Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll call the July 9th, 2026 meeting of the City of Winter Haven Planning Commission to order. Jordan, if you would, please take roll.

Kevin Tyson.

Here.

Mario Manigo.

Here.

Laura Leis. Here. Lorena Cadero. Wendy Venters. Colin Wells.

Here.

Ed Smith. Tina Summerlin. Here. And Craig Fuller.

Here.

We have a quorum.

If you would, please stand for the invocation and pledge. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and this opportunity to come together and serve the city of Winter Haven and her residents. We ask that you be with us and guide us. We ask these things in your name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Has everybody had an opportunity to review the previous minutes? If so, we'll entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from last meeting.

Second. We have a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. All right. Minutes are approved. All right. I will move into a brief explanation of how the hearing will go. Cases will be read into the record. City staff will provide a presentation, and commissioners will have an opportunity to ask questions of staff. Once commissioners have asked their questions, we will close the planning portion of the meeting and open the public portion of the meeting. Anyone wishing to speak for or against a case may do so. Starting with the applicant, we ask that you limit your comments to five minutes. Once everybody's had an opportunity to ask questions or make their comments, we will close the public portion of the hearing and reopen the planning portion of the hearing, where we can ask additional questions or entertain a motion and a vote. If anybody plans to speak for or against a case, if you would, please stand up and Jordan will swear you in.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give in this case shall be the truth?

All right, moving into new business. Case number P-26-19, request by Lake May District JV LLC to rezone six parcels from commercial heavy C4 zoning district to planned unit development PUD zoning district. General location, 717 6th Street Southwest. The area covered by this request is 4.24 plus or minus acres.

Heather Reuter, Senior Planner for the record. Before I begin my presentation, I do want to allow the Planning Commission to recognize our new Planning Commissioner, Laura Leis, who is with us today. She just passed her background checks to make her eligible to serve after her appointment by the City Commission. So we have not went through our Planning Commissioner orientation yet. So she's going to abstain from voting in our items tonight. So put that on the record for that, but also introduce her. So welcome, Laura.

Welcome. Glad to have you.

All right, before you on the screen, we do have the future land use map. This area is part of our primary mixed use hub. The fire station that's over to the northeast is institutional, but everything else around in this area is the primary mixed use hub. As you look at the subject property, it is in C4. So are the properties located to the north and the south. And then we also have I1 to the east. Across Lake May to the west, we have C3 uses. As you look at the aerial, as you can see, this is the Marine Supply Marina that's located there and accessory ancillary buildings that are located along Sixth Street Southwest and south of Avenue G Southwest. This is a view looking at the subject property from Avenue G Southwest. This is a view at Avenue G Southwest looking to the west at Lake May. This is on Avenue G as well looking to the east. and then looking to the north across Avenue G is the Whitehead Construction offices. This is standing, looking at the subject property across Sixth Street Southwest. And then this is the view to the to the north, yes, yes, we are looking to the north, sorry. Got disoriented, there's so many pictures. To the north on the property. This is looking over to the east, and also to the east you have the Borden Farms area located over there. And then this is internal within the property to kinda see what is located within there. This is along their shore on Lake May. And then this is looking at the end of their dock back at the property. So Lake May District JV LLC is the petitioner and they request the city rezone six parcels from commercial heavy C4 zoning district to plan unit development PUD zoning district. The property subject to this request totaling approximately 4.24 acres is generally located at 717 6th Street Southwest. The property consists of the Marine Supply Boating Center and marina located on Lake May. The petitioner proposes to renovate the existing full-service marina and redevelop the property with additional uses including additional parking, a boat club, food trucks, outdoor entertainment, and a restaurant. Proposed PUD conditions provide standards for the following items, permitted uses, development standards, marine structure standards, and parking requirements. For the record, all notification requirements were met. Based on staff's review, the proposed rezoning from commercial heavy C4 to planned unit development PUD is consisted with the primary mixed-use hub future land use designation and will not increase the property's maximum development potential. The proposed PUD provides a framework for the continued operation and enhancement of the existing marina while establishing development standards for future improvements and complementary commercial uses. The request is compatible with the surrounding land use pattern and supports reinvestment in a waterfront property on the chain of lakes. This request also implements concepts contained in the 2003 Urban Lakefront Study and the 2022 Downtown CRA Plan, both of which are appendices of the 2035 Winter Haven Comprehensive Plan. Staff does recommend that the Planning Commission amend approval of this request along with the PUD conditions that are in the published agenda packet, and that's forwarding to the City Commission for final action. And this is the conceptual plan that was submitted with the application. I stand for any questions that you may have.

Any questions? No? No? Okay. All right, we will close the planning portion of the hearing and open the public portion of the hearing. Anybody from the public wishing to speak for or against? If you would, please state your name and address for the record.

