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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by Beth Kassab | Apr 24, 2026 | City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
Preempted Again. New FL Law Prohibits Cities from Protection Against Damage from Internet and Cable Companies
Plus, the ordinance allowing construction of five Habitat for Humanity homes in partnership with Orange County Public Schools gains first necessary approval
April 24, 2026
By Kathryn Brudzinski
Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio expressed frustration this week that the state government is, once again, impeding the city’s ability to govern itself.
This time officials said they had no choice but to toss out a pair of ordinances designed to protect city roads, pipes and other assets from damage that sometimes occurs when communications companies such as AT&T or Spectrum run underground lines.
The new rules, which were scheduled to be voted on by the City Commission this week and would have required a bond from communication companies to pay for potential damage to the public right of way, were modeled off similar ordinances in Winter Garden.
City pipes, irrigation systems and roads often take on damage when the private companies move overhead lines underground or install new lines.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 488 into law on Tuesday.
The bill includes a provision that limits cities like Winter Park from enacting financial protections against damages and other requirements on communication companies. As a result, both Ordinance 455 and Ordinance 456 are now unable to move forward, leaving the city with no choice but to find another way to protect itself.
DeCiccio said it can often be difficult for the city to seek financial restitution for broken pipes and other problems that occur from the private companies’ construction. According to the staff report, Florida statutes previously allowed municipalities to hold utilities “responsible for any damage resulting from the installation or maintenance of such facilities.”
“However, the governor signed Senate Bill 488 just yesterday and that won’t allow this,” DeCiccio said. “So, we’re going to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do.”
Ryan Mathews, a lobbyist who represents Winter Park and other cities in Tallahassee, provided commissioners with an update on the recent legislative session and said the limitations on city governments was ”tucked” into a large transportation bill and hadn’t received much discussion.
“It’s not a problem unique to Winter Park,” Mathews, of the GrayRobinson firm, said. “We hear quite often that contractors who cause damage are very slow to, if at all, ultimately pay for that damage. It’s certainly an issue that is ongoing.”
In Tallahassee, he added, larger bill packages often see provisions placed in the latter part of the legislative session at which point “there is very little that can be done about it.”
Still, DeCiccio questioned what the city could’ve done to combat the efforts of communication company lobbyists to include the provision if it’d been known about ahead of time.
“We could have made calls, we could have had you lobby on our behalf, because this is really bad for the cities,” she said. “This isn’t just Winter Park, this is all cities. This is terrible for us, it does nothing to help us.”
In recent years, the Florida Legislature and DeSantis have taken other steps — often referred to as preemptions — to limit the powers of local governments. Cities and counties can no longer protect the rights of residential renters, can’t enforce worker protections such as rules to prevent heat stroke for those who labor outdoors, must enforce a statewide ban on homeless people who camp in public spaces and can no longer regulate the use of Styrofoam products or artificial turf.
Habitat for Humanity and OCPS housing project nets first approval
Commissioners unanimously approved a zoning change this week to allow five Habitat for Humanity homes for public school employees to be built on the former Orange Technical College campus.
Habitat for Humanity of Winter Park-Maitland will be responsible for the development of five houses on the back end of the property along Webster Avenue still owned by the Orange County School Board.
The move is part of a greater effort by Orange County Public Schools to offer affordable homes to workers faced with the county’s housing crisis. ,“The plan would be to divide that area of the property into five single family lots,” said Planning and Zoning director Allison McGillis. “The only hiccup with the proposal is that within the PQP zoning district, detached single family zoning units are not permitted. So, the Commission gave direction to staff to move forward with this ordinance.”
In addition to the zoning change to allow the homes to be constructed, the Winter Park City Commission also offered up to $200,000 in funding for funding of water, sewer and other utility infrastructure for the property. The money had originally been allocated to help Habitat acquire new lots for homes, but the commission pivoted to the partnership with OCPS as a result of soaring land prices in Winter Park.
Jeff Briggs, the city’s former planning director who serves as treasurer for the local Habitat organization, said the project is moving along and explained its lease would cover much of the information commissioners may still have queries about.
“It’s the lease that answers your questions — it commits this property only to be used for homes owned by Orange County public school employees,” Briggs explained. “So if it’s time to sell, then they’re going to sell and recycle to other Orange County public school employees. They also have to remain income qualified, which means they’re not going to sell for half a million dollars, because the income qualified person couldn’t afford that.”
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by Beth Kassab | Apr 20, 2026 | City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
Could New Garage Near City Hall Solve Park Avenue Parking Woes?
City officials recently agreed to explore a public-private partnership to build a garage to alleviate perceived shortage of spaces in business and shopping hub
April 20, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park will put out a call for ideas to build a new multi-story parking garage near City Hall, the latest step in the city’s chase to solve what many consider to be a parking crunch near Park Avenue where street parking has traditionally been free.
