by Beth Kassab | Jul 3, 2026 | City Commission, News, Police and Public Safety
Safety Rules for Electric Bikes and Scooters Vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis
Improving safety regulations, especially near schools, is a priority in cities like Winter Park where officials have already begun drafting their own ordinance
July 3, 2026
By Gabrielle Russon
Some local officials expressed surprise and frustration after Gov. Ron DeSantis recently vetoed a bipartisan bill considered an important step in tackling the epidemic of electric bike and scooter crashes.
DeSantis’ decision came less than two months after a 13-year-old boy was killed in Orlando’s Lake Nona area while riding his e-scooter to buy Mother’s Day flowers.
Without a statewide safety law, rules will fall to local governments like Winter Park, which has already begun drafting an ordinance that city officials say they want in place before the start of the school year in August.
Roads near schools are of particular concern to local officials because so many students use e-bikes and e-scooters on a daily basis.
“We know they’re dangerous. We know they’re killing students. And so I’m not sure why we needed to delay taking any action knowing how dangerous they are. … All of us were hoping that we would get some guidance from the state,” said Orange County School Board Member Stephanie Vanos, who represents Winter Park. “It just doesn’t seem like the governor cares all that much about what’s happening to our kids.”
School Board members are scheduled to discuss what to do next at a Tuesday work session.
Senate Bill 382 won unanimous approval from the Legislature in March, but DeSantis has expressed concerns it could lead to more police surveillance and bring unintended consequences.
“What it will lead to is more surveillance of people by law enforcement and we don’t need that. I think there were problems with it,” DeSantis said when he spoke to journalists late last month during a press conference. “Certainly, I don’t want to do anything that’s going to lead to more surveillance.”
Winter Park City Commissioner Warren Lindsey said he would prefer cities draft the new regulations for their specific needs instead of the state imposing one set of rules for all of its 23 million people.
“My opinion is that it’s better to regulate that by local ordinance rather than state statute,” Lindsey said. “In a time when you’ve got preemption, where the state’s taken away local governments’ ability to regulate anything, this one is good because what works in Winter Park may not work in Maitland. What works in Winter Park may not work in Orlando or Ocoee so I’m in favor of local ordinance.”
Winter Park is developing an e-bike and e-scooter ordinance with the goal of rolling it out before school starts on Aug. 11, said Lindsey, who was the only city commissioner who responded to an interview request for this story.
Some of the potential regulations could include setting a speed limit for e-scooters and e-bikes on sidewalks, increasing the helmet age requirement from 16 to 18 years old and imposing fines for those who break the rules.
Winter Park Commissioner Craig Russell, who is also a teacher at Winter Park High, held a community meeting about e-bike safety earlier this year and has advocated for a local ordinance. School Board member Stephanie Vanos (third from left) sat on the panel.
Lindsey, whose day job is a criminal defense lawyer, called e-bikes and e-scooters “definitely a public safety issue.” However, he said he is mindful that minors don’t end up with traffic records as the city drafts a policy.
“The purpose of the proposed regulations are not intended in any way to be punitive to children but rather to be educational and to protect them because they’re inexperienced and to educate them on proper and safe operation of e-bikes and scooters,” he said.
In 2025, nearly 500 e-bike and e-scooter crashes were reported in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, according to MetroPlan, Central Florida’s regional transportation planning organization.
MetroPlan is focused on working with local governments, like Winter Park, to lower those statistics.
“We were expecting for some action to be taken at the state level, but I would say that the fact that it didn’t pass isn’t significantly changing how we were planning to proceed as an agency for metropolitan Orlando,” said Lara Bouck, MetroPlan project development manager.
The group is considering whether to draft a model ordinance to help local governments. Bouck said she hopes a Winter Park representative joins a working group expected to take on that task.
“The intent there is to give each of our municipalities, including Winter Park, a starting point that they can sort of pivot off of if they’re going to adopt their own ordinances, which I think will be a priority now that nothing passed at the state level,” Bouck said.
MetroPlan also launched a pilot program offering a free rider safety online course for parents at selected schools.