Jeff Donaldson, 133 Wyndham Drive, Winter Haven, Florida. I represent the ownership group and simply here to answer any questions that you may have.

Any questions from staff? No? All right. Thank you for being available.

Thank you, guys.

You can come up if you'd like. Jordan just needs to swear you in.

I didn't understand the process.

That's okay. He stood up.

Okay. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give in this case shall be the truth?

Yes. If you would, just please state your name and address for the record.

My name is Phillip Van Winkle. I'm a property owner on Lake May. And I have a couple questions about the development process. And one question that I have is when I was looking at the pictures, I saw a picture of the Borden's parking lot area with trailers. Is that area included in the rezoning? No, sir.

That was just showing surrounding properties.

because I know between the Borden's property and the Marine supply is a two acre parcel that was illegally filled. And I'm just wondering, are they, is that parcel being rezoned also?

No, sir. Before you use the aerial, those properties that are on the screen and outlined in red are the ones subject to this request.

Okay. Okay. And does this redevelopment, does it make the boat storage barns go away and they're tore down and something replaces them?

No, sir. It allows for them to be able to stay in the footprint that they are at and they can renovate them. If they choose to remove them and build any new buildings, they would have to develop them to the C3 standards as required by the code.

so i guess where i'm going with this is um i'm just curious um those large barns take up a predominantly large area of these five four or five parcels so that's why i was curious if to put a restaurant housing other increased parking i'm just wondering where all that's going to go

So perhaps with a little clarification from the applicant, can you talk about your development plan for the property a little bit?

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Okay. So I think we've heard over and over again from our side that we're going to tear this whole thing down and build condos. We're not going to do that. I can just say that out loud on the record. Our objective here is to use what we have, keep the marina in place, maintain that, but create other amenities around their marina that really facilitates growth. One thing that brought us here today was trying to put a permit application in to really enhance the dock system around the marina, make it more of a boardwalk feel, fix a lot of the seawall issues that you see there. And it turned out we couldn't even touch them without the proper zoning and actually codes to do that. Currently, we have plans to do some more of a pier system on docks. That'll allow people to get in and out of the marina more safely. And then we're focused initially on the most southern building, probably no more or less as the name of HJ Water Sports about 10 years ago. That parcel, the building's vacant. It's a great building to occupy, essentially, for social events, things like that. If we did a restaurant initially, it would probably be something closer to food trucks or a couple food trucks. It's really just to gain activity on the site, create amenities for the marina, keep the marina open. but grow it at the same time. Our main objective is to get people back on the water, remind people that we have this gem of the chain of lakes, and activate that most southern property immediately.

Thank you. Yeah, if you would, you can come up to the podium, please.

There are four restaurants on the Chain of Lakes, and my partner and I own two of them. We welcome developing the Chain of Lakes more than has happened to date. Something that's concerned my partner and I is the lack of advertising to bring tourists and local people from the Orlando area and the Tampa area. And I look at this as a possible situation where we will have additional help to try to attract people to Winter Haven. And it'd be great if the city would also help with this, with advertising in the local media of Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg, because we've got the nicest chain of lakes in Central Florida, the only thing that comes close to rivaling it is the Tavares chain of lakes up in Lake County. And a lot of people from Orlando go up to Tavares and that chain of lakes up there. And I would like to see those people come down to Polk County, come down to the Winter Haven area, fill up our hotels, and get on the chain of lakes because our chain of lakes are empty half the time. I'm really disappointed with the amount of boat traffic that we have, and I hope that developments like this, if done properly, are going to enhance boat traffic on the chain of lakes and move Winter Haven along to becoming a go-to location instead of people going to the beach or this or that. So I personally see this as a very positive development, but these types of developments are not going to be as successful as they could be if we could just get the city behind us to promote winter haven so that's my comment thank you for your comments anyone else please jordan will swear you in and do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give in this case shall be the truth yes

Please state your name and address.

My name is Chip Smith, and I currently live in Cypresswood, but I grew up here in Florida, spent most of my life on the Chain of Lakes. I know some of you in here. Some of you have been behind my boat before and swung you on the tubes before, but... Having grown up here, the Chain of Lakes city, this is one of our best resources. And I like the idea of promoting what we have here. And that area is in desperate need of redevelopment. Anybody that's been in there, it's an isoler right now. It's been overgrown, unkept, the lakes, the properties. And I think this is a tremendous opportunity to promote the Chain of Lakes area. and to develop more boating here, as the previous gentleman stated. We have a gem, and we need to make use of it, and we need to develop what we already have and better it. So I would encourage you to do this. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Anyone else? All right, seeing none, we will close the public portion of the meeting and reopen the planning portion of the meeting. Any additional questions or comments from commissioners? No?

