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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by Beth Kassab | Jun 4, 2026 | Historic Preservation, News, Zoning and Development
P&Z Board Approves Controversial Split of Lakefront Merrywood Lot
One board member called the outcome a ‘special favor’ for the buyer of the ornate estate that appears fated for the bulldozer
June 4, 2026
By Kathryn Brudzinski
A split vote by the Planning & Zoning board this week gave the go ahead for one of the largest lakefront lots in Winter Park to be split in two, a move that at least one board member who opposed the split called a “special favor” for the buyer and one others decried as the probable end of the nearly 90-year-old estate known as Merrywood.
Tara Tedrow, who has the property under contract, asked the board to amend the city’s comprehensive plan to allow the 3.7 acre property at 1020 Palmer Ave. to be split into two lots. Tedrow, a land use attorney at the Lowndes law firm, has said she would like to build a home for her family on the new lot and sell the portion that includes the old vacant home that preservationists have tried to save in recent months.
The vote was 4-2 on Tuesday with Bill Segal, Alex Stringfellow, Charles Steinberg and Samuel King in favor of the amendment to allow the lot split and Michael Dick and Jason Johnson opposed. Board member Vashon Sarkisian was absent.
A sign at the edge of the driveway on Palmer Avenue helped cement the estate’s name among locals. (Beth Kassab)
The matter will next go to the City Commission for final approval.
While much of the discussion centered on if the home could be saved, Johnson said to him the issue was never about that.
“The question for me is whether the new policy that’s being proposed by the applicant is either the right way to go about getting the relief she wants or good for the city of Winter Park,” Johnson said, just prior to the vote. “My answer to both of those is no.”
He said the city’s comprehensive plan includes a policy to preserve lakefront lot estates in order to “perpetuate the unique character of Winter Park that sets it apart from other cities throughout Florida.”
“I think that policy exists for a very good reason,” Johnson added. “…The applicant is seeking a new policy that she acknowledges would apply to one single parcel of real property in the city of Winter Park. That, to me, screams special favor for one property owner, and I’m just generally against that from a policy perspective.”
A demolition application was already filed for Merrywood by owners Cathleen and Raymond Gilmer, siblings who inherited the estate from their parents, who bought the 1939 home on Lake Osceola in 1977. Tedrow facilitated the demolition permit, she said, to initiate an earlier conversation with the Historic Preservation Board to see if any ideas emerged for saving the house.
She also said extensive efforts had been made to work with “preservation-minded and historic designation-minded groups in the city and outside of the city” to find a potential buyer for the home since August. But no one stepped forward to buy the house with the goal of restoring it.
“We have put forth a significant amount of effort,” Tedrow said. “…We’ve had nearly 100 people, not open houses that anybody could come to, but nearly 100 vetted people who wanted to save this house come, and not one of them submitted an offer afterward. Everybody just wanted somebody else to do it, and that’s the unfortunate reality that we’re in.”
A view of the front entrance to Merrywood. (Beth Kassab)
In addition, she said she commissioned a structural engineering report to see if the house could be “made realistically livable,” though never submitted the report for fear of being accused of “tainting the water” regarding the sale.
“Our report shows that the foundation is settling,” Tedrow added. “There are incredible structural problems that the recommendation was not to save the house, and this company could have profited from the efforts to save a house, and it was recommended to not.”
According to the city staff’s report, Tedrow’s justification statement for the split argued the current comprehensive plan prohibition on splitting lakefront lots was “intended to prevent excessive subdivision of lakefront properties, but that the subject property represents a unique circumstance due to its size and zoning.”
Staff noted that the property’s 1938 residence was listed on the Florida Master Site File, but is not designated on the city’s historic register, leaving city officials without any power to stop demolition.
“Although the applicant’s proposal would facilitate the creation of an additional lakefront lot, staff has concerns regarding the potential demolition or loss of the historic residence, as well as the broader precedent associated with permitting additional lakefront lot splits,” the staff report reads.
Instead, staff recommended an alternative modification to the city’s comprehensive plan to allow for certain lakefront lot splits if the change is tied to the preservation and designation of historic homes constructed prior to 1950.
Johnson asked Tedrow if it’d be “safe to say” she would not be in favor of the city’s alternate proposed policy change as she’d know she’d have to designate the home as historic and would “never be able to sell that.” She said yes.
“I received an unsolicited call from a historic homeowner in the city of Winter Park, who said, ‘Just so you know, when you get your historic house on 1020 Palmer, you won’t get home insurance’,” Tedrow replied, adding the caller had said her home insurance was cancelled on her own historic home.
