Brandi Haines was the sole vote against approving the Town Hall restroom and renovation project at council’s Dec. 10 meeting. 

Her reservation for approving the project was the location of the restrooms. 

Haines said council should have moved forward with the renovations to Town Hall but wait on approving the restrooms until council received more community feedback. 

“One consensus I’ve heard from the majority of residents, take maybe three or four, is they all agree Town Hall needs to be fixed, so I think we should work on fixing up Town Hall,” Haines said. “This is our star. This should be a shining star throughout the centennial. Bathrooms are an afterthought.”

Haines said people have not had problems with the temporary bathrooms put in place during events and not having permanent public bathrooms near Town Hall. She wanted to wait to approve funding for the restrooms until the council received community survey results on the restrooms from Town Planner Brad Cornelius in January. 

She said after attending a community input meeting, which had approximately 50 people in attendance, she saw designs residents created of where the bathrooms should be located either closer to Windermere Branch Library or Windermere Brewing Company. 

The restrooms are planned to be constructed close to Town Hall adjacent to the town’s ADA parking spots near Town Hall. Constructing the restrooms in this location will minimize the impact on usable green space and maintain unobstructed views for Forest Street residents while reducing activity and noise near Forest Street. It also takes advantage of existing septic system infrastructure.

“We’re not listening to the residents,” Haines said. “Even on the last charette we had that was on Zoom, 95% of the people (who) spoke said don’t put it next to Town Hall. Everyone likes to say we’re listening to the residents, but that doesn’t feel that way right now.”

Council Member Andy Williams said work needs to begin somewhere, and the restrooms are the first phase of the project, which will likely occur at the same time as phase two because of the project’s timeline and the town’s centennial celebrations in 2025. 

“I’m not saying don’t do the bathrooms. They need to happen, but I see this project moving forward,” Williams said. “It’s not, ‘Oh, OK, let’s start on Town Hall and not do anything and waste, what, two years to get started now when we need to get started on something.”

The new restroom building, which will include a family restroom, is phase one; exterior renovations of Town Hall is phase two; and the north porch addition, existing restroom renovations, stage access and interior renovations are phase three. 

Council member Tony Davit said during a meeting on the project, residents were asked to share what their favorite and least favorite pieces of Windermere were, and on the favorite list was green space and the historic trees, while on the least favorites list was the lack of real restrooms. 

“To solve both of those problems, we need to move forward and do something,” Davit said. “We have been talking to ourselves for two years on this. How much discussion do we have to have before we move and give the residents what they want?”

Photo by Annabelle Sikes

Chaine du Lac annexation

Chaine du Lac registered voters will have the chance to say whether they want to be a part of Windermere. 

Windermere Town Council approved 4-1 an ordinance regarding the annexation of Chaine du Lac into the town’s corporate limits. Haines dissented.

The ordinance calls for a special election to hold a referendum, by mail-in ballot, of registered voters in Chaine du Lac on whether the area should be annexed. The referendum for the annexation will be held Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. To pass, the referendum will require a 50% plus one vote. 

Chaine du Lac is located on about 102 acres south of Lake Butler Boulevard and abuts the town limits to the west. The annexation would include the community’s entire area, including the community’s homeowners association. 

Chaine du Lac would add about one-third of a square mile to the Windermere proper town limit of 2.2 square miles. 

Windermere currently has about 3,038 residents, with a total of about 3,250 residents estimated after build-out. If annexed, Chaine du Lac would add about 212 residents. 

Although Town Council Member Tom Stroup said he’s not opposed to the annexation of Chaine du Lac, he said all residents should have a say regarding annexations, regardless of cost. 

According to cost estimates from Town Clerk Dorothy Burkhalter, advertising the referendum to only Chaine du Lac residents would cost about $1,500 to $2,000, compared to the $4,000 to $5,000 cost to advertising the referendum to all town residents. 

Having only the Chaine du Lac community voting on the referendum could set a precedent for future annexations, Stroup cautioned. 

Stroup said Chaine du Lac is “probably an asset to the community,” but what happens when the next area to be annexed is not something people in the community want?

Mayor Jim O’Brien said an annexation only would be considered if it was mutually beneficial to the community and the town. Regarding Chaine du Lac, he said there are plenty of benefits.

“It’s in the targeted area council identified several years back in terms of types of locations and developments we would be interested in annexing into our community,” he said. “It’s a well-maintained community. It’s on the lake. It brings in a significant amount of revenue that can help us to do some of the work we would like to do in town, keep our taxes low for our taxpayers. You have to look at the big picture, and you have to make each of these decisions based upon the information that pertains to what we’re trying to accomplish here. We’re not in this just to get bigger.”

Stroup said referendums always should be put in place regarding annexation, and the council should look into having referendums that don’t require majority turnout. 

“We take input from citizens of Windermere on bathrooms, Town Hall renovations, on everything,” he said. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t take input from citizens on things like that too. Maybe it’s not a referendum? Maybe we should have something in place to get even more opinion of the residents before we annex.”

Davit questioned at what point does Town Council legislate referendums then? Stroup said annexation is where council draws the line for holding referendums. 

Haines advocated for having all town residents vote in the referendum, especially after Windermere only hosted one public workshop for all residents. She said the other meetings hosted were for Chaine du Lac residents.