by Beth Kassab | Nov 12, 2025 | City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
Backyard Palm Trees on Lake Spark a Pricey Legal Battle in Winter Park
A homeowner is suing the city over a decision that the height of his landscaping must be limited to help maintain the lake view of his neighbors
Nov. 12, 2025
By Gabrielle Russon
A fight over two palm trees has cost the city of Winter Park nearly $29,000 in legal fees so far.
Jonathan Cole, the owner of a newly constructed 5,300-square-foot home at 721 Virginia Dr., filed a legal challenge to keep a pair of backyard palm trees that his neighbors say impede their view of Lake Virginia.
Cole is asking Orange Circuit Court to overturn a decision by the city — and a construction condition Cole originally agreed to — that limits landscaping behind his house to less than six feet in height.
Winter Park spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said in a statement, “The case has been fully briefed and is in the hands of the three-judge panel for a ruling. We have been given no indication as to when that ruling might be issued.” She said no settlement talks are currently underway.
Cole’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
A photo of Cole’s backyard included in the court file shows the palm trees in question.
Cole argued he should be allowed to keep his trees since his interpretation of the Planning & Zoning Board’s decision is that the height limit doesn’t apply to his entire backyard, only the property line.
“This is a case of local government overreach and cries out for reversal,” he said in his February court petition. “Almost every single home on Lake Virginia has either very large trees on or near its property line running down to the lake or very large privacy hedges — and this includes the eastern neighbor who’s the one that complained about this.”
The tall, skinny palm trees don’t ruin anyone’s view, Cole’s legal team said when the issue went before the Winter Park City Commission in January. But several city officials said they were concerned about setting a precedent to allow the palm trees and unanimously voted to uphold the P&Z Board’s 2021 decision. Cole then filed a circuit court challenge.
Winter Park officials said the six-foot limit is reasonable to protect his neighbors, and Cole had been given more than his fair due process.
With the approval of P&Z, Cole “got everything that he asked for (all the square footage, construction closer to the lake, all the coverage of property, etc.) but was merely required to be considerate of his neighbors by restricting the height of the landscaping behind his home to no more than six feet,” the city said in an August court filing in response to Cole’s complaint, which is part of the hundreds of pages of court records.
The city also pointed out that Cole and his attorney both agreed to the six-foot requirement at the time in 2021. Cole missed the 30-day window to challenge the P&Z decision.
Construction was delayed on Cole’s house, and the lakefront landscaping was finally installed last year. That’s when his neighbor alerted the city about the two palm trees and overgrown holly shrubs.
Cole maintained he was in compliance, while the city called the plantings a violation of the original agreement.
Both Cole and his neighbors made emotional arguments to the City Commission earlier this year.
Neighbor Michelle Randolph said Cole already received special permission to build his home and now he wanted more.
“He was granted a major privilege to be able to build a house of this size and to be able to shift the house against the code … towards the lake,” Randolph told commissioners in January, according to court records. “This is what we were given as residents — just the common courtesy of please don’t plant anything over six feet. Like, you’re getting the house you want. You get to move it towards the lake. Please don’t plant anything over six feet.”
She insisted the palm trees did affect her lake view — even more so because of the house’s ultimate location.
Cole said he was exhausted by the construction process and has worked to satisfy his neighbors.
“Clearly I’m being painted as this guy that’s built a privileged monstrosity,” he told city leaders. “I’ve tried to be neighborly. I’ve tried to have discussions.”
When construction started, his daughter was 12; now she is 16, he said. Cole bought the vacant lot in 2020 for $2.1 million, according to Orange County Property Appraiser records. The property’s value was assessed at about $3.8 million this year.
“I’m sick of dealing with the stress of building a house,” Cole said. “At this stage, I want to be done with it. I don’t have time to fight this forever. I’m shocked that I’m here talking about palm trees.”
