MOUNT DORA UPDATE: August 29 Special City Council Meeting

By Marc Crail
Mount Dora Vice-mayor and District 4 Representative

This special meeting was originally slated to have a couple of items on its agenda but in the end there were more items added, partially because of the approaching hurricane. I've chosen to feature some items that I think you might be interested in hearing about. What follows comes from me alone. I'm not speaking for City Council as a whole.

You'll recall that for the past year and a half, the subject of the Simpson Groves development to be located on both sides of US Route 441 between Loch Leven (Publix) Plaza and the entrance to the Country Club of Mount Dora has been the talk of the town. All told it covers about 224 acres. The developer had first asked to voluntarily annex that property into Mount Dora but later decided to go through Lake County before eventually electing to hammer out an agreement with Mount Dora. It is important to understand that this development was always going to be built. The question was, would the taxes and fees involved flow to the City or the County. Now they will.

We gave first reading approval to The Groves developer by a 6-0 vote. Final approval will come at a later date. There were three different actions, the first was for a "Pre-Annexation Agreement" and the other two were First Readings of Annexation Agreements, one for the north side and one for the south side properties. Final readings are yet to come.

It seems to me that although the City won't ultimately get everything we would have liked, we will get most of items on our wish list. That's how negotiations work. Since there is no way to prohibit property owners from developing land that they own, City Council and staff must do our best to make those developments as palatable as possible.

With Hurricane Idalia approaching Florida, we took actions related to dealing with potential damage including debris collection, hauling and disposal.

Following the Special Meeting, we held another in a series of Budget Workshops. We continue making progress to the eventual adoption of a balanced budget for FY23-24. With the inflation we have all dