Plans for First Synagogue Roil Winter Park
The project, which also includes townhomes, drew 30 public speakers and failed to win enough support despite more concessions from Chabad
Sept. 10, 2026
By Beth Kassab
People affiliated with Chabad of Greater Orlando left City Hall disappointed on Wednesday night after final approval for what would be Winter Park’s first permanent synagogue was delayed until late October with commissioners saying they had too many concerns about parking, traffic and potential disruptions to those who live near the site in the heart of the bustling shopping and dining district.
Commissioner Elizabeth Ingram, who voted in favor of the project during the first hearing on the proposal on Aug. 26, said she was torn and having second thoughts after listening to more people and hearing concerns about construction related to the Rollins art museum nearby.
“We have residents who are concerned about this. And we have residents who are part of Chabad. And so I’m just trying to listen to both here,” Ingram said near the end of a more than two-and-a-half-hour discussion that drew 30 people who signed up to speak. “Going back to the current construction on the Rollins Art Museum, all of that traffic and parking impact is not being reflected in the traffic analysis right now … And I’m just hesitant now of whether this is the right time to approve this before we know what that traffic analysis would look like.”
As development debates in Winter Park so often go, the discussion featured a list of names recognizable for their careers or civic involvement and highlighted the city’s role as a home to people who wield influence across the region and beyond. Public meetings can sometimes take on an aura of a C-SPAN version of “Lifestyles of the Rich and — Locally — Famous.”
Much of the discussion centered on traffic worries from residents on or near Interlachen Avenue where homes and condominiums are valued at $2 million or far higher and where several churches already run preschools that contribute to congestion on top of the expansion of the Alfond Inn and museum construction.
Frank Santos, chief executive officer of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, lives next door to the proposed site and is concerned about parking as well as noise and disruption from a planned rooftop patio on top of the synagogue that will be rented for events and a playground for the daycare.
“I did send you all an email suggesting that you visit the site on a Saturday morning, which would be during the worship hours of the synagogue,” Santos told the commission. “I did that and sent you photographs and there was absolutely no parking in and around the area … I spoke to one merchant there, and they told me that parking beginning at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning is non-existent with the Farmers’ Market.”
Janet Robison, who lives near the Alfond Inn and said she has lived in her home on Lake Osceola for nearly 30 years, said she feared another big project in the neighborhood.
“I really enjoy living downtown,” she said. “Unfortunately, living there has been progressively more difficult, and people are always like, ‘Well, they can accept a little of this and all of that.’ But it’s adding up, all this accepting of things.”
But for some in the Commission Chambers, the logistical realities of development were outweighed by what they saw as a greater need — for Chabad to find a permanent home after it lost its Maitland building to a fire in 2024.
“Throughout this process, we’ve heard a sentiment that sounds reasonable on its face: We support a synagogue in Winter Park, just not at this location,” said Marni Stahlman, who attends the Chabad and is also chief executive of the Mental Health Association of Central Florida. “I ask you to think carefully about what those words mean in practice because there is a painful history behind telling Jewish people they’re welcome just somewhere else. This is not a hypothetical location. This is a property made possible through a donation that has been made available so that our congregation can finally a establish home.”
Ultimately, Ingram said she did not want to vote against the project and hoped that a resolution could come about to some of the concerns by the next vote. She joined Mayor Sheila DeCiccio and Commissioner Warren Lindsey, who both voted against the project previously, in a motion to table a decision until Oct. 28.
Commissioner Craig Russell also supported the delay after it became clear the development no longer had the votes to pass, but Russell said he preferred to go ahead and approve the project.
He expressed frustration at what he called “the cherry-picking and hole-poking of the engineer’s designs” when the commission can rely on city staff to vet projects and make sure they are built to code.
“The staff is going to keep them accountable, and they won’t get a [certificate of occupancy] if any of the stuff doesn’t work,” Russell said. “But none of us up here are architects or engineers.”
He also pointed to what he said was a critical fact that was being glossed over in the debate, which is that the new development will provide more parking than what exists currently for the El Cortez apartment buildings. The apartments would be razed at the corner of Morse Boulevard and Knowles Avenue just a block off Park Avenue to make way for the synagogue that includes a daycare and a rooftop patio for events and, separately, five townhomes.
Commissioner Kris Cruzada, the lone vote against tabling the matter, said he also wanted to see the project approved, noting the number of concessions Chabad made in order to satisfy concerns of neighbors and city officials. He said the Chabad proposal is less dense than a strictly residential proposal that could create up to 55 units on the lot.