If DeSantis had signed SB 382 into law it would have required all law enforcement agencies across Florida to document micromobility device crashes the same way and record crash date, time and rider’s age or if the rider has a valid Florida learner’s driver license or regular license as well as other information.
The challenge is law enforcement agencies currently don’t report crashes in a uniform way, making it hard to understand the big picture.
Another provision in the bill would have allowed police to write $30 nonmoving traffic violations if an e-bike goes faster than 10 mph within 50 feet of pedestrians.
“I understand law enforcement has a job,” DeSantis said. “Do we really want to have policing of e-bikes? Are you going 10 miles or eight miles? I think it was a little bit of overreach.”
The bill would also have created a statewide task force to propose recommendations by Oct. 1 how to regulate “micromobility devices” like e-scooters and e-bikes.
Vanos acknowledged the bill wasn’t “perfect” but said it was “moving us in the right direction.”
She testified in Tallahassee during the Legislative Session to urge lawmakers to give schools representation on the task force.
Both Vanos and Orange County Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad, who represents Winter Park, said improving safety also means addressing bigger infrastructure challenges in communities.
“Devices that can reach higher sustained speeds are increasingly being operated in mixed-use environments—roads, sidewalks, and multi-use trails—without consistent rules, training requirements, or clear expectations for right-of-way behavior,” Martinez Semrad wrote on social media Thursday. “The result is a preventable risk environment: faster vehicles, denser shared spaces, and no modernized regulatory framework to govern how they interact.”
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by Beth Kassab | Jul 3, 2026 | City Commission, Environment, News, Police and Public Safety
Gov. Ron DeSantis Vetoes Winter Park Police Request but Allows Mead Garden Project
Sen. Jason Brodeur said the decisions follow the governor’s preference for regional impact over budget items that he may view as favoring one city
July 3, 2026
By Gabrielle Russon
The city of Winter Park scored an environmental victory and took a public safety hit as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the new $117.6 billion state budget this week.
DeSantis vetoed $62,500 for Winter Park Police to buy more security barriers to protect crowds at outdoor public events. Meanwhile, $500,000 escaped DeSantis’ veto pen to fund a water clean-up project at Mead Garden that will leave an impact on the greater region’s environment.
“We were disappointed to learn the city’s Police Department Vehicle Threat Mitigation project was included as one of the $1.7 billion projects vetoed by the Governor,” Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said in a statement. “We are, however, grateful for the approval of the Mead Garden Regional Nutrient Reduction grant that remained funded at $500,000. This grant will meaningfully support the city’s efforts to regionally improve water quality throughout the interconnected lake systems of Winter Park and Maitland, benefiting both Orange and Seminole counties.”
State Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, who sponsored both funding requests on the Senate side, elaborated why he thought the Governor vetoed the $62,500.
“I’m disappointed for the community, but I think it speaks to the Governor’s focus on truly regional needs over a request by a single municipality, favoring projects that benefit multiple municipalities, like a watershed project. It’s not always the case but that is what was portrayed to me,” Brodeur said in a statement.
Last year, Winter Park Police previously received $62,500 from the state and bought security barriers — a trailer with eight barriers and a gate — that will protect Watermelon 5K runners and Fourth of July event-goers this weekend.
Winter Park Police Chief Tim Volkerson said he had been hopeful to receive the same amount of money this year to buy more barricades.
“We will continue to seek alternative funding opportunities to acquire equipment to enhance community safety for our public events,” Volkerson said in a statement. “This is a continuous process as technology and the landscape of public safety evolves.
Barriers purchased by Winter Park Police last year help protect pedestrians and businesses along Park Avenue during special events. (Photo courtesy of Winter Park Police)
Winter Park City Commissioner Warren Lindsey shared the same sentiment that he was dismayed about the police funding veto.
“It was a very practical and necessary security protection that would really benefit thousands of citizens, not just Winter Park citizens, but citizens throughout Central Florida that attend different concerts and events around and in Central Park,’ Lindsey said in an interview. “Anything that we can do to enhance their protection is just a win for everybody and it helps provide peace of mind.”
