Remarks by John Tidona
46 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 8:20
“Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have no report this month. Thank you.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:07:14
“There's a lot to go through. But some stuff that just I got to bring it up just to bring it up. Okay. We don't know how much longer it's going to take for this to be approved. It could take what six months a year.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:07:41
“When does it fully take effect? Just because everything goes through and it's all signed...”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:08:19
“Three to six months. Okay. With the potential of going to a year once it goes to the state and back.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:08:28
“Okay. Does this comp plan and any associated zonings that will come out of it, will it hold up against HB 180 and 399? Do we win that lawsuit every time?”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:09:18
“Okay, well, 399 was passed in order to circumvent what we already were trying to win against 180. So just being okay with 180, for me, is not enough. It's got to go to 399, because once we get down to 399, it becomes... We can't deny something based on a family feel, a community feel, and all that stuff. So this has got to get into that minutia because that's the war that we're at with the state legislature and developers. So if we can win a lawsuit, I'm all for it. I think that's great.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:10:04
“That brings me to something else. Again, just things that fly through my brain. You talked about having roads redesigned by FDOT. So when we do something and put one of these town centers, we should depend on FDOT to redesign the roads, okay? So I've been a proponent for the last year and a half of mobility fees and sureties. Why can't the developer redesign the road. Why can't they put the money up based on an FDOT survey that says, I need a roundabout, I need a left turn lane, or so on and so forth, and then put what we decide, which could be anywhere from five to 15% of the costs incurred…”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:11:11
“Okay. Mr. Chair, may I just hand out something? Go right ahead. So no disrespect to anything anybody has done. I've sat in on a bunch of your meetings. You folks are absolutely incredible, okay?”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:11:29
“Oh, I had a conversation with Google AI. Okay. It wasn't an attorney. It wasn't an engineer. It wasn't anybody, okay? And if you want a copy, I'd be more than happy to give you a copy. I even made extra copies if somebody wants it, okay? So I'm going to read just some highlights. I'm not going to go through three pages of stuff. I asked Google AI, how can you tell if a city has too many homes? You could tell if a city has too many homes when the housing supply greatly outpaces demand and so on and so forth. And it asked me a question, what specific city are you asking for? And I said,…”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:17:59
“So then what actually separates the homes, the setbacks on each side so that I'm not doing a knock on my neighbor's, you know.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:18:09
“Okay. So, but even with that, and like I said, I haven't gone through this and I apologize. We're still putting somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 to 5,000 homes up, which equates to at least another 6,000 to 10,000 people, 6,000 to 10,000 cars. We have no industry here, no manufacturing, no high-paying jobs. A typical one-bedroom apartment in Claremont runs from $1,500 to $1,800 a month. There is no live-work-play industry. And Claremont, unless you could balance three jobs.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:19:08
“I get that, and I'm sure that's not going to change, or it might just be amended or whatever. But I think the thrust of where Claremont needs to be going is maybe, and it's just my opinion, a little bit less towards residential and more towards a high-paying city where I don't have to go to Orlando every day.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:20:12
“Okay, but if I'm going to one of the communities that you showed up on there, okay, and I'm walkable, and I love the idea of walkable. Like I said, I've sat in on your presentations, okay? But how am I going to afford a $1,500 a month rent by working at Joe's Pizzeria. It's not going to happen. So somewhere along the line, down in Claremont, you've either got to work for a hospital, work for a law firm or something, or you've got to work somewhere else where you start pulling in some money because you can't live, work, and play here. And I'm not focusing that at you. This has been a concern…”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:24:17
“that it could move forward. And it sounds like there's still a flushing out period. We're still taking questions. There may still be concerns. My biggest thing is not every piece of parcel in Clermont should just be looked at as a town center and for residential. There's plenty of property out there where we could make it an industrial park or at least consider it or at least talk to and bring our economic development people in to say, look, Did you know that Chipotle has 349 restaurants in Florida alone? So is anybody going to go talk to Chipotle and see if they want a southeastern central…”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:25:33
“Good. And at the end of the day, like I said, yes, this could move forward. I just think we need to be just as equally concerned about keeping jobs here as opposed to people going somewhere else and spending their money somewhere else. But I would agree with you. And I always thank you for your time.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:45:01
“I got a problem with this. So when you go to Google Earth or Google Map, what you're really not showing, because I listen to every word you say. Access to the site will come from Oakley Sleever Drive along with a continued cross access through the Superior Residence property to the south. Minor typo or whatever, it's no longer Superior, it's now Hunt Trace. But I don't see anything in either packet that might, and again, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see anything in either packet that even suggests that Superior slash Hunt Trace has been brought into this agreement. And when you take that…”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:48:18
“So Hunt Trace knows all this traffic is coming through their parking lot? Has anybody reached out and talked to them?”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:48:38
“We got traffic all over the place here. We got people doing 70 miles an hour in a Walmart parking lot. So even if 20%, 15% of those cars go through that parking lot, that means... or you want to call it an easement, that means Hunt Trace, if and when they do become aware of this, would have to look into different kinds of events because right now their events go out that door and they take up that space.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:49:08
“There's no travel lane because it's a dead-end street.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:49:55
“It's a memory care unit. It's a memory care unit. It's not an assisted living unit. It's a memory care unit. As I said, I was there October 3rd. What do you call it? I barely fit. You can't go, you know, so if for some reason there's a delivery truck coming in, UPS shows up, Amazon comes up, and they got to be careful because there's an overhang. I think the overhang is an 11 foot 2 clearance. So if that truck or anything has to either back up, they're backing up into that road. So that road is constantly being used either through deliveries or myself visiting my mom. And so I'm going to be…”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:55:54
“Can you just go back to the aerial view? I'm sorry to cut people off.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:56:09
“I just want everybody to know that that middle road, if you want to zoom in a little bit,”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:56:17
“No, no, no. On Hunt Trace, on that building. Just zoom in just a little bit.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:56:26
“I'm talking about that road that leads to a dumpster. So we keep talking about how it's a road and it's a cross access, but really, you know, when we look at stuff too zoomed out, we think we've got two roads going through that property when there's really only one. Because if you make the wrong turn, you're in the back of the building where it says West End Group. That is a dead end. It's not even a road. It's a dead end. So everything is going to be going around the back end of Hunt Trace onto that other road where you have that line of trees. And unless you're going to widen that... You…”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026
- Play at 1:58:50
“Well, I agree with you, but I don't know how you're going to control that. And even if there's signage that says this is a – Oh, no, you do it with a gate.”
Planning and Zoning Commission · Oct 6, 2026