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 23, 2025 | City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
New Racquet Club Building Approved With Even More Conditions
Also approved: New Jewett Ortho Building and a Raise for the City Manager
Oct. 23, 2025
By Beth Kassab
The Winter Park Racquet Club won approval for a new building in the residential enclave off Lake Maitland known as the Vias after a contentious debate with neighbors that included a final-hour meeting before Wednesday’s vote that led to additional conditions imposed on the 72-year-old private club.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to allow the demolition of a two-story house on Via Tuscany and construction of a new single-story fitness center, tennis shop and offices with 12 new conditions on top of the nine rules recommended by the Planning & Zoning Board. Commissioner Warren Lindsey, who said he was a former member of the club, was the only dissenting vote.
The sentiment of the people who live in the neighborhood was mixed with several residents who live closest to the club still urging commissioners to vote against the project.
Dr. Scott Greenberg, a recently retired plastic surgeon who lives directly across the street from the club, said he was part of the meeting that resulted in the new conditions.
“We felt we had to agree to them because we didn’t have a choice,” said Greenberg, who asked commissioners to cast a “no” vote and said there was a “culture of mistrust” because he was led to believe the home at 2011 Via Tuscany would be left as it when the club purchased it in 2015.
Marci Greenberg told the Voice that the club was hardly noticeable when she and her husband moved to their home, but has since grown significantly with more traffic, noise and lights from the tennis and pickleball courts.
Hillary Turner, who lives nearby and whose mother lives directly next to the club, echoed that point in front of the commission on Wednesday.
“When we moved to this property in 1980 most of the hosuess didn’t have pools,” she said. “They didn’t need them because everyone swam at the racquet club. The racquet club, at that time, was a neighborhood club. It has now transformed into a club within a neighborhood.”
She said the club’s size over the years has more than doubled to 500 members and many don’t live in the neighborhood.
Clay Coward is a member of the club who lives less than a mile away and said he supported the club’s plans and noted the number of times smaller homes in the area have been torn down and replaced by large “mansions.”
He showed the commission several photos of homes along Via Tuscany, including one he called “Hotel California” because he said it’s reminiscent of the Eagles album cover. The house is about 9,000 square feet, has eight bathrooms and what appears to be a six-car garage — not unusual attributes for the lakefront neighborhood of multi-million dollar homes.
Coward suggested the club’s redo of the house at 2011 Via Tuscany into a 6,300-square-foot mediterranean style building would fit right in.
Rob Carter, one of the club officers who has led the project, said he has tried to work and collaborate with the neighbors.
“This has been a long road,” he said, noting that the club has “readily agreed” to multiple conditions.
He said the current house could not be renovated because its age, old windows, low ceilings and a pool in the backyard the club would not want to use made it cost prohibitive.
The new building he said will provide not only a new small gym and locker rooms for members but, for the first time, a separate area for staff to eat meals and staff restrooms.
“Right now there’s no break room or segregated bathrooms,” he said.
The club agreed to following new conditions on top of the nine already set by Planning & Zoning.
- Keep or replace the existing podocarpus hedge at the front of the property and added additional hedges to fill in the property line.
- Cars cannot be parked in the circular driveway off Via Tuscany except for special events, which will be limited to five cars.
- No parking can occur on the lot before construction begins.
- The club can not host large events for non-members unless it’s member-sponsored.
- The size of events must be capped to eliminate the need for on-street parking.
- Must plant podocarpus hedge on the northern property line adjacent to the home at 2175 Via Tuscany.
- Must add glare shields to the lights on the pickleball courts.
- Must turn off lights on tennis and pickleball courts when not in use.
- Must cap membership at the current 500 members.
- Eliminate existing ads for event space online or in print publications.
- Must allow the podocarpus hedge in front of the pickleball courts to grow to the height of the fence surrounding the courts.
- Compliance with the conditions will be monitored with the typical code compliance procedures.
During the commission meeting the additional conditions were added: there must be blinds or curtains on the new gym window facing Via Tuscany, the club must establish a neighborhood relations committee and the club can not add signs to the front of the building (which it wasn’t proposing to do).
New Jewett Building for Orlando Health
Orlando Health won approval on Wednesday to build a new Jewett Orthopedic Institute on Gay Road and Trovillion Avenue not far off U.S. 17-92 across from Winter Park Village.
The 27,000-square-foot, two-story building will combine five lots that are mostly vacant today and will replace the longtime Jewett offices 1285 Orange Avenue.