Some Winter Park residents disagreed with Tedrow’s claims of troubles with home insurance, like Aimee Spencer, a former member of the city’s Historic Preservation Board, who said her own 100-year-old house was able to be insured without issue. The sentiment was later echoed by John Skolfield, who serves on the historic board, who said his own home is insured despite being built in the 1920s and that Tedrow’s claim was “just not true.”
Tedrow addressed the disputes about homeowner’s insurance, stating she’d brought up the call she received as an example of issues people had presented to her as part of the home buying process.
She added that she understood the desire for the house to be saved, emphasizing that perhaps pieces of the home could be preserved if the estate is demolished.
“If the reality is this house is coming down, if there’s anything you want to save … if there’s parts you want to salvage and take for something, we are open to all of that,” Tedrow said.
Others spoke in support of the lot split, like resident Scott Peelen who said he resides about 1,000 feet from Merrywood and believed the proposal to be a good solution for the “blighted area.”
“It’s been run down for a long, long time,” he said. “I know everyone in this room is here because they love Winter Park…All of us want what’s best for it.”
Support also came from some on the board, such as board member Bill Segal who said he understood the love for the city’s historic homes but that the board’s job was to do what’s best for the city.
“They mean a lot in Water Park, but the public doesn’t own it — it’s privately owned,” Segal said. “Some members of the public really strongly want to preserve this thing, and we heard some of them tonight, but I walked through this home…it’s just in terrible shape, so I think we just need to get rid of this idea that [it’s going to be saved].”
Skolfield, who owns the construction and renovation firm Skolfield Homes, disputed the idea that the home couldn’t be saved, saying it simply came down to price.
“Merrywood is realistically livable — maybe not for $15 million, but it can be done,” Skolfield said. “…It is possible. It may not make the world’s best financial sense. But you know, when we’re on our deathbed, is that really what’s going to matter? Maybe the art matters, too.”
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by Beth Kassab | May 12, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
Blue Bamboo Pulls AI School Sublease from City Commission Agenda
The president of the arts group that rents the old library from the city of Winter Park said it will “take a pause” on the idea of renting out the second floor to a private school
May 12, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The leader of the Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts said on Tuesday morning that he would pull a request from this week’s City Commission agenda a request to rent out the second story of the group’s venue to an artificial intelligence-driven private school.
The sublease request, first reported by the Voice on Friday, prompted a number of community questions about whether the for-profit school to be run through a Winter Park couple’s disaster relief foundation met the original intent of creating an arts hub in the old city library building.
“The Blue Bamboo Board of Directors has decided to take a pause on the agenda item at this time,” read a message from President Jeff Flowers to the group’s supporters. “We feel that the issues the sublease raises will be better addressed by requesting a city work session where the best use of the facility can be addressed.”
Todd Weaver, a former city commissioner who was instrumental in securing the lease for Blue Bamboo during his tenure, is now the group’s vice president.
The Commission, including Weaver, voted 4-1 in July of 2024 to lease the building to the small nonprofit arts venue. Mayor Sheila DeCiccio was the only no vote after she questioned the group’s financial sustainability. Before the Blue Bamboo won the lease, Rollins College was aiming to repurpose the building into a new art museum.
The venue opened in the summer of 2025 and just months later Blue Bamboo founder and musician Chris Cortez died from brain cancer.
But questions about the future use of the building were already mounting. Just months before Cortez died Central Florida Vocal Arts, which had partnered with Blue Bamboo to secure the city lease as well as a nearly $1 million Orange County grant for the venue and was planning to occupy the second floor, walked away from the deal when the two groups couldn’t come to terms.
That left Blue Bamboo without a sublease to help meet a higher rent obligation to the city that is set to begin in August.
Blue Bamboo’s lease payment is scheduled to increase from $132,000 a year to $276,000 a year in three months.
The proposed sublease to Matthew and Paige Wideman’s Love & Life Foundation was the first concept for the second floor to be brought to the commission since Central Florida Vocal Arts opted against moving forward with Blue Bamboo.
The draft lease calls for the foundation, which says it specializes in helicoptering in aid after hurricanes and other disasters, to pay an annual rent of $198,000 for the second floor, or about $18 per square foot for 11,000 square feet.
The lease between Blue Bamboo and the city calls for the second and third floors of the building to be renovated within two years for “arts education, recording studio and local non-profit use.”
