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.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
Glad to see Randy receive a raise. I’m not sure we as WP residents fully appreciate his role in helping our community run smoothly.
He has done a great job. Throughout time in Florida , City Managers have often been tossed out because they became a wedge between warring factions on the Council’s ( Commissions). Glad he has been around for all of his Years.
Years ago I heard that this club did not allow specific religious and racial groups to join. Was this a rumor or was it reality? And if this was the case, when did it end?
Yes, it was stated in public testimony at city meetings that Jewish people were not allowed to join the club. I am not clear on when that changed because the club has not agreed to any interviews. For context, such exclusions were common across private clubs in Central Florida and elsewhere. The Sentinel wrote a story in 1992 when the University Club in downtown Orlando admitted its first Black member. I remember writing this story back in 2009 about some of the changes as private clubs tried to shore up membership losses after the housing crash: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2009/11/16/university-club-tweaks-its-image/
It’s possible that some folks, if they didn’t live through it, have forgotten how such exclusions were fairly common not all that long ago.