Jewett became part of the Orlando Health hospital system in 2020 and also has a large office in downtown Orlando near the hospital’s main campus.
In 2019, the commission approved an office development for the property, but the development never happened. That approved plan included a 6-foot masonry perimeter wall and lush landscape to buffer the development next to the Chateaux du lac and
Killarney Bay condominiums.
The new conditions call for a perimeter fence and a perimeter hedge along those property lines.
Raise for City Manager
The board also approved a 3% merit raise for City Manager Randy Knight and thanked him for his longtime dedication to the job.
Knight, who has worked for the city for more than 30 years and as city manager for 18 years, earns $274,393. He plans to retire in 2027.
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 20, 2025 | City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
Commission to Consider Racquet Club Expansion This Week
Also up for consideration is the city manager’s evaluation and salary
Oct. 20, 2025
By Beth Kassab
A controversial expansion planned by the exclusive Winter Park Racquet Club will look to the City Commission this week for final approval.
Some residents in the neighborhood known as “the Vias,” a posh enclave between the shores of Lake Maitland and Temple Drive, oppose the changes at the club, which they say already lights up their quiet street like a “Walmart” or “McDonald’s” at night with pickleball courts, tennis courts and events.
The meeting on Wednesday is likely to feature debate on the plans, with call for the white-columned two-story home at 2111 Via Tuscany to be torn down and replaced with a larger one-story building to house a new fitness center, locker rooms, tennis shop and offices for the club. The proposal was approved earlier this month by the Planning & Zoning Board in a 5-1 vote.
This home on Via Tuscany will be demolished if the Racquet Club’s plans are approved to make way for the proposed building pictured above.
Conditions of the approval by P&Z include the following, according to the staff report:
- The driveway on Via Tuscany will be an entrance-only access point.
- WPRC can not increase its membership.
- Hours of operation of the new building will be limited to 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily,
including deliveries.
- No new lighting will be provided in the grass parking lot behind the new building.
- All non-required lights for safety purposes be shut off by 10:00 p.m. daily.
- As part of the tree removal permit for the 25 and 27-inch oaks, double the required
compensation shall be required, at four six-inch canopy trees, subject to Urban Forestry
approval and be planted at least 15-feet from the southern property line
wall or fence.
- Narrow the proposed driveway to 12 feet at the entrance on Via Tuscany and
the exit onto Tom Gurney Drive. The width of the middle portion of the driveway may be a maximum of 14 feet.
- Conduct a comprehensive photometric analysis of the entire WPRC campus to confirm that all lighting is fully shielded at the property boundaries and implement any necessary measures to eliminate light spillover onto adjacent properties.
- Shut off all pickleball lights by 8 p.m., instead of the current cutoff of 9 p.m., daily.
The City Commission has the ability to accept, reject or change any of the conditions when it meets on Wednesday.
Raise for City Manager?
The Commission on Wednesday will also take up its annual evaluation of City Manager Randy Knight, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the city and its 500 employees.
Knight, who has worked for the city for more than 30 years and as city manager for 18 years, earns $274,393 and is eligible for up to a 3% merit increase.
Commissioners gave him an average rating of 3.8 on 4-point scale of leadership and performance metrics, according to city documents.
On a list of other cities with a city manager form of government provided to commissioners, Knight was the highest earner in Central Florida with the exception of the Villages, which isn’t actually a city but a collection of unincorporated retirement communities with more than 80,000 residents. It pays its district manager $324,000, according to the document.
The city of Winter Park has about 30,000 residents.
Several South Florida cities on the list such as Miami Beach (pays $298,000 with 83,000 people), Naples (pays $325,000 with 20,000 people), Cape Coral (pays $330,000 with 223,000 people) and Ft. Lauderdale (pays $350,000 with 190,000 people) also boasted higher salaries.
Knight has said he plans to retire in early 2027.
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 9, 2025 | City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
P&Z Board Approves Racquet Club Expansion with Multiple Conditions
The plans must still win approval from the City Commission
Oct. 9, 2025
By Beth Kassab
The Winter Park Racquet Club made it over the first hurdle this week toward an expansion in the neighborhood known as “the Vias,” one of the city’s poshest enclaves between Lake Maitland and Temple Drive.