Lindsey also said he was thankful DeSantis did not axe the $500,000 to filter excessive nutrients from Alice’s Pond in Mead Garden.
“It’s really one of our crown jewels of Winter Park,’ Lindsey said of Mead Garden.
He thanked Brodeur and state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, who had sponsored the funding in a bipartisan effort.
DeSantis vetoed about half of Eskamani’s projects, according to Eskamani, who is often a fierce critic of the governor.
Eskamani said she was grateful the Mead Garden funding survived, calling it a crucial non-partisan issue to protect the environment. She had also been optimistic it would advance because DeSantis himself has campaigned on water quality through his term, she said.
“This is going to be a really important investment,” Eskamani said. “All of our bodies of water are interconnected, and when we’re able to create improvements with one of these major parks, it absolutely will impact the entire community.”
Ahead of the DeSantis vetoes, the Florida TaxWatch criticized state lawmakers for sponsoring $380 million worth of water projects in the state budget which the group dubbed as “budget turkeys” in its annual report. The group said its opposition wasn’t targeting the value of the water projects but the budget process itself since the lawmakers-supported projects circumvented a formal, competitive review.
When asked about Florida TaxWatch’s criticism, Eskamani said, “I definitely think there can always be more transparency in the state budget.”
She added, “With that said, water projects tend to be some of the most important projects with a lot of merit” and argued Florida needs more grants for inland communities to clean up their lakes and rivers.
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 25, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News
No Promises Made to Blue Bamboo
The nonprofit music venue did not receive the assurances it was seeking from the City Commission that there was room to renegotiate the lease for the old library building
June 25, 2026
By Beth Kassab
No clear resolution emerged Thursday from a contentious meeting over the future of the Blue Bamboo, which was seeking a rent reduction or some other accommodations from the city government to continue operating in the old library building.
But none of the five commissioners expressed support in the work session for changing the terms of the Blue Bamboo’s lease, though Commissioner Elizabeth Ingram suggested handing the lease to another arts organization that could perhaps sublease space to the nonprofit music venue.
At issue, is the Blue Bamboo’s ability to meet its lease obligation when the rent is scheduled to double in August without subleasing the second and third floors.
Blue Bamboo Director Jeff Flowers said no arts organizations can afford the necessary rent on those floors and that he’s also been hampered by construction delays. He said he wants the flexibility to divert from the original vision of transforming the building into an arts hub and, instead, potentially lease space to non-arts nonprofits or commercial businesses.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio quickly countered that she’s heard from a number of arts groups and the problem is not that they can’t afford the rent, but that they can’t work with Flowers and other leadership at the Blue Bamboo.
“We have letters from people who said they could not deal with you,” DeCiccio said, noting that Flowers and Blue Bamboo Founder Chris Cortez dictated the amount of the rent and other terms and were made aware of issues in the building that would need to be addressed during construction.
“You came to the commission with the rent figures,” DeCiccio said to Flowers. “We didn’t fight you on that. You gave us those.”
Flowers said the assertion that other arts leaders were unable to work with him on lease terms is false.
But Theresa Smith-Levin stood up to talk about why Central Florida Vocal Arts walked away from dealing with the Blue Bamboo nearly a year ago after working with the organization for more than a year to secure the city lease as well as a grant from Orange County funded by hotel hotel tax money.
She said she was shocked to read in Flowers’ recent memo to the commission that CFVA “lacked the financial capacity” to meet the lease.
She pointed to her organization’s tax return that showed stronger financial growth and capacity than the Blue Bamboo.
Smith-Levin said her group had no problem assuming half the rent or about $11,000 per month.
What she said she was unwilling to do was accept what she called a “bait and switch” of terms such as restricting CFVA’s operating hours to only before 5 p.m. and capacity limitations. She said the terms were unworkable for an arts organization that relies on evenings to host rehearsals and provide lessons for students.
She said the terms were in “direct contradiction” to the conversations she had with Cortez, who died of brain cancer last year just months after she walked away from the deal.
