by Beth Kassab | Nov 4, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News
No Takers to Develop Portion of Seven Oaks Park
Developers like East End Market’s John Rife says the park first needs stronger programming. Green space advocates are happy the park will remain untouched
Nov. 4, 2025
By Beth Kassab
There were no eligible responses on the city’s request for developers to submit ideas to build a cafe, shop or other concept at Seven Oaks Park, the new 2.4-acre open space at North Orange Avenue and South Denning Drive.
With hardly any interest, the city closed the request for negotiations to develop a portion of the park (red outline in above photo at top of page). The city rejected the single response it received and would not answer questions about it, citing a public records exemption that keeps the response inaccessible to the public for up to 12 months.
City spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said the City Commission could decide to try again to solicit interest, but no date has been set for a discussion.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio advocated to push forward with a plan to “activate” the park, which opened earlier this year, because she said nearby business owners “desperately” wanted to see something happen there.
The sign that welcomes visitors at Seven Oaks Park.
The park opened in February, a culmination of an effort by the city to purchase the land and transform it into a public open space in the middle of a busy urban corridor. But critics have noted that the park is often empty and offers little refuge from the sun because the oaks planted there have yet to mature enough to provide shade.
On many days, the parking lot that accompanies the park is busier than the park itself with patrons finding a spot there to visit Foxtail Coffee, Buttermilk Bakery and a number of other popular businesses in the area.
John Rife, who developed East End Market on Orlando’s Corrine Drive, said he was interested in the property but the economics don’t make sense for now. The city’s request to negotiate on the project required the developer would pay a ground lease to the city.
“I did East End Market not because I hoped people would show up, but because we had already been nurturing a bunch of purveyors,” in the Audubon Park neighborhood, said Rife, who opened the market 12 years ago.
He said the city might generate more interest if it first establishes good temporary programming in the park that “serves the needs of the neighborhood first.”
For example the corridor has at least a half dozen interior design businesses within a few blocks.
So perhaps, he said, a “design pop-up” could occupy the park for a weekend. It could be a way to nurture new talent that can’t afford permanent Winter Park rents.
“If your mission is to incubate cool upcoming stuff then you have to subsidize it,” said Rife, who is a Winter Park resident. “Is this a top dollar thing? Or is a thing for the betterment of the community? I think it’s hard to do both.”
He suggested one key step would be for the city to make it as easy as possible for people to pitch ideas and host temporary programming in the park to generate activity.
The McCraney office building is under construction across Denning Drive from Seven Oaks Park.
Winter Park moved its popular Farmer’s Market to Seven Oaks one day last month rather than close it during the weekend of the Autumn Art Festival. The Farmer’s Market will be held at Seven Oaks again on Nov. 15 to avoid a conflict with the annual Cows ‘N Cabs charity event.
Not everyone in Winter Park was on board with the plan to develop a piece of the park.
Leslie Kemp Poole, a member of the Winter Park Land Trust and a professor of environmental studies at Rollins College, said Seven Oaks needs more time for residents to discover it. She noted the foresight of city leaders to protect the land as green space rather than see it developed into another office building as an investment in Winter Park’s future.
“There are complaints that the Seven Oaks isn’t being ‘activated’ or used enough,” Poole said in an email. “Judging it in 98-degree Florida summers hammered by daily lightning storms is hardly fair. Now, with cooler weather, residents are beginning to discover and enjoy it.”
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
To comment or read comments from others, click here →
by Beth Kassab | Oct 27, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News, Police and Public Safety, Taxes
Fearing Property Tax Cuts by State, WP Opts Against Giving Extra to Nonprofits
Florida voters could be asked next year to cut their property taxes. That already has cities like Winter Park reeling over how they will fund essential services like police, fire and flood prevention.
Oct. 27, 2025
By Beth Kassab
City Commissioners met late last week to consider a plan to give out about $100,000 that once went to the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center each year to 10 local nonprofits in the form of $10,000 grants.
The conversation quickly reached consensus among city leaders that even $100,000 out of a $230 million budget couldn’t be spared amid proposals by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature to dramatically cut property taxes — a move they fear would kneecap local governments.
Budget Director Peter Moore said he was waking up at night thinking about what those proposals would mean on the doorsteps of residents who rely on the city government for essential services such as quick police and fire response times, clean drinking water, safe roads and sidewalks that don’t flood during storms and reliable electricity.
“I can’t even comprehend how we would wrap our brain around how that would even work,” he told commissioners during the Thursday work session. “But there’s five different proposals out there, which makes me think something is going to end up on the ballot.”