Matthew Wideman told the Voice he planned to use the space to start a location of Alpha School, a for-profit model of private school founded in Austin, Texas that has been lauded by the Trump administration and where tuition is expected to be about $45,000 a year.
The Alpha model calls for students to spend about two hours a day on core subjects such as math using AI-led instruction. Human staff members — known as “guides” rather than teachers — spend the rest of the day helping students develop business, public speaking and other project-based skills.
“The school shall not have more than 50 students, and will not accept school vouchers funded by the State of Florida for those students’ tuition or expenses,” according to a copy of the lease posted with the City Commission agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.
The idea, Flowers told the Voice last week, was to use the music and arts expertise of Blue Bamboo to help instruct students at the school.
City spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said commissioners will now discuss on Wednesday whether to hold a potential work session about the lease at a later date.
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by Beth Kassab | May 11, 2026 | Arts and Culture, News, Zoning and Development
Big Changes Felt on Park Avenue with 'Disruptive' Construction Underway
George’s Cafe owner says the ‘Refresh’ project is hurting business while other sections of the avenue are undergoing a transformation with high-profile closures and new construction for the Rollins art museum and, potentially, a city garage
May 11, 2026
By Beth Kassab
On a recent afternoon, George Paul checked over receipts for the day’s business at George’s Cafe, known for piled-high sandwiches and from-scratch cookies bigger than a fist.
“I lost money today,” said Paul, who has operated the shop in the former Brandywine’s Delicatessen spot on North Park Avenue for six years and, before that, at a location on Lee Road. “And it’s not just today … the sidewalks are torn up. There’s barricades. For our older clientele, it looks hazardous. Our business is down by two-thirds.”
George’s sits in the middle of the first block — from Swoope to Canton avenues — of Park Avenue closed last month as part of the city’s three-year, estimated $8.5 million effort to refurbish underground wires and piping, contain tree roots, upgrade streetlights to a higher-tech model, smooth sidewalks and install other aesthetic changes such as new garbage cans and planters.
Paul said he’s adjusted his hours during the construction to account for fewer patrons.
While city officials see the project, known as the Park Avenue Refresh, as a much-needed antidote for aging infrastructure, merchants are bracing for a temporary dose of pain.
George’s Cafe during construction for the Park Avenue Refresh. (This photo and above photo courtesy of the city of Winter Park.)
“It’s going to impact every business, including ours, at some point, but it’s just one of those things,” said Alan Chambers, co-president of the Park Avenue District and vice president of operations for John Craig Clothier, which operates two stores on the avenue. “We all lived through the major refresh of 30 years ago and it brought tremendous benefits to Park Avenue. When it’s all said and done, it costs us all a little bit of frustration.”
A New Era for the Avenue
Brand Melville opened on Park Avenue in April.
Chambers was referring to the last major series of infrastructure projects on Park, including bricking over paved sections of the road, which started in the mid-1990s when phones didn’t yet have cameras, the O.J. Simpson trial dominated television and the old Winter Park Mall on U.S. Highway 17-92 still stood before it was demolished to make way for Winter Park Village.
Now, the latest refresh project is coinciding with a number of monumental changes that will usher in a new era for the oldest and most celebrated shopping and dining district not just in the city, but across Central Florida.
Park Avenue counted 3 million visitors last year, up from 2.1 million in 2020 and 2.7 million in 2019 before the pandemic. The data is based on consumer tracking software used by the city government that captures unique U.S.-based cellphone signals, meaning some international visitors may not be included in the totals.
Customers check out the newly opened Brandy Melville on Park Avenue on a recent afternoon.
Last month, the opening of Brandy Melville, a popular Gen Z brand known for its minimalist aesthetic and beachy vibe, brought lines of customers waiting to enter. Videos posted to TikTok showed a queue of mostly teen and college-age women wrapping around the corner at Morse Boulevard to check out the store, which has been criticized as discriminatory toward some body types for its policy of selling just one size per style (generally the equivalent of a small).
On a recent weekday, 23-year-old Valentina Orive said she drove 45 minutes to shop there — a short distance compared with the three hours she once drove to visit other locations in South Florida.
“I like the quality of the clothes a lot,” she said, noting the Winter Park store, which replaced the Lily Pulitzer, is larger than the others she has visited, except for one in New York City. “They just have really good basics.”
Love Brandy or hate it, some other merchants took advantage of the foot traffic, Chambers said, with at least one nearby boutique, Through the Looking Glass, offering discounts to customers who showed a Brandy Melville receipt.
