Mount Dora City Council Update: February 7 meeting

By Marc Crail
Vice-Mayor and District 4 Representative

​The majority of the February 7 Mount Dora City Council meeting involved public comments from upwards of two dozen citizens mostly opposing the proposed "mixed use" PUD development proposal in the Wolf Branch Innovation District on SR 46 near the entrance to the expressway. Please keep in mind that what follows comes from me, one individual council member, not from City Council as a whole.

Just to review, at our January 17th City Council meeting we discussed the proposal for a "mixed use" PUD (Planned Unit Development). During that council discussion, several members, including me, said that there are elements of the proposal that we liked and conversely, several members, including me, voiced serious concerns about the proposed height of some of the buildings (some over 300 feet tall), as well as other concerns.

After that lengthy exchange of views we essentially had two choices. We could vote "No" on the first reading of the PUD proposal which would kill future negotiations and preclude the possibility of coming to a mutually agreeable conclusion before the second or "final" vote on this large and complex proposal or we could vote "Yes" on the first reading in order to give our City staff and the Developer the opportunity to address our concerns (mostly building heights but seven other issues as well).

I felt that, with the benefit of good faith negotiations and creativity/compromise on both sides, it might be possible to reach a successful resolution so I made a motion to vote "Yes" on that first reading, asking our staff and the developer to sit down and hammer out a plan that would alleviate our concerns and at the same time, meet the developer's needs. I figured that these complicated  negotiations might well take some time so my motion also provided for as much time as necessary to come up with a compromise plan. Whatever revised plan the negotiators come up with will need to be discussed and approved by a majority of City Council members. My motion passed 6-1.

Those negotiations are currently underway. Obviously, each council member has his/her own opinion and "gotta haves".  Those negotiations might or might not be acceptable to individual council members and those results will determine how he/she will ultimately vote. That final vote is scheduled for February 21st during our 6:00 p.m. meeting. All City Council meetings are open to the public.

I can only speak for myself, but at this time I am waiting and listening. I have shared my height concerns and other concerns with City staff and with the developer. The bottom line is that a "Yes" vote on January 17 was to keep the talks alive and provide adequate time for tough, ongoing  nitty-gritty negotiations. The vote scheduled for February 21 will be the decider.

The comments of community members at our February 7 Council meeting, your emails and phone conversations are important and appreciated. This is a big decision and is by no means, a done deal. Thanks for weighing in and allowing the process to go on. It's messy but it's how government works.

Our quote for the day comes from Sam Rayburn, former Speaker of the House of Representatives who once said: "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one."

By Marc Crail
Vice-Mayor and District 4 Representative

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