Comments

I don’t think the plans should have been approved before everyone can see the finalized plans!

[From a letter to Commissioner Carolyn Cooper that was also sent to the Winter Park Voice. ed.]
April 26, 2015

Carolyn:

Thank you for your e-mail. You are a special person, and I know you have tried your best. I think I’m going to unsubscribe from your newsletter – not because of anything concerning you, but from my complete disillusionment about our city council and mayor. In the last election the citizens of Winter Park proved again they favor the policies of former Mayor Bradley and now Mayor Leary. They put in office a person interested in commercial development and someone willing to use racial issues to divide and conquer. For the voters to turn our city over to these interests and tactics in more or less the last straw for me.

I went to the Village Publix last evening and in doing so passed the new Paseo development. This is not the Winter Park I envisioned when I moved here from Miami.

So, I’m opting out. I think the battle has been lost, and with these new developments in place and on the drawing board, it’s already too late. Our formerly charmed city is no more.

I wish you the best, and perhaps you can still make some difference at the margins.

God Bless,

john

SW
April 26, 2015

It seems like the vast majority of the people who take the time to express opinions about commercial development in WP are opposed to it, regardless of the project. What I find interesting (sad, really) is that almost everybody seems to uninformed about the governmental processes that review such developments, and assume that the “fix is in” on them. Further, the lack of understanding and respect for private property rights is troubling. The common sentiment is that every piece of land should be greenspace.

I wonder what WP would look like if this attitude would have carried the day in the past? The amenities that define WP were once “new”, but thankfully they didn’t face the high-minded, NIMBY, attitude that pervades the community today.

I can’t imagine why we need another bank building, but my opinion does not trump the needs of the parties involved. If they follow the rules and get their project approved, so be it.

Monopoly
April 26, 2015

This is the first bank branch to be built in that area in a long time.

I don’t hear any complaints about their current location on Aloma or the nearby Bank of America branch, SunTrust branch, or Centennial branch.

So, from a traffic standpoint, they are probably right. Concerns with the drive-thru would be if the line of cars from the drive thru would spill out onto Lakemont or Aloma at any time, stopping traffic. Commissioners should condition approval with an option to revisit the drive-thru approval if it becomes a traffic nuisance in the future. That’s a real possibility if some of the area banks choose to consolidate branch locations and move out of the immediate area. If that happened, some of their accounts would move to the new Fifth Third and bring longer lines at the drive-thru than they would today.

Banks are forward thinking when it comes to building branches. Fifth Third has been sitting on that land for 10 years according to the City Commission agenda. That could be a good location for them if the hospital expands. Hard to say what they will do with the 17-92 property. They could pitch it to whoever redevelops the K-Mart center, or perhaps hold it for an additional Winter Park branch. But it looks like they figured out that doctors make better bank customers than blue light special devotees.

The good news is that the way things are going in Winter Park, we’re lucky that the bank is going in there and not a big box store, a tavern – or a minor league baseball stadium.

As for the nearby residents, they are the Rodney Dangerfield of Winter Park. They get no respect. They are already disproportionately targeted by the two red light cameras in their neighborhood. And if they don’t learn to stand up for themselves at City Hall, I don’t know what the politicians may have in mind next for them next – perhaps a sewer treatment facility?