The decision resulted from a discussion earlier this month at a meeting of the Community Redevelopment Agency board made up of all five elected city commissioners plus Hal George, the luxury custom homebuilder who serves as the agency’s appointed community representative.
At least one developer has already approached board members with a public-private partnership concept for a garage that could add 360 spaces behind City Hall, said City Manager Randy Knight.
Knight did not discuss details of the plan, but suggested the city could put out a call for competitive proposals as “a solution to help bridge the funding gap” that has prevented earlier pushes for garages from going forward.
George, founder of Parkland Homes as well as the local Habitat for Humanity, said he’s been around long enough to have seen his share of parking studies and doesn’t recommend another one.
As an employer near the avenue, he conceded that employee parking is part of the problem. But he’s still against adding paid meters to spaces, a move the city has long considered a nuclear option because of strong opposition.
“I don’t know why we wouldn’t at least explore the public-private partnership,” he said.
Knight said there was a proposal to add paid parking meters on Park Avenue around the time he arrived in the city in the 1990s and staff were “run out of town on a rail.”
He equated discussions about paid parking on the avenue to being as heated as debates about brick streets and dog parks. In Winter Park, that means white hot.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio noted that the city already has two pieces of land that could be used for a garage — the lot behind City Hall and one near the train station.
She expressed frustration that Orange County officials have been unwilling to allow Tourist Development Tax dollars, the 6% surcharge on local hotel rooms that brought in another record $38 million in February alone, to help pay for the garage.
“I’ve said, ‘We’re the No. 1 tourist destination after the attractions … we’re the city of arts and culture’ and they’ve said no,” DeCiccio said, adding that she doesn’t believe any federal or state grants are available for the project.
She also said she is in talks with SunRail to provide more weekend service during special events like the art festivals, but the commuter rail system is still a long way off from regular weekend service to help alleviate some of the busiest days of the year.
DeCiccio said she tried to find a way to use empty spaces in the Bank of America garage and one near Panera Bread, but the owners have pledged those spaces to tenants so those discussions proved unproductive.
She said the clear choices are to enter a public-private partnership, issues bonds for the construction or somehow charge for parking with potential exemptions for residents.
But there was clear support for exploring that option over issuing bonds or charging for parking.
The group did not discuss specifics of what that deal may look like.
Commissioner Kris Cruzada said he’s noticed a worsening shortage of parking even on the north end of Park Avenue as he picks his son up from school.
“People are parking on Cole and Whipple [avenues] … you used to not see that and now I’m seeing more of it,” he said.
He said SunRail or even self-driving cars could eventually alleviate some pressure, but for now he wants to make sure visitors to Winter Park have a positive experience.
“We’re in such a tight margin of error that can make or break the impression of what people feel when they come to Winter Park,” Cruzada said.
Commissioner Warren Lindsey agreed that the lot behind City Hall is the most logical space for a garage. And he suggested the commission consider murals, artwork and ways other cities have helped parking garages blend with the local aesthetic.
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by Beth Kassab | Jan 7, 2026 | City Commission, News, Zoning and Development
Mixed-Use Development Proposed for DePugh Nursing Center Site
The new project by Z Properties will include commercial and residential elements on the prominent corner of Morse and Pennsylvania. The nursing center closed last year.
Jan. 7, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The Gardens at DePugh Nursing Center, which closed in the fall after 70 years, will be demolished and replaced with a “flexible, mixed-use environment offering modular opportunities to purchase space” along with a residential component, according to an announcement on Wednesday by Z Properties.
The Winter Park-based development and design firm led by Zane and Emily Williams said in a news release that the residential portion is still in the early planning. The commercial part of the development will look for a mix of “professional, creative, retail, hospitality and service-oriented businesses, with generous ceiling heights, thoughtfully-designed interiors and flexibility to support a range of uses.”
Zane Williams, who did not immediately respond to an interview request, acknowledged the prominence of the corner at 550 W. Morse Boulevard near Pennsylvania Avenue, and the potential for the new buildings to “set the tone” as visitors enter downtown Winter Park via Morse.
“Our goal here, as always, is to develop with intention and care, and to add beauty to our surroundings,” Williams said in the release. “This is a special corner, and we feel a responsibility to create something locals and visitors will pass by and think, ‘That feels right.’”
The new development will bring further change for the historically Black neighborhood west of Park Avenue that dates back to the city’s founding. The area has undergone significant gentrification over the past 25 years with the redevelopment of Hannibal Square and a number of larger homes replacing small, single-story houses.
The DePugh center opened in 1956 as the first state-approved nursing home where aging Black residents could seek care during segregation. The center was named for Mary Lee DePugh, who moved to Winter Park in 1937 to work for a white family she knew from the Chicago area and began advocating to provide health care to those in need as part of her work with the Ideal Woman’s Club, which she founded on the west side of the city. She died before the center opened.
Leaders of the Center decided to close it because of rising operating costs.