None. I'd like to make a motion in favor of case number P-26-19, request for Lake May District JV LLC to rezone six parcels from commercial heavy C4 zoning district to planned unit development PUD zoning district, general location being 717 6th Street Southwest. Area covered by the request is 4.24, more or less, acres, as presented in the fact sheet and by staff.

second all those in favor say aye aye all opposed same sign all right moving on to case number p-26-16 and p-26-17 administrative request to adopt the 2050 winter haven comprehensive plan in response to the 2025 valuation and appraisal report and to also adopt the 2050 future land use map series

So a little bit of a background. As part of the growth management legislation adopted in 1985 and contained in Chapter 163 of Florida statute, all governments are required to periodically conduct evaluations of their comprehensive plans according to a schedule established by what was the former DCA, which is now Florida Commerce. Previous evaluation and appraisal reports, which are called EAR, were completed in 98, 09, and 18. Following each of these EARs, the comprehensive plan received a major update and an extended planning horizon. The current planning horizon is the 2035. The deadline for the city's fourth year was October 1st, 2025, with the review following evaluation criteria limiting reviews of the comprehensive plan for compliance with current state law. As a part of the review, two items were identified as being out of compliance with state law. The comprehensive plan is now required to provide for a 20-year planning horizon. and updated population projections prepared using professionally accepted methodology are required. So to comply with these requirements, staff proposes extending the planning horizon to 2050 and the incorporation of new population projections that were developed by the city's consultant, Kimley Horn. Typically, we would, following an ear, we would look at this for more significant updates to goals and objectives and policies to reflect the community's current needs. But however, with the passage of Senate Bill 180, we're limited on what we can do as far as meaningful changes because they may be deemed more burdensome. So we do hope once that we're not under those regulations that we will be able to bring back to this body some more significant changes. But the majority of changes are just, again, this population projections and extending out the dates in the policies that are already there to match with the broader 2050 horizon. So staff does recommend the Planning Commission recommend approval of this, and it's forwarding to the City Commission for final action. I stand for any questions that you may have.

Go ahead. I'm just wondering, so have you guys already drafted, like, I'll call it your position paper because you can't accept it. I'm quite aware of SB 180, but, like, what suggestions you would have as far as the way it might occur? I would recommend it because, you know, it's going to sunset, and that's why I was asking.

Sunset barring hurricanes to send it out further, so... We'll knock on that. But yes, I mean, staff, we have ideas and concepts that we want to make changes both within the comprehensive plan and the unified land development code once we have the ability to do so. The list is growing.

I would add that, and I would just add that many of those changes to the comprehensive plan that we have in mind are based on a lot of the one water criteria and concepts that have been recently adopted by the city commission.

Gotcha.

Any other questions? No? All right, we'll close the planning portion of the hearing and open the public portion of the hearing. Anybody wishing to speak?

Uh-oh. What did I do? Do you want to swear me in?

Do you solemnly swear or affirm?

good evening playing commissioners uh... for the record to mike status city manager just a point out kind of the paradox of what this all comes to and that you're required is heather has reported to do an evaluation appraisal report per statute to update a comprehensive plan to meet the needs of the community which you serve well at the same time being limited to make adjustments to a comprehensive plan based upon the needs of the community that you serve by a Senate bill. So on one hand, you're being directed by the state legislature to go and evaluate and bring something up to current standards, whatever those may be, but we're not going to allow you to do that. So that's a bit of a paradox that I think needs to be just kind of kept in mind that it doesn't always make sense. And we say that there is a sunset provision, not only for how it affects an ear report, but other things that come before these fine men and women and the work that they do that we can't even touch. And we're hopeful that we don't have a hurricane between now and September of next year. That is a long window, and if one should hit, then those desired changes and updates get pushed even further. So I only share that for informational purposes and to recognize the challenge that you as commissioners face in trying to accommodate the desires of the community you serve, but also what staff has to do. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Anyone else? All right. We will close the public portion of the hearing and reopen the planning portion of the hearing. Any additional comments or questions from commissioners?

No. I'd like to make a motion for approval for case number P-26-16 and P-26-17, a metric request. to adopt the 2050 Winter Haven comprehensive plan in response to the 2025 evaluation and appraisal report and to adopt the 2050 future land use map series.

Second.

We have a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Okay. Moving on to other business. Comments from staff.

Okay. Just... One item, but it's a fairly significant one. As you know, at your last meeting, we had a request come forward for what is known as Fantasy Island, the large-scale drinking establishment on Martin Luther King Boulevard. This body did recommend, or in this case they didn't recommend, they did deny the application to operate that drinking establishment. The applicant did file an appeal here before the city commission within the allotted time by code. That de novo hearing, which is the appeal, is scheduled for July 27th at 5 p.m., just for your information.

Thank you.

And that's all I have. Okay. All right. Comments from planning commissioners? No? Comments from the public?

All right.