Property tax collections make up the largest source of dollars in the city’s General Fund, which pays for police, fire, parks, roads and other government services, including cyber security for public data.
The General Fund is about $90 million in the 2026 budget and city property taxes account for about $39 million or about 44% of that total. The money from property taxes is so significant it’s enough this year to cover the two largest expenses in the general fund: the police department ($21.9 million) and the fire department ($17.1 million).
“I’ve lost sleep over what’s going to happen,” said Commissioner Warren Lindsey. “I don’t know what they are doing up in Tallahassee. They have no idea how a local municipality and a county is run in terms of the things they’ve said and done.”
Proposals from the Florida House so far range from raising the homestead exemption to $100,000 to eliminating or phasing out non-school designated property taxes.
When a Winter Park property owner pays taxes, about 27% of that money goes to the city while 44% goes to Orange County Public Schools, 28% goes to Orange County government and 1% goes to the St. Johns River Water Management District, according to city budget documents.
DeSantis said last week he was unsatisfied with the House’s work, which would potentially put more than one tax-cutting measure on the November 2026 ballot. That could make it difficult for any single proposal to gain enough support to pass.
“Placing more than one property tax measure on the ballot represents an attempt to kill anything on property taxes,” DeSantis said on X. “It’s a political game, not a serious attempt to get it done for the people.”
The Legislative session begins on Jan. 13, earlier than usual because it’s an election year.
DeSantis’ administration is touring the state in an attempt to make a public spectacle out of his “DOGE” efforts to audit cities and counties. A Winter Park spokeswoman said the city has not received additional requests from Florida’s DOGE office beyond the requests that went to all local governments earlier this year.
State officials are pointing to the increase in property tax collections as property values have soared as largesse in local government.
For example, property tax collections in Winter Park have jumped from $27.5 million in 2022 to about $39 million in the current budget, a 41 percent increase. The growth is the result of a hot housing market as the city’s tax rate has remained the same for 16 years.
But local governments like Winter Park argue that costs have also soared during that time. The city spent $16.3 million on the police department in 2022 and now spends $21.9 million, largely the result of competition across the state to raise law enforcement pay. The fire department cost $13.4 million in 2022 and now costs $17.1 million, also a result of pay and other cost pressures.
Those two departments alone account for $9.3 million of the additional $11.5 million in property taxes collected by Winter Park due to rising property values since 2022.
Commissioners noted the potential “bad optics” of providing even small grants to nonprofits after Moore suggested it was the kind of expenditure that “could get picked up in a news article.”
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said the city would continue to give grants to the nonprofits that are regularly funded in each year’s budget. But, she said “we will probably” be able to reallocate the money for Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, which is undergoing a leadership transition after founder Chris Cortez was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and the county is reviewing its $1 million grant.
Jeff Flowers, who is taking over the management of Blue Bamboo, said the group is growing and remains sustainable.
The money for the nonprofit grants comes from .25% of the gross revenue from each of the city’s three major funds — the general fund, electric and water and wastewater.
The electric and water and wastewater funds, which the city calls enterprise funds, account for even larger increases in the city’s budget than property taxes. Those funds, which charge residents and businesses for service based on a combination of flat fees and prices tied to the amount of water and electricity consumed, have grown to a combined $100 million this year.
City Commissioners have raised those prices in recent years to account for increased costs of maintaining the utility systems and what the city says are soaring prices to finish a citywide project that will underground all overhead power lines.
The funds “must support their operations through the revenues they generate, operating like a conventional private business,” the budget notes.
The quarter of a percent from those three funds — the general fund, electric and water — generates about $442,000. Those that receive yearly funding, including the Winter Park Library, which also receives additional dollars, are:
- Mead Botanical Gardens: $102,000
- Winter Park Historical Association: $97,000
- Winter Park Day Nursery: $42,500
- United Arts: $20,000
- Blue Bamboo: $12,500
- Polasek Museum: $28,000
- Winter Park Library: $2.1 million
During the same work session about whether to hand out an additional $100,000 to nonprofits, commissioner also discussed a plan by the Parks & Recreation Department to formalize a policy to sell sponsorships or advertising opportunities at is facilities to raise additional new revenue.
Staff estimates such transactions could generate $100,000 or more a year.
City commissioners indicated support for the plan so long as ads or sponsorship plaques or banners are “tasteful” and major deals would come before the commission for approval. Commissioners must also still approve the policy for the new revenue stream.