In a 5-1 vote, the Planning & Zoning Board approved plans with three new conditions to tear down the white-columned two-story home at 2111 Via Tuscany and allow the private club to build a larger one-story building to house a fitness center, locker rooms, tennis shop and offices.
A view of the club’s pickle ball courts from Via Tuscany.
A crowd of neighbors — some who have planted red signs that say “Stop WPRC Commercial Expansion in our Neighborhood” in their front yards — attended to meeting to speak against the project with some comparing the tenor of the lights and activity at the club to a “Walmart” or “McDonald’s.”
Chairman Jason Johnson was the lone dissenting vote. Vashon Sarkisian, Charles Steinberg, David Bornstein, Alex Stringfellow and Michael Dick voted in favor. Bill Segal was absent.
Johnson said the changes appear as “commercial creep” in a residential area and said the term “sprawling campus” is “probably not an inaccurate description of what has happened with the club” that dates back to 1953.
“Is that to be expected?” Johnson asked. “Maybe, I guess? But this does sit in the middle of a residential neighborhood and at some point you’ve got to say I think it’s enough.”
A rendering shows what the new Winter Park Racquet Club building will look like at 2011 Via Tuscany. The white home pictured above will be torn down.
The project and conditions must ultimately be approved by the City Commission.
Planning & Zoning members added the following conditions:
- The circular driveway in front of the new building will be limited to 12-feet wide at the entry and exit points and 14 feet in the interior. That’s a reduction from the 20-foot driveway proposed by the club after neighbors and board members expressed concern the space would essentially serve as a parking lot. The club’s original proposal called for striped parking in front of the new building, but it revised those plans after hearing concerns last month.
- The club must conduct a photometric study or an analysis of the lights emitted by the club, including pickleball and tennis courts, to make sure it’s compliant and does not interfere with nearby homes.
- Play on the pickleball courts, which sit closest to Via Tuscany, must end at 8 p.m. instead of the current 9 p.m. cutoff.
City staff also called for additional conditions such as the driveway access on Via Tuscany be an entrance-only; the club can not increase its membership; hours of operation for the new building will be 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the new building; no new lighting can be added in the grass parking lot and the new paved section must use “low-scale bollard fixtures rather than traditional pole-mounted lights;” all non-safety required lights be off by 10 p.m. daily and the removal of two oak trees result in double the typical compensation.
The club’s general manager did not immediately return a call for comment on the new conditions.
Rob Carter, the club’s volunteer president, said at the meeting that the club serves mostly Winter Park families, many who live in the neighborhood and walk or bike there. The home that will be torn down, he said, is outdated and will be replaced with a “safer one” that is compatible with the neighborhood and will not increase the intensity of the club’s operations.
“I do take some offense to the idea that we’re not trying to be a good neighbor,” he told the board, emphasizing that he incorporated residents’ feedback into the latest proposal and has offered to meet with people who live nearby and have concerns.
Demolition on Isle of Sicily
The P&Z board also approved plans by owners Kamran and Mina Khosravani for a new 10,400-square-foot home at 3 Isle of Sicily, meaning the current house originally built by famed local architect James Gamble Rogers II will be torn down.
The original home known as Four Winds dates to 1930 and sat at just 1,800-square-foot in the French provincial style. But the home had been altered significantly over the years and Jack Rogers, an architect and son of Gamble Rogers, said the damage to its integrity and history had been done long ago.
A rendering shows the proposed new home at 3 Isle of Sicily.
The project was approved unanimously by the board with little discussion and no public comment.
Over the years the number of Gambles Rogers homes in Winter Park has dwindled from about 50 to 15 or 20, Rogers said.
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 7, 2025 | City Commission, Historic Preservation, News, Zoning and Development
Upcoming Demolitions: At Racquet Club, a Gamble Rogers House and Park Ave Apartments
Two city advisory boards will consider the three projects this week
Oct. 7, 2025
By Beth Kassab
One of Winter Park’s most exclusive hang-outs wants permission to demolish a 5,400-square-foot two-story building at the front of its property and build a larger one-story structure to house a fitness center, locker rooms, tennis shop and offices.