Z Properties applied for a demolition permit in October, said city Planning & Zoning Director Allison McGillis. The permit is likely to be approved because the building is not historically designated.
A representative of the firm said renderings of the proposed project will be available in the coming months.
A portion of the Palmetto Grove work spaces by Z Properties near Seven Oaks Park. The project, which refurbished older buildings, recently won praise from City Commission members. (Photo courtesy of Z Properties)
Williams said in the release that one unique aspect of the plan will be the option for business owners to also own a physical space.
“There are so many business owners who dream of designing and owning their own building in the same way people dream of building their homes,” he said. “Ownership allows you to establish permanence, identity, and control of your space — this project is about making that a reality.”
Z Properties is partnering with Stream Realty on the development.
“It’s exceptionally rare to come across the opportunity to own custom-designed commercial space in Winter Park,” Darryl Hoffman, executive vice president at Stream Realty, said in the news release. “We’re thrilled to partner with Zane on this first-of-its-kind development for the area.”
Z Properties recently received praise from the City Commission related to its makeover of workspaces near Seven Oaks Park known as Palmetto Grove along Palmetto Avenue. The buildings were refurbished to have an elevated, high-end look not far off of Orange Avenue where the city is working to improve one of its gateways.
The release said the team is aiming for completion of the project on the DePugh site in 2027 and will unveil its name and more details in the near future.
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by Beth Kassab | Dec 12, 2025 | City Commission, News, Uncategorized, Zoning and Development
Via Tuscany Homeowner Owes More Than $300k in Code Fines
Construction on the house began in 2018 and just concluded this year, prompting repeated complaints by neighbors
Dec. 12 , 2025
By Beth Kassab
The owner of an ultra modern mansion on the corner of Via Tuscany and Howell Branch Road owes more than $331,000 in code enforcement fines after the City Commission refused the man’s request to eliminate the fines he accumulated during nearly seven years of construction.
Fernando Bermudez, the owner of the home through Casselberry-based Developer and Builder Group LLC, told city officials in a letter dated Sept. 5, 2025 that the drawn-out construction timeline was the result of complications brought on by COVID-19, which killed one of his partners, and Hurricane Ian, which struck in September of 2022.
A snapshot included with Winter Park code enforcement documents shows a notice of violation posted in front of the home.
But the construction process at 2661 Via Tuscany started long before those events when the first permit was granted by the city in September of 2018. The certificate of occupancy for the 4-bedroom, 4,500-square-foot house was finally issued in July of this year.
Bermudez, who attended the City Commission meeting on Wednesday, said through his attorney that he was unaware of the fines and blamed a number of problems on his contractors, which changed repeatedly during the project.
But Gary Hiatt, building and permitting director, showed commissioners minutes from a Code Enforcement Board hearing in November of 2022 that showed Bermudez was in attendance and spoke along with a contractor about the timeline of the project. At that meeting, the board ordered that fines of $250 a day per violation would begin accumulating if the house wasn’t completed in 60 days, according to records.
“There were multiple times where they gave us, ‘We’ll be done by here or we’ll be done by here,’ and it just never came to fruition,” Hiatt said.
Violations, which included allowing permits to expire without completing the project and failing to meet deadlines, went on in at least one case for more than 900 days and, in another, more than 300.
“The incomplete vacant structure remains a public nuisance,” the code board concluded in a March 23, 2023 order that said fines would continue and the city would place a lien on the property.
In his letter to city officials to request the fines and lien be eliminated, Bermudez claimed ignorance about the existence of the fines and detailed how construction materials ordered from Europe were delayed by the pandemic as well as how the project was impeded by his own illness and the loss of his partner to the virus.
A Realtor.com listing for the property, which is now up for sale for $6.6 million (more than $1,400 per square foot), boasts of two primary suites (one on each floor), lighting fixtures from Greece, Italian porcelain flooring and “unparalleled craftsmanship, high-end finishes, and an open-concept layout for those who appreciate architectural brilliance and luxury living.”
The house, “follows commercial-grade construction standards, making it a bunker-style fortress unlike any other,” according to the listing.
But Bermudez wrote that the amount of the fine is “a debt impossible for us to pay.”
He said “the real estate market is now extremely slow” and he faces potential foreclosure by a private lender.
But commissioners said they didn’t hear any good reasons to reduce or eliminate the fines.
“These are legitimate fines in my opinion,” Commissioner Craig Russell said, noting that Bermudez’s company had developed other houses so should have had some familiarity with the process.
Russell and Commissioner Warren Lindsey also noted how the lengthy construction process affected the neighborhood.
Neighbors complained to the city about the project repeatedly, citing the unfinished work, debris and other violations.
“Overall, the process has been unprofessional (single workers showing up after hours or on weekends as if the whole project is some sort of shady after thought), unnecessarily drawn out and damaging to our property,” one neighbor wrote the city.
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