The effort would mostly focus on the city’s two golf courses, the tennis center and other parks with high foot traffic. Central Park, the highest-profile public green space along Park Avenue, would be off limits to advertisers, according to the proposal.
Even before talk of property tax cuts heated up to its current white-hot level, city staff was warning of slower times ahead for the city government.
“While this budget does not assume a recession in FY26, there are concerns on the horizon and visible weakening in the economy,” the budget proposal released in the early summer stated. “This could just mean a return to normal growth after the post-Pandemic spike, or this could portend something worse.”
Adding new services and projects will only be possible in the future by raising property taxes or raising the fees customers pay for services, according to the budget analysis.
With the governor and Legislature poised to try to take property tax increases off the table, that leaves the prices residents pay for everything from the use of athletic fields and after-school programs to the cost of building permits and water and electricity as the primary ways for the city to generate dollars.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
To comment or read comments from others, click here →
by Beth Kassab | Oct 25, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News
Blue Bamboo Founders Step Away After Recent Diagnosis
Chris and Melody Cortez led the remake of the old Winter Park Library into a music hub. Board Chairman Jeff Flowers will now take the lead as Chris Cortez faces brain cancer
Oct. 25, 2025
By Beth Kassab
The Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts opened this summer in the old Winter Park Library, a long-sought triumph for the nonprofit music venue in search of a new stage and for a city government looking for someone to remake the vacant building.
Now Chris Cortez, an accomplished musician, is stepping back from managing the group he started in 2016 with wife Melody, a visual artist, after he was diagnosed this month with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
Cortez will retain “emeritus status” at the organization while board Chairman Jeff Flowers — chemist and arts philanthropist who operated environmental testing firm Flowers Chemical Laboratories and served two stints on the Maitland City Council — is taking the day-to-day leadership role.
“While Chris will no longer be involved in operations, his artistic vision and legacy continue to guide our mission and inspire our work,” Flowers said in a letter to the City Commission.
Flowers said he wants to assure the community that the Blue Bamboo “remains strong, active and sustainable.”
Blue Bamboo Founder Chris Cortez plays guitar with famed violinist Alvaro Gomez at a City Commission meeting in September. Above photo: Jeff Rupert, director of jazz studies at UCF and Blue Bamboo board member, plays at the Blue Bamboo in June with sons Preston and Django.
“Our board now meets monthly to review operations, finances and construction progress, and to provide guidance and accountability,” he said in the letter. “Directors have taken on leadership in operational, financial and technical areas ensuring that our transition is booth smooth and effective. We have also added staff to handle essential functions in sound, video production and hospitality services.”
Just before Cortez’s health challenge surfaced, the Blue Bamboo was facing another difficult transition when Central Florida Vocal Arts said it could not reach a lease agreement with Blue Bamboo and walked away from the project.
Theresa Smith-Levin, founder and executive director of CFVA and Opera del Sol, was a key partner in the effort to secure the support of the city along with a $1 million Tourist Development Tax grant from Orange County for construction.
Now the grant, which has not yet been paid out, is being reviewed by Orange County.
Smith-Levin’s group, which stages a variety of musicals and operas, was slated to occupy the second floor as teaching, rehearsal and office space and about $200,000 was designated from the grant for construction for those needs. Her group was also helping Blue Bamboo raise $500,000 in required matching funds and would have contributed half the rent on the building to the city, which is set to increase next year.
Jeff Flowers
Flowers said he has new matching funds identified and is working with another nonprofit to occupy space in the building.
Flowers also runs another nonprofit called Performing Arts Matters, which he and his wife founded two decades ago to fund groups such as the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra, which performed at Blue Bamboo over the summer.
The first floor of the building now features two performing spaces — a main stage with 182 seats and a smaller stage with a seating capacity of about 60.
“Looking ahead, we are expanding our programming to include classical performances,” Flowers’ letter said. “The Maitland Symphony Orchestra and Bravo Chamber Orchestra are planning their first concerts at the Blue Bamboo in 2026, following this past summer’s successful appearance by the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra — one of our best-attended events to date.”
One of the Blue Bamboo’s signature weekly events known as the Free Thursday Night Hang will continue, he said. Cortez started the event with a vision for professional jazz artists to share the stage with students or others emerging on the scene — part of his “stage for all” philosophy.
“With that mindset, the Boo became a go-to place for collaborative projects,” Cortez wrote on his website. “Big bands of all kinds, jam sessions, and what-if scenarios, all leading to a healthy environment for creativity. Audiences might attend a conservative, classical recital one day, and the next, a reimagining of Led Zeppelin as a latin salsa band. (That actually happened!)”