Flowers said he was “misrepresented” and asserted their disagreement actually hinged on whether CFVA could rent out space to others.
At one point, Ingram — whose own background is as an opera singer — suggested Smith-Levin’s group could take over the main lease of the building and rent space back to the Blue Bamboo so that it would not lose its investment in construction on the building.
Commissioner Warren Lindsey asked Flowers if he had a Plan B if he were unable to continue to meet the terms of the lease.
Flowers offered that he did not want to lose his organization’s more than $2 million work on the building.
“First, the plan is let’s work together and come up with a plan that works for both of us,” he said.
A number of people from the community spoke in favor of the Blue Bamboo and the opportunities it provides for younger musicians as well as the paying gigs it provides professionals.
DeCiccio, the only commissioner who voted against the lease in 2024, suggested that perhaps Flowers could attempt to secure additional grant dollars that would allow the organization to move to its own building.
Lindsey echoed that point, saying he appreciated the venue’s contribution to the arts, but that the commission needed to protect its interest in a highly-visible building.
“We have to be good stewards,” he said. “It’s a city asset.”
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 25, 2026 | City Commission, Historic Preservation, News
Commission Approves Merrywood Lot Split on Lake Osceola
The owners and prospective buyer agreed to hold off on demolishing the estate until a required second vote by the City Commission likely later this summer
June 25, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The owners and prospective buyer of Merrywood, the nearly 90-year-old estate on Lake Osceola at the center of Winter Park’s latest historic preservation debate, agreed to hold off on demolishing the property until a required second City Commission vote that would make it possible for the large lot to be split in two.
The commission voted 3-2 on Wednesday to change the comprehensive plan to allow for a split that would only apply to 1020 Palmer Ave. but added conditions: the combined total of two new homes that could be built on the lots would not exceed 30,000 square feet and at least one be fashioned in a style adjacent to architect James Gamble Rogers II, the local architect who built Merrywood and is known for helping to shape the city’s aesthetic character.
The city’s rules typically prohibit lakefront lot splits, which is why the prospective buyer, Tara Tedrow, asked for a special exception in the form of a plan amendment.
While a permit is already in place would allow for the home to be bulldozed any day now, the owners and Tedrow, who has the property under contract, verbally agreed to hold off on demolition until the second reading of the comprehensive plan change — likely in about two months.
Tedrow has said she would like to build a home for her family on a portion of the nearly 4-acre lot while the other half is sold to someone who would restore Merrywood or tear it down to make way for new construction. The land is estimated to be worth more than $10 million as the single largest lot on Winter Park’s highly-sought after Chain of Lakes.
People from the community provided conflicting opinions at the meeting about whether or not the house could be restored or was beyond the point of saving. And whether the additional time agreed to on Wednesday would make a difference.
Cathy Gilmer, who owns the home with her brother, told the commission her mother lived in Merrywood from the mid 1970s until she died there about a year ago.
She was adamant that a local historic preservation designation, which would allow the city to stop demolition of the property, “isn’t ever going to be pursued.”
“No one wants to or is able to pay for it,” Gilmer said of her family home that she said is now in disrepair. “This is an unfair position to put us in, especially given the efforts over the past year to find someone to preserve the house.”
But advocates such as Friends of Casa Feliz, another Gamble Rogers showpiece that was moved, restored and now a popular destination and public venue, did not begin outreach to the preservationist community or help market the property until earlier this year.
“Casa Feliz had our first conversations with Ms. Tedrow and Mr. Mick Night [Gilmer’s real estate agent] in late January of this year and I’d say our efforts began in earnest, trying to put the word out in February of this year, so a few months,” Betsy Owens, executive director of the group and granddaughter of the architect, told the commission.
The property was considered a pocket listing, not uncommon for exclusive homes, and was never broadly advertised on the MLS or the Multiple Listing Service used by real estate professionals.
She also corrected Tedrow’s claim that Gamble Rogers grew up in a cabin that now stands preserved in her parents’ backyard, a story Tedrow has told multiple times to demonstrate her personal interest in historic preservation.