“What they’re proposing is a drastic reduction in what could possibly be there,” Cruzada said. “… And here we have an applicant willing to bend over backwards to try and do this. They jumped through a lot of hoops to get here, you know, this is a difficult decision, and so in coming to a conclusion, I look at the conditions that they’re looking to go through, even to their potential detriment. The other churches don’t have caps to limit the number of kids that go there.”
Lindsey said he was struggling with the number of residents who argued for a need to limit new traffic and development.
“Everybody is in favor of the synagogue, and enthusiastically in favor of the synagogue,” he said. “And what we’re concerned about is pretty much every resident that lives in this neighborhood — I don’t know any of them that have not said this is going to create an incompatible and difficult traffic congestion problem that is going to be harmful to their enjoyment of their property. I mean, it’s been virtually unanimous.”
Rabbi Dovid Dubov, who helps lead the Chabad, said the group agreed to even more conditions since the August vote such as limiting the days the rooftop patio can be rented to four per week and lowering the cap of children in the daycare from 60 to 50 as well as adding parking spots.
“Even since our last hearing, we have agreed to more, and I think the honest truth is that we have reached a point where we have extended ourselves as far as we reasonably can to make this work,” he said before the vote to table the proposal. “So, if everyone here supports a synagogue in our city, then I hope tonight we can turn that theoretical support into practical support. Theoretical support leaves us searching for a home, and practical support allows us to build one.”
DeCiccio suggested that more changes could occur to the proposal before the next vote at the end of October. She pointed to the site, which is 0.6 acres, and the amount of development the plans call for that would involve child pick-up and drop-off traffic for the daycare and catering trucks or other traffic for special events.
“No one can stand in that area and say it is not a mess now,” she said. “Plus, I am sure that the synagogue will be successful and is going to grow … For this proposal to work at this location, the developer and synagogue, I am feeling must scale back, perhaps by eliminating the townhomes or the rooftop venue or daycare. Or by limiting the project to just the synagogue alone. As proposed, the development is just too intensive for this site.”
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Shame on the city and shame on the opponents. Chabad has a followed the city recommendations and made this workable. This is an embarrassment and shows we still have much hate we must overcome.
This is such a cheap uniformed take! There is no hate represented anywhere with the City Commission concerning this issue. It is all about traffic, noise and an incompatible land use for the location. There are multiple other sites in the City that could work, but the synagogue is fixated on this site until it gets turned down. I’ve lived here 45 years and the Jewish Community is strong here and I’ve never seen any hate toward Jews in Winter Park. Maybe I’m naive or unaware, so someone show me where this isn’t the case.
Rich Winter Park residents don’t want Jews in their neighborhood.
They’ll hide behind a bunch of other reasons, but that’s the reality.
If this gets rejected, I hope 52 residential units gets shoved in there.
It appears Chabad has made more, and more, and more concessions. But for some, the concessions are never enough. Given that multiple other organizations create far more congestion, the push-back seems mid-placed.
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the rich-NIMBY’s who only care how a project next door will impact them. Very selfish. I hope this gets approved, but if not, good luck with the 53 residences that will be built by the next developer.
I live near the Rollins construction site on Interlachen and New England and traffic is the issue. I fault the city for not holding Rollins to its promises of sufficient parking spaces when the Alfond Inn was first built and of course traffic for the new Museum and “Conference Center” will compound an already frustrating, inconvenient, unhappy situation.
School pickups usually snarl Interlachen/Morse Avenues around 11am and don’t even think about driving down New England, visiting the Morse Museum or merchants on North Park Ave around 3pm as the cars line up stretching from Webster down Swope. It is madness and the city should attempt to fix it.
I have nothing against Chabad or their proposed buildings. Traffic is the issue in my opinion.
Nothing to do with hate- knew that argument was coming. There are plenty of other potential spots not in the crowded downtown corridor. Glad everyone took a breath to think this through
I don’t think religious bias is necessarily the issue here. I think it’s just as likely it’s the PTSD everyone in WP has from getting “gridlock stopped” (i.e. trapped!) at Interlachen/Morse when the church school pick up and drop off takes place. In my opinion, the WP police should be stationed there (and at the other church school too) and force parents to keep circling the block until there’s enough space to get into the school driveway.
Chabad should be approved and their future school traffic should be handled in the exact same way. Keep those cars moving and don’t allow any parent to block the roads.
It’s all about TRAFFIC! We are so congested already . Churches who have been here for 100+ years . I love the idea of a local synagogue, but not in this location.
There is no way that the setbacks , height restrictions, impervious and storm water requirements would accommodate 50 units. It’s probably closer to 12 . This is baseless and absurd. It is also absurd to suggest a 525 square foot concrete balcony as a playground for 60 children. I believe the chabad was misled that a free site would accommodate all of this density. Perhaps the developer can forego the townhomes and donate the site in its entirety to the chabad.