Flowers said the Blue Bamboo is planning a show Thursday night that will feature Cortez on the guitar, possibly his final time on the Blue Bamboo stage. The concert will be a tribute to Cortez and his contributions to the local music scene.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
To comment or read comments from others, click here →
by Beth Kassab | Oct 20, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Library, News
How Should City Commission Give Dollars to Nonprofits?
The City Commission will consider this week a new system for awarding nonprofit grants and also discuss if the Parks & Rec department should sell ads and sponsorships
Oct. 20, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Each year the city of Winter Park, like many local governments, doles out a portion of public dollars to help nonprofits like Mead Botanical Gardens, Winter Park Day Nursery, the Winter Park Library and Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts.
But this year, amid economic and budget uncertainty, the City Commission held back $140,000 — and didn’t renew one-time grants to the Winter Park Institute and Men of Integrity — with the intent of formalizing the grant process and determining who is eligible.
This week commissioners are slated to finally have that discussion on Thursday in a workshop.
The conversation comes about amid major cuts to arts and nonprofit funding on the state level and efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to showcase what it deems as “wasteful” local government spending through its “DOGE Team.” The administration is targeting cities and counties with audits and press conferences that it claims are highlighting “waste, fraud and abuse” such as a tree inventory program at the city of Orlando or programs for LGBT youth services in Orange County.
City staff are proposing the creation of a temporary committee each year that would evaluate grant requests and make recommendations for 10 recipients of $10,000 each for “relevant, and meaningful, arts, science, history, social services, and educational experiences of value to the local community.” The committee members would consist of people who already serve on other city advisory boards such as Parks & Recreation and Historic Preservation.
To be eligible, nonprofits must serve Winter Park and can not support a political cause or candidate, can not be connected to a for-profit business and can not already be receiving more than $10,000 in funding from the city, according to the proposal.
The money for the grants comes from .25% of the gross revenue from each of the city’s three major funds — the general fund, electric and water and wastewater.
That generates about $442,000. Some organizations already receive a yearly allotment from that pool. The new policy would address new requests totaling about $100,000.
Those that receive yearly funding, including the Winter Park Library, are:
- Mead Botanical Gardens: $102,000
- Winter Park Historical Association: $97,000
- Winter Park Day Nursery: $42,500
- United Arts: $20,000
- Blue Bamboo: $12,500
- Polasek Museum: $28,000
- Winter Park Library: $2.1 million
The staff report also noted that state government has targeted the ability of Community Redevelopment Agencies to support nonprofits, though so far, there have been no changes to the law. In the future, however, CRAs may be prohibited from making such grants.
Winter Park’s CRA makes the following contributions, according to the 2026 budget:
- Enzian Theater: $10,000
- Heritage Center: $50,000
- Welbourne Day Nursery: $43,000
- Winter Park Playhouse: $49,300
- Depugh Nursing Home: $24,000 (This group recently announced it’s closing)
Ads at Parks?
Commissioners will also discuss on Thursday a plan that city staff estimates could generate $100,000 a year by selling ads and sponsorships at city parks or events.
The effort would mostly focus on the city’s two golf courses, the tennis center and other parks with high foot traffic. Central Park, the highest-profile public green space along Park Avenue, would be off limits to advertisers, according to the proposal.
Some examples of places where the city could sell ads to raise extra funds: interior fencing at tennis courts, golf course scorecards, banners in gymnasiums or fields or t-shirts for adult athletic leagues or summer camps. Sponsorships could be sold for city events such as the Fourth of July celebration, Weekend of the Arts and Dinner on the Avenue or programs such as Movies in the Park or the rotating art installations set to begin next year in Seven Oaks Park.
“Today, financial and in-kind support is even more critical as the investment needed to sustain and improve the parks, facilities, and programs continues to rise,” reads a memo about the proposal. “Like other park and recreation departments across the nation, the parks and recreation department is pursuing more sophisticated business partnerships with the for-profit and non-profit sectors, in the form of events, programs, projects, and site sponsorship along with limited advertising.”
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
To comment or read comments from others, click here →
by Beth Kassab | Oct 16, 2025 | Arts and Culture, News
After Series of October Storms, Chamber to Move Autumn Art Festival to November
The decision came in hopes of better weather closer to the end of hurricane season
Oct. 16, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Beginning next year, the popular Autumn Art Festival hosted by the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce in Central Park will move from October to November in order to shift “away from peak hurricane season as well as into cooler fall weather.”