“My grandfather actually didn’t grow up in a cabin in Winter Park,” Owens said. “He grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, and moved here when he was 29.”
But Owens’ main point to commissioners is that they could resurrect the city planning staff’s recommendation to allow for a lot split on the condition that the home is designated as historic.
Planning & Zoning Director Allison McGillis based the recommendation on a previous comprehensive plan change that allowed for a lot split on New York Avenue that involved designating another lakefront Gamble Rogers house as historic while carving out a new lot from the property that is not on the lakefront. McGillis said in the case of that property, the sale of a new home on the newly created lot helped finance the restoration of the historic home.
Owens noted that city commissioners recently tasked the Historic Preservation Board with coming up with ways to encourage more people who own eligible homes to list them on the local register. There are fewer than 30 true examples of Gamble Rogers’ work remaining in Winter Park.
“Creating a valuable buildable lakefront parcel, but in return, ensure that the historic resource is not demolished … I can not imagine a more powerful preservation incentive than this,” she said. “To say we want incentives and then to reject this opportunity would be inconsistent. I also want to be fair. No one can guarantee that Merrywood will be saved if the lot split is denied. But Merrywood has never truly been tested on the open market as a preservation opportunity.”
The Planning & Zoning Board, which heard Tedrow’s proposed comprehensive plan earlier this month, opted to approve it and rejected the staff proposal that included a condition that the home be designated as historic.
The city attorney indicated the comprehensive plan change wasn’t advertised publicly as including the historic designation condition, meaning the process would potentially need to start over again.
Several commissioners said they viewed private property rights as a key issue in the debate.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said there is no hope to save the house and said it would be “punishing” to attempt to require it to be designated as a condition of the lot split approval.
“They have done everything they can to try to help make it happen. It has not happened … Now we want to punish them and say, well, because you wouldn’t agree to it [historic designation] we’re not going to allow the lot split … You can’t make the policy so punishing,” DeCiccio said. “When these people built the house, I’m sure in their wildest dreams they didn’t think that someone would come forward 50 or 60 years later and say, because I’m a descendant of the architect, this house needs to be designated. You can’t do that. People have a right to designate it or not. They grew up in it.”
Commissioners were also persuaded by the idea that if the lot was sold as is the house could be torn down and replaced with what would be the largest single home in the city — up to 56,000 square feet based on the acreage and city code.
DeCiccio along with commissioners Kris Cruzada and Craig Russell voted in favor of the plan to allow the lot split. Commissioners Warren Lindsey and Elizabeth Ingram voted against it.
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 23, 2026 | City Commission, Environment, News, Taxes, Utilities
Winter Park Residents to Pay More for Electricity and Water in Proposed Budget
Higher electric bills for Winter Park are likely to be a trend in the coming years, according to projections
June 23, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park residents and business owners will pay more for water and electricity under budgets approved by the city’s Utilities Advisory Board on Tuesday.
The proposed budgets, which require ultimate approval by the City Commission by the end of the summer, call for the non-fuel portion of electric rates to increase 7.7% beginning at the start of the new financial year in October while water rates will increase 4.46%.
Translated to dollars on utility bills, Winter Park residents who use about 4,000 gallons of water per month pay roughly $54 today and that would go up to about $57 (an estimated $2.49 increase), still below the regional average of just higher than $60.
But for electricity, the price change would put Winter Park above the average for municipal utilities in Florida with fewer than 100,000 customers.
Winter Park would become the fourth most expensive with rates at just under $141 or so per 1,000 kilowatt hours or an increase of about $7. The rate today is just under $134 and is 10th most expensive.
The proposal follows a 4.8% increase residents saw this year over 2025 in their total bills, including a 7.44% increase in the non-fuel portion of the bill.
Higher rates don’t just support the utility, but also help prop up the city’s general fund responsible for paying for police, fire, parks and other essential services. The city collects a 6% franchise fee on electric bills so when rates go up so does the amount of dollars transferred to the general fund. The proposed budget for 2027 shows a $256,000 increase to $3.2 million transferred to the general fund.