Longtime Institutions Face Change
Meanwhile, other institutions along the avenue are calling it quits.
Miller’s Hardware, the longest continuously operating family-owned business there, will shut its doors for good sometime during the second quarter of this year after more than 80 years, setting the stage for redevelopment of the block fronting Fairbanks Avenue.
Stephen Miller, owner and grandson of the founder, said he made the decision for multiple reasons that “took the wind out of my sails.” His son, Clay — whom he anticipated would take over the business — died unexpectedly in 2019 at age 29 and, he said, the business simply doesn’t generate enough revenue compared with what the property is worth.
As for what he will do with the prime piece of real estate, Miller isn’t yet saying.
Miller’s Hardware has been run by the same family for more than 80 years. It plans to close in the coming months.
“The future of the property is to be determined,” he said. “I’m weighing options.”
Miller said he would like to see the current batch of city commissioners consider allowing “more density” as aging buildings are redeveloped.
“The plumbing on Park Avenue kept me in business … that stuff is old,” he said. “The City Commission just needs to let there be more density so they can support rebuilding a lot of places people love.”
Behind the Scaffolding
One spot now undergoing an interior demolition and rebuild is 310 Park Ave. S., where the longtime eatery of the same name closed at the end of 2024.
Dyar McComb of Great American Land Management Inc. declined to be interviewed about the work underway at the building owned by the Holler family through a company called PA Partners LLLP, which owns multiple buildings along the avenue.
Signs beneath the construction scaffolding out front display the logo for Oak & Stone, a concept by Artistry Restaurants, the Winter Park-based group that also operates Boca and The Chapman on Park.
Chambers said some people were surprised by the work on the block between New England and Lyman avenues, but the exterior of the 100-year-old building will remain the same.
Construction scaffolding covers the front of 310 Park Avenue South, a sign of more changes to come on the avenue.
“There wasn’t anything inside that looked historic, and I’m not sure if anything had ever been replaced, so it’s going to be a wonderful change for that building,” he said. “The Hollers are going to do a good job on that. They are tremendous partners in the city and in the district.”
People forget, he noted, that “at one point that entire space was an Olive Garden and then Fat Tuesday.”
That was before the first refresh project three decades ago, when part of the street was still paved rather than brick and no one had even heard of Y2K much less streaming in 4K.
More Changes on the Horizon
With the latest refresh project well underway, even larger changes are afoot beyond shifting storefronts.
City officials are considering building a three-story garage behind City Hall to ease parking frustrations with 120 new public parking spaces on top of the 145 required for city employees and operations.
An architectural rendering shows the exterior of a new Rollins Art Museum.
And Rollins College is constructing a new 30,000-square-foot art museum across from The Alfond Inn, just blocks from Park Avenue, that will also alter the equation for foot traffic and parking.
The museum is set to open in 2028, the same year the third and final phase of the Park Avenue Refresh — from New England to Fairbanks avenues — is scheduled to take place.
George’s Block to Reopen
As for George’s, Paul said he is grateful his catering business is doing well but wishes the city would do more construction work at night or on weekends, when it would be less disruptive to his breakfast-and-lunch cafe.
Clarissa Howard, who is leading the refresh project, said some work related to the stormwater system will be done at night, particularly when workers must close the entire street.
Each block closure, which includes shutting down one lane of traffic with detours, will last about four weeks, she said.
“There’s always going to be disruption with any kind of construction, but we’re not there for months and months at a time,” Howard said. “It’s four weeks and the infrastructure we’re putting in will last four decades.”
She said the stretch in front of George’s is set to reopen this week and the project will continue moving block by block south toward Fairbanks Avenue.
“We’re definitely hurt,” Paul said. “I don’t know … I wish there was a solution to this. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when they go down the street.”
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by Beth Kassab | May 6, 2026 | City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
Former Orlando RV Dealership Plans Move Forward
A proposal for new retail and restaurants along West Fairbanks Avenue netted board approval following a postponed vote last month due to traffic concerns from local residents
May 6, 2026
By Kathryn Brudzinski
After a stalled vote due to lingering traffic concerns, a commercial redevelopment for the former Orlando RV dealership site located along West Fairbanks Avenue is moving ahead following unanimous approval on by Winter Park’s Planning & Zoning Board.
On Tuesday, board members voted 6-0 to approve plans to construct four one-story buildings totaling 29,760 square feet for shops and restaurants on the property owned by the Holler family through DI Partners LLLP. The project, which still must be approved by the City Commission, is contingent on conditions set by the P&Z board.