The Planning & Zoning Board will consider the proposal Tuesday evening by the Winter Park Racquet Club, a private club that dates back to the early 1950s on Lake Maitland that offers swimming, dining, pickleball and tennis with initiation fees that run upwards of $22,500, according to one document that advertised a job posting there.
The changes at 2111 Via Tuscany have drawn criticism from neighbors on the residential street who say they are worried about commercial-like development, traffic and noise. As a result, the proposal has gone through revisions since the concept was tabled at the Sept. 2 Planning & Zoning Board meeting.
“The style will add cohesion to the rest of the club buildings, including the original clubhouse which was designed by [local architect James] Gamble Rogers,” read a description submitted by the club. “It will also mimic the aesthetics of neighboring homes, and the intent is for people driving by to assume that it is a residence that has been here all along.”
Residents expressed concerns about the disruptions to be caused by construction, light pollution, parking and other issues, according the minutes of a neighborhood meeting.
“I am extremely concerned that this project continues to seek to convert this house into a commercial multi-use facility,” Marci Greenberg, who lives across the street, wrote to the city, one of a number of emails received about the project. “With the new plans, there will still be a significant increase in traffic, parking in front of the building (as the new circular drive is 20 ft wide which is as wide as Via Tuscany) and an increase in noise. The current house, as such, contributes to the character and ambiance of the neighborhood. The proposed building looks commercial and detracts from our residential neighborhood.”
A sign in the neighborhood near the Racquet Club opposes changes there.
The club manager did not return a call for comment, but documents say the club is on a “membership waitlist” and is not accepting new members, meaning the project is not intended to allow any growth or expansion of services.
In response to concerns, the club has removed from the plans new parking that was to be added in front of the building and replaced it with a circular driveway.
City staff is also requesting other conditions such as the hours of operation remain the same, no new lighting be added and most exterior lights (other than for safety purposes) be turned off by 10 p.m.
Noise issues are also being addressed, according to the staff report.
“[The club] is proposing a six-foot acoustic sound barrier behind the eight-foot podocarpus hedge in front along Via Tuscany to screen the parking and buffer the noise concerns raised by the neighborhood,” it said. “This sound barrier will be the same barrier used to buffer the pickleball courts that is designed to reduce noise levels in outdoor settings and is made of a dense, soundproofing composite, and unlike a solid and rigid concrete wall, it both blocks and absorbs sounds more effectively.”
Another Gamble Rogers House Likely Gone
Not far from the Racquet Club is a secluded peninsula that stretches into Lake Maitland from its eastern shore called the Isle of Sicily — one of the city’s richest streets. James Gamble Rogers II, who also designed the racquet club, constructed the first home on the isle about 1930, an 1,800-square-foot French provincial home known as Four Winds that the famed architect lived in with his family until 1949.
Now the house at 3 Isle of Sicily is likely to be torn down as part of a plan to builder a larger home on the property.
A view of the home at 3 Isle of Sicily today as recorded by the Orange County Property Appraiser.
Over the years, the house was renovated extensively and now sits at more than 7,000-square feet.
Owners Kamran and Mina Khosravani, who acquired the property in 2011, are looking to build a new home that will top 10,400 square feet.
The home is not on the city’s historic register so the owners don’t need permission to demolish it, but will ask the P&Z Board today for approval of the new lakefront construction.
A rendering shows proposed new construction at 3 Isle of Sicily.
Jack Rogers, architect and son of Gamble Rogers, said he’s sorry to see the house come down, but it hasn’t looked like the original in decades.
“Unfortunately, the damage was done 50 or more years ago,” Rogers said. “The original house is completely gone.”
His father, who is also known for the Florida State Supreme Court Building in Tallahassee and the Olin Library on the Rollins College Campus, built about 50 houses in Winter Park, he said. His papers and plans are preserved at the Winter Park Library.
“There’s probably 15 or 20 left and eight or 10 are absolutely precious and we seem to be losing them at the rate of one or two a year,” Rogers said. “We still have several wonderful examples.”