In the case of both the city’s water and electric utility the cost of providing services is going up faster than the city’s revenues, Finance Director Wes Hamil told the advisory board.
For about 20 years, the city has had an ordinance that called for water rate increases to mirror the increase allowed by the Florida Public Service Commission, which this year is 2.46%
“However, those rates have not been adequate to cover the cost increases being experienced,” read Hamil’s presentation to the board.
The picture is even more stark on the electric side where projections show a series of rate increases will be needed in the coming years. Higher rates are necessary, according to the documents, to keep up with the rising cost of providing power to the city and projects such as undergrounding electric lines and paying off the debt the city took on to purchase the utility from Duke Energy (then Progress Energy) 20 years ago.
Winter Park has enjoyed years of providing some of the lowest costs in the region.
“It’s a little unrealistic to expect that will always be the case because we’re doing things others aren’t,” Hamil said, pointing to debt from the purchase and undergrounding.
By 2030, there is projected to be a nearly $10 million gap between the amount of revenue brought in by rates and the amount that will be required to run the operation, according to a preliminary cost of service study discussed by the board on Tuesday.
The study projected that rates will need to rise an average of 6.3% for each of the next five years to balance the budget.
The city of Winter Park doesn’t generate it’s own power and relies on contracts from other utilities like OUC and Florida Municipal Power Association.
The OUC contract expires at the end of this year and FMPA ends the following year. Costs are expected to go up as those contracts are renegotiated.
Also up for debate will be the city’s net metering policy or how it pays customers who generate power through their own rooftop solar panels.
More than 200 customers do so in Winter Park and that number has been rising in recent years, according to the presentation.
At issue is whether Winter Park will continue to credit them at what is known as the “retail rate” or the lower “wholesale avoided energy cost” or some combination of the two.
Budget hearings will begin at the City Commission next month.
Update: A previous version of this story has been updated to reflect more exact numbers provided by the city of Winter Park of electric bill averages before and after the proposed rate increase.
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 22, 2026 | City Commission, Historic Preservation, News, Zoning and Development
Commissioners Voice Support for Split of Merrywood's Lakefront Lot
A vote on the lot split is scheduled for Wednesday’s City Commission meeting. Whether or not the split is approved, it appears Merrywood will be demolished.
June 22, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The City Commission appears poised to grant special permission this week for a lakefront lot to be split into two when attorney Tara Tedrow asks to divide the Merrywood property to allow for her to build a new house on Lake Osceola.
Three out of five commissioners signaled during a Monday afternoon work session that they favored the lot split that would only apply to the 3.67-acre parcel at 1020 Palmer Ave. where the largest and most ornate residence by architect James Gamble Rogers II stands, at least for now.
The more than 80-year-old house is likely to be demolished after Tedrow solicited help from historic preservation advocates to find a buyer for that half of the lot and no one came forward with an offer.
“We really tried to get the word out nationally, but certainly locally to anybody who was interested,” Tedrow, a land use attorney at the Lowndes law firm, said. “There’s a lot of people who were interested in the idea of it. Then they came, and they said no to the scope and scale of renovation, or just the cost.”
Mick Night of Sotheby’s International Realty joined the work session by phone and said he’s shown Merrywood to 100 or so people, including what he characterized as 15 to 20 people with the potential to buy the property. But no offers came in.
“You’re dealing with, aside from the condition of the house, you’re dealing with functional obsolescence, the design of the house … you know, Gamble Rogers was notorious for building lakefront homes that didn’t even take advantage of the lakefront views,” Night said. “… you’ve got a compartmentalized floor plan, you’ve got a formal floor plan, you’ve got a kitchen that is, you know, 10 by 10. I can go on and on and on, but regardless, you’re dealing with structural issues, mold issues, ongoing water intrusion issues and other things.”
He said he’s been involved in all six home sales in Winter Park that have closed above $10 million and predicted the Merrywood lot would be the seventh. He suggested the value of the land alone would be about $13 million for the 3.76 acres.