Planning & Zoning Director Allison McGillis said the owners were asked to make revisions to the architecture of the buildings as well as create a plan for Holt Avenue, which “could include either a striping plan demonstrating dedicated on-street parking or enhancements such as a widened sidewalk and improved pedestrian buffer.”
“They updated the plans to reflect that condition, and then also decided to move forward with parallel parking along Holt Avenue,” McGillis added. “…They were able to accommodate 13 parallel parking spaces, so they satisfied that plan by kind of providing both options — an enhanced pedestrian experience with the larger sidewalk, as well as the [landscape] buffer, and then the 13 parking spaces.”
Not including parallel parking, the project plans to provide a total of 199 parking spaces overall, which exceeds the minimum code requirement of 175 spaces.
Z Development Services Chief Executive Bob Ziegnefuss, who is managing the project, said the updated plans reflect the directions previously given by board members and that they’ve “done everything that’s [been] asked” of them.
“Wanting to create that separation from the driving public and the walking public…we’ve accomplished that by creating the separation with those parallel park cars and also with that wider sidewalk for pedestrian safety,” Ziegnefuss said.
A new rendering shows adjustments made to the building’s architecture.
At least some residents still expressed concerns over traffic.
“We want to make sure that we can actually enter and exit our properties without having to check our blood pressure right afterwards,” said Sonia McClean, a resident of 36 years who lives on North Kentucky Avenue. “…We just want to make sure that it doesn’t create more imposing traffic into our area and add more cut through traffic.”
Ziegnefuss noted the project’s developer would also be making a right of way dedication on both the north and south side of Fairbanks to help with the city’s desire to create a left turn lane coming from westbound Fairbanks and southbound Denning Drive.
“We’re contributing and trying to help to the greatest extent possible here with the development plan that we’re putting forward,” Ziegnefuss said, later adding that the development would also cooperate with any future traffic studies conducted by the city’s transportation department in the area.
Susie Stein, another resident of North Kentucky Avenue, asked if any thought had been given to timing the nearby intersection’s traffic lights to run longer so as to allow more vehicles through.
Planning & Zoning Chairman Jason Johnson said light timing came up during the April 28 workshop about traffic concerns in the area.
“Once the turn lanes are put in, and you have that change in the intersection, the lights will be re-timed,” Johnson explained. “We can’t guarantee what that’s going to mean, but that will happen when the turn lanes are put in.”
Board member Michael Dick said he was “always a little apprehensive” of what the project would look like, but no longer had those concerns because the proposal is “understated from what could have been there.” The sentiment was echoed by Johnson, who said he’d shared a similar worry but was instead “heartened” by the “under built, over parked” proposal that’d come instead.
“I’ve long said that development isn’t a dirty word — if it’s attractive in scale and fits within the charm of the city of Winter Park, it should be encouraged,” Johnson said.
Still, he added, board members would continue to share the concerns of local residents along Kentucky Avenue regarding traffic in the area, especially for traveling westbound onto Fairbanks coming southbound from Denning Drive.
“It’s a nightmare intersection,” Johnson said. “Hopefully, it will be improved with the addition of those turn lanes and the retiming of the lights. But as I said at the last meeting, that’s not really the applicant’s issue, it’s really more the city’s issue and [the Department of Transportation’s] issue.”
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by Beth Kassab | Apr 28, 2026 | City Commission, News, Orange Avenue Overlay, Zoning and Development
Plan for Former Orlando RV Dealership Draws Traffic Concerns
Residents close to the West Fairbanks Avenue property welcome new retail and restaurants but fear repercussions of bringing traffic to an area already considered congested
April 28, 2026
By Kathryn Brudzinski
Plans for a commercial redevelopment at the site of the former Orlando RV dealership along West Fairbanks Avenue are stalled, for now, after residents brought up concerns related to parking and traffic.
Winter Park’s Planning & Zoning Board will meet at noon today for a workshop to discuss the project and traffic concerns in the area of Fairbanks, Denning Drive and Kentucky Avenue. No vote is scheduled until the following board meeting on May 5.
During the board’s April 7 meeting members opted to push the vote until next month after hearing from nearby residents and representatives of the Holler family, which owns the property through DI Partners LLLP. Roger Holler III, great-grandson of Bill Holler – the former vice president of General Motors who founded the family’s automotive business – is listed as president of the company in state records.