The announcement this week by chamber President and CEO Betsy Gardner came after the conclusion of the festival on Sunday, which featured more than 180 Florida artists who dealt with rain on Saturday and in the days leading up to the start of the show.
Last year Hurricane Milton struck just before the festival and 61 artists were unable to participate because of the storm’s impacts across the state. In 2022, Hurricane Ian dumped flooding rains on the city just weeks before the festival. And in 2016, the show was cancelled because of Hurricane Matthew.
“While the Autumn Art Festival has traditionally been held the second weekend in October, it has in the past been threatened – and even cancelled – by hurricane risks,” Gardner said in a news release. “We’re looking forward to taking the opportunity to move next year’s 53rd Annual Autumn Art Festival to Nov. 14 and 15.”
The chamber has hosted the event in October every year since at least 1995 before October gained a reputation as one of the most active months of Florida’s hurricane season.
It is the only juried festival exclusively featuring Florida artists and was presented this year by Keller Williams Winter Park and supported by Don Mealy Sport Subaru, Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation and Westminster Winter Park, the release said.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
To comment or read comments from others, click here →
by Beth Kassab | Oct 2, 2025 | Arts and Culture, News, Uncategorized
Park Avenue District Names Interim Executive Director
The new appointment comes just in time for the holiday season as the city’s Christmas lights are set to turn on Nov. 13
Oct. 2, 2025
By Beth Kassab
The Park Avenue District on Wednesday named Allison Chandler as interim executive director of the organization that will coordinate Winter Park’s signature holiday decor as well other events focused on one of Central Florida’s premier dining and retail corridors.
Chandler, who comes with other nonprofit experience, will help steer the organization as Christmas lights turn on next month along the avenue and the city government embarks early next year replacing streetlights, wiring, landscaping other infrastructure as part of a project known as the “Park Avenue Refresh” that could be disruptive at times to merchants.
Alan Chambers, president of the district’s board, said the group has recently gone through some “growing pains” since it took on the role of coordinating the city’s holiday decor last year.
“We went from 0 to 60 so quickly with taking on the holidays and how much money came in and events,” said Chambers, who is the vice president of operations for the John Craig Clothier family of eight stores across Florida, including two on Park Avenue.
Earlier this week the group announced the departure of Executive Director Carina Sexton along with three board members.
“Over the past six months, the district has navigated growing pains that led to the departure of several key board members, and with Chandler at the helm, the organization is eagerly and actively focused on mending, building, and rebuilding relationships across the community,” a news release stated.
The group, which formed in 2019 to intensify focus on promoting and supporting the Park Avenue area, began spearheading the city’s holiday decorations in 2024 and called the festivities “Christmas on Park” instead of “Hometown Holidays,” a name the city had used for years.
Allison Chandler
This year the city, which contributed $200,0000 in public funds last year and $90,000 this year to the project, asked the name be changed to Holidays on Park to include Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
The long-held individual traditions in Winter Park that begin next month and run through January will remain the same such as the Christmas Parade, Tuba Christmas and Christmas on the Park. Only the overarching website name is set to change.
But that prompted outrage from some in the community who wanted to frame the request as an assault on Christmas. A resident started a petition that collected more than 1,000 signatures even though some information on the petition was inaccurate.
Chambers said the Park Avenue District spent about $400,000 on holiday festivities last year, most of it from private donations to fund new additions such as a carousel in front of City Hall and a walk-through Cathedral of Lights in Central Park.
Some of the decor purchased last year will be used again this year, though a portion of the new lights was lost to squirrels.
Sarah Grafton, founder of the Park Avenue District and partner at Grafton Wealth Management, said in the news release that she is confident the group will continue to grow its work with Chandler in her new role.
“Her proven leadership in the nonprofit sector will ensure we build on the district’s success, uniting businesses and residents while positioning us for an even stronger future,” Grafton said in the release. “I am proud to be a part of this collaborative board of directors that has made such a positive impact on our community.”
Chandler, a graduate of Leadership Winter Park, has experience in other nonprofits such as development director and interim executive director at PACE Center for Girls, program manager at Plug and Play Tech Center, and founder and president of MPACT Events Co., according to a news release.
“Living in Winter Park, I have seen firsthand the unique spirit and beauty of Park Avenue,” Chandler said in the release. “I am thrilled to help guide the Park Avenue District through its next chapter – building programs, partnerships and celebrations that reflect the heart of our community”.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
To comment or read comments from others, click here →
Recent Comments