Cathy Gilmer, who now owns the house along with her brother after their parents died, wrote a letter to city officials explaining that her parents intentionally kept the house off the city’s historic register and that “the house (and the land it sits on) was my brother and I’s inheritance from them.” She said in recent years the house became “unlivable” after water pipes burst and a lack of heat or hot water because the system still runs on oil.
“Over the last year we have looked into what it would take to restore, preserve or even make the house livable again and the unfortunate fact is that we (and even the most well-intentioned preservationists who have toured the home) do not have the finances to undertake such a project,” she said. “The truth of the matter is that every day the house remains standing costs money we don’t have, falls into further disrepair and is not contributing anything to the community. It is basically a waste.”
She said her family has also been upset by recent break-ins at the home.
“On top of all of this we have had to deal with several break-ins and thefts from people who feel they have the right to take memories and pieces of our family’s history, which for anyone that has experienced anything like this knows, is an emotionally taxing experience,” Gilmer wrote. “While this might just be a house to some people, it was the house I grew up in; my family’s home. A house which everyone now has an opinion on and feels they have a right to, and yet, nobody seems to care about the people that lived and grew up in it.”
Tedrow, who grew up in a house next to Merrywood, has had the property under contract since August. She has said she would like to divide the property in two and sell one lot while building a home for her large family on the other.
The change she is requesting to the city’s comprehensive plan, a state-required document that details how a local government will manage its land and grow over a number of years, would not permit any other lakefront lot splits in Winter Park because no other existing lots meet the size requirements or zoning conditions such as 150 feet of frontage on both the lake and the street.
Commissioner Warren Lindsey, who along with Commissioner Elizabeth Ingram voiced concerns about approving the lot split, noted that there are 360 lakefront lots in the city and at least three others are also larger than three acres. Fifteen or so are greater than two acres, he said, referring to statistics he asked Planning & Zoning Director Allison McGillis to research.
While he said he cares about historic preservation, Lindsey said his larger concern is that more lakefront homeowners will come to the city seeking comprehensive plan amendments to divide their valuable lots. He called the prospect a “slippery slope.”
“Other properties may not be exactly the same,” he said. “But they could make a credible argument that they should receive consideration.”
Ingram said she was disappointed by what appeared to be a doomed fate for Merrywood and the idea that the decision came down to money rather than historic value and character.
“People just want to get the most money out of it,” she said. “Personally, I feel that can be a misconception for these houses … it does contribute to people not wanting to put their house on the historic register.”
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio along with commissioners Kris Cruzada and Craig Russell appeared in favor of the lot split and persuaded by the idea that keeping the lot at its current size would allow a buyer to knock down Merrywood and build a more than 56,000-square-foot home in its place. That would be larger than the house just down the street at 926 Palmer Ave. — dubbed “The Odyssey” by owners Marc and Sharon Hagle — that is some 40,000 square feet.
“What you’re going to get is if you get a mega house on there, you’re going to get those great big green boxes, like in the front of the Hagle’s house, that are commercial … that are so noisy that that’s the whole thing you can see when you come down the avenue,” DeCiccio said referring to the utility boxes installed on Palmer to support the large home.
Russell said he agreed that such a large house out was generally out of scale with most of the other development in Winter Park.
“It’s very delicate and unfortunate,” Russell said. “So it stinks that it’s come to this. A 56,000-square-foot-house? That’s like Drake’s house or 50 Cent’s house.”
Cruzada said he “struggled” with the decision, but ultimately reasoned the lot split is good for the city’s tax base as well as keeping home sizes in scale.
DeCiccio said she hoped a survey underway by an architecture firm for the city to catalog what historic houses remain and what has already been demolished will help in formulating a plan to save other significant homes before they “get to the point Merrywood did.”
“That’s what I see as the goal,” she said. “And this is a hard lesson that we’re having with this house, but at least it woke us up that we now have to do something.”
A vote is scheduled on the lot split request at Wednesday’s City Commission meeting.
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