DI Partners wants to build four one-story buildings totaling 29,760 square feet for shops and restaurants at the former RV dealership.
Though there appeared to be support for the concept, including a recommendation for approval from city staff, people who live nearby raised questions about parking and traffic.
“We just want to make sure it’s managed and mitigated so that way we maintain the accessibility and the safety for our neighborhood, for drivers, as well as pedestrians and cyclists,” said Sonia McLean, who lives with her husband on Kentucky Avenue. “…We’ve always embraced our commercial neighbors. We understand that concessions have to be made, we just want to make sure that we don’t lose the flexibility and charm of our neighborhood.”
Documents submitted to the city show the location of the proposed development to be known as Fairbanks Crossing.
The project’s approval is subject to certain conditions and other requests by the city, like the inclusion of on-street parking along Holt Avenue “to help calm traffic, provide additional convenient parking for patrons and create a safer and more comfortable pedestrian environment.”
Z Development Services Chief Executive Bob Ziegnefuss, who is managing the project, said the group plans to address each of the city’s conditions for approval, but said some issues like street parking would offer a “very limited benefit” as the project could likely only offer six to seven spaces.
“The concern that we have on the applicant side of this is that this could be an extensive cost for a small community benefit here to get that street parking, but we do want to look at it,” Ziegenfuss said. “We are committed to help and do what we can. I guess we want to hear tonight as part of the discussion, what’s the true desire here? There’s two different things that happen in a situation like this – is the desire to get parking or is the desire for traffic calming?”
While the project plans to provide a total of 199 parking spaces overall, exceeding the minimum code requirement of 175 spaces, concerns from residents centered around a desire for both accessibility to parking as well as measures to limit traffic.
Winter Park attorney Frank Hamner, longtime representative of the Holler family companies, said the goal is to construct the redevelopment in compliance with code while still satisfying the city’s needs and seeking the “least possible number of variances.”
“Even though we can under park this spot or park to code, we’re overparking,” Hamner said. “This is not us trying to force something through and asking for a bunch of variances. This is a long, thought out two-and-a-half to three-year process to get to where we are today.”
Renderings show what the proposed project could look like from Fairbanks Avenue.
Susie Stein, another Winter Park resident located on North Kentucky Avenue, said she is excited about the project, but her primary concerns also centered on parking, safety and how the increased traffic would affect her neighborhood.
“I know that they have overcompensated for the parking, but I don’t know how you control people from parking in this new shopping area who are going to be at the baseball games at Rollins, doing other things in the neighborhood,” Stein said. “So then the overflow parking is going to end up on our street, which is a very, very narrow street already, and when cars are parked on both sides, you are literally squeezing yourself through.”
The proposed redevelopment, which provides access from Holt Avenue and Capen Avenue, intentionally avoids offering direct vehicle access to Fairbanks Avenue and Denning Drive.
But Winter Park resident Brian Barnard, who also lives along North Kentucky Avenue, said the traffic on Denning Drive is at a point where it’s “already overloaded,” causing travel issues for him currently.
“My house is on the west side of Denning, and I can’t get out of our alley in order to get onto the street,” Barnard said. “I have to drive down Denning, probably two or three blocks, then turn around…I’m not saying that I don’t want this project — I just want us to be a little bit thoughtful.”
Board member Alex Stringfellow acknowledged residents’ concerns, saying there’s “an existing issue with traffic” in the area, but that when developments are reviewed by the Planning & Zoning board “traffic is not considered the applicant’s responsibility.”
“In this case, generally speaking, [the applicant’s] contributions to the city to provide turn lanes and so forth… is offsetting mathematically, what the traffic impact is,” he said. “[We] hear what you’re saying and definitely understand that there’s safety concerns out there. There’s a limited amount that we can do here on this particular item, because it represents a small percentage of the existing issue and contributes a small percentage of the ongoing issue.”
Board members ultimately agreed concerns regarding traffic and safety warranted further discussion before any approval could be made. As a result, the workshop was scheduled for today at noon.
“My gut feeling is that answering what makes sense on Holt Avenue from the applicant’s perspective and based on what’s existing out there may provide some answers to safe travel through that area, what parking is going to look like and how people will move in that area,” said Alex Stringfellow. “I don’t want to promise that all these problems are going to go away — it’s a very congested area.”
Correction: A quotation in the original version of this story was incorrectly attributed to Planning & Zoning board member Jason Johnson. The quotation has now been attributed correctly to Alex Stringfellow.
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