Park Ave Apartments Face Demo for Townhomes and Synagogue
The apartment buildings dating back to 1922 known as El Cortez could be demolished to make way for new townhomes and a new synagogue if the Historic Preservation Board approves a proposal up for consideration on Wednesday.
The board tabled the request at its Sept. 10 meeting in order to see if the developer could save one of the three buildings at 210 E. Morse Blvd. that are part of the Interlachen Avenue Historic District. The property is also the last R-4 zoned land just off Park Avenue that has yet to be redeveloped.
The El Cortez Apartments along Morse Boulevard.
The city discourages demolition of so-called “contributing structures” to historic districts such as El Cortez, but does approve knock-downs when preservation isn’t feasible.
The property owner and applicant for the project, a company called El Cortez LTD and managed by AGPM founder Scott Zimmerman, said the buildings represent a “frame vernacular style,” but have been significantly altered over time with no original exterior materials or features remaining.
The new development would create townhomes on Morse and a synagogue along Knowles Avenue. Staff received 32 letters in support of the project and one against, according to documents related to the meeting.
In the 1920s the building were constructed as upscale apartments amid growing demand for more housing in downtown Winter Park and near Rollins College. Over the years, a number of notable people lived there, according to National Register of Historic Places documents, such as “physician Benjamin Hart; Christopher Honaas, director of the Rollins College Conservatory of Music; Flora Magoun, secretary to the Conservatory; Margaret Windau, district director of the Florida Welfare Board; Helen Drinker, proprietress of a women’s fashion shop on Park Avenue North; and William Stein, a Romance Languages professor at Rollins College of Jewish descent who had recently immigrated from Austria to avoid Nazi persecution.”
Rogers said his dad told him he also stayed at El Cortez while Windsong, the Isle of Sicily property also likely set for demolition, was being constructed.
City staff is recommending approval of the project with the following conditions: A historic marker be placed there to commemorate the historical significance of the property and that the demolition not occur until the owner has a building permit from the city to ensure development plans don’t change between the time of the tear-down and new construction.
New Historic Survey Considered
The Historic Preservation Board will also on Wednesday consider a contract with Orlando-based KMF Architects for $75,000 to survey the city’s historic assets.
The proposal calls for updating the 2001 and 2013 surveys and will include an evaluation of Mid-Century Modern architecture (1950s-1970s), a era that hasn’t previously been surveyed citywide.
The work on Mid-Century Modern work will include a focus on Orwin Manor “to support the city’s consideration of a potential historic district designation.”
Four historic districts already exist in Winter Park — Downtown, College Quarter, Virginia Heights East and Interlachen Avenue — and those will be evaluated to determine if any non-contributing buildings now meet criteria for contributing status.
The survey will update records and remove properties on previous surveys that have since been demolished to produce a detailed report with photos that is both “informative and user-friendly,” according to the architects’ proposal.
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by Beth Kassab | Sep 19, 2025 | City Commission, Election, News, Uncategorized, Zoning and Development
Rethink Zoning Laws? Author Argues Rules Impair Upward Mobility
The Winter Park Chamber offered a zoning history lesson at its annual Outlook luncheon and set the stage for a contested city commission race with Michael Carolan likely to run against Elizabeth Ingram
Sept. 19, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Betsy Gardner called on city leaders and residents to rethink zoning laws that she says have protected anti-development interests and blunted the opportunities for new housing in Winter Park.
Gardner said the city’s desire to remake Fairbanks Avenue near Interstate 4, now part of the Community Redevelopment Agency, is Winter Park’s next chance to prevent more strip centers and encourage the kind of growth that will attract families and new residents.
“This conversation about land use is also a conversation about who gets to belong,” she said, though she added, “We do not support the replication of the density we see in Maitland.”
Yoni Appelbaum, pictured above, spoke at a lunch hosted by the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
Gardner’s remarks came at the chamber’s annual Outlook lunch, which explores topics related to economic development. This year’s keynote speaker was Yoni Appelbaum, who wrote, “Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity.”
Appelbaum, also deputy executive editor of The Atlantic and a historian, discussed how Americans “invented a profound human freedom” known as upward mobility. For more than a century, people were free to move beyond the station in life they were born into and toward prosperous city centers with jobs, social currency and a solid supply of housing stock.
That meant families moved many times, each time upgrading the kind of home they lived in.
But that’s not the case today, he said, as housing is often unaffordable and hard to come by in the places considered most desirable because of proximity to jobs and lifestyle amenities. (Case in point: Winter Park, where the median housing price is $700,000 or more, according to some sources.)
“Americans have stopped moving to the most prosperous places. People now move away from those places and to where the housing is cheap,” Appelbaum said. “Many have the sense that something has gone wrong in their lives .. that some element of the American promise has been broken.”
That’s the kind of loss of community and disenfranchisement credited with sweeping President Donald Trump into office and remaking the focus of the Republican Party.
Appelbaum stayed away from politics in his talk, but said the root of that shift dates back to the beginnings of zoning laws that came about as a way for those already settled in a place — mostly rich and white homeowners — to keep out others who were new and different.
He pointed to early laws in Modesto, CA that segregated Chinese laundry workers into what ultimately became known as “Chinatown” because white homeowners did not like that the workers were also living in their places of business. In 1885, Modesto outlawed laundry facilities “except within that part of the city which lies west of the railroad track and south of G Street,” the book reads.
And zoning laws, often dictating where certain types of businesses could operate, were born.
Later came height caps on buildings in New York City to drive up prices and push sweatshops farther to the outskirts. And historic preservation laws in Charleston, S.C. that he says served to stunt the city economically in the name of preserving a past that depended on enslaved people.
“What I find useful about the past is the ability to imagine different presents and different futures,” he said. “I am not here to tell you to abandon historic preservation or abandon zoning. What I do want for us to all think about is what we’re all after.”
In one passage of his book he discusses how he can see three large apartment buildings going up out his own window that will combine to a couple thousand new units, including more than a fifth described as “affordable.”
“Like all new developments, it leaves a good deal to be desired,” he wrote. “The architecture strikes me as blandly corporate. Local regulations, historic preservation and participatory planning have combined to limit the development on the site to just a fraction of what it might have held … Although I have little affection for cookie-cutter six-story apartment buildings, I don’t want to repeat Veiller’s error of mistaking my own aesthetic judgments for the public good.”
Those apartments, he noted, will mean upward mobility for some families.
Gardner said what happens in the Fairbanks corridor is up to residents and called on attendees — which included Mayor Sheila DeCiccio and commissioners Craig Russell, Marty Sullivan and Warren Lindsey along with city administrators — to use their power in the voting booth in March when two city commission seats are on the ballot.
At a recent workshop commissioners discussed potential rule changes, including lowering transportation impact fees, to encourage development. There appeared to be support for “quality, mixed-use development with a multi-family, workforce housing component, and to develop a comprehensive approach with the Planning and Zoning Board and Economic Development Advisory Board,” according to minutes of the meeting.
In a brief interview after the program, Gardner told the Voice that many people “lost trust” in the public process after the original development guidelines for the Orange Avenue Overlay were overturned, in part by DeCiccio and Sullivan.
Asked who she would support in the March election, she introduced attorney Michael Carolan, chairman of the real estate department at Winderweedle, Haines, Ward and Woodman, as a candidate for Seat 1 on the commission to replace Sullivan, who is retiring after two terms.
Carolan, who was chairman of the chamber board in 2020 and has also served on the board of the Coalition for the Homeless in Central Florida, said he plans to run but has not yet made it official by turning in paperwork to the city clerk.
Elizabeth Ingram is also seeking Sullivan’s seat and officially launched her campaign this week with an email to residents that said she is committed to “protect the qualities that make Winter Park special — its historic charm and small-town character, parks and recreation, and strong sense of community — while planning responsibly for the future.”
The trained opera singer currently serves on the Public Art Advisory Board and led the Dommerich Elementary Parent Teacher Association and is the only person who has officially opened a campaign account so far.
Russell, who serves in Seat 2, has said he plans to seek re-election.
The official qualifying period for the election runs from Dec. 1 to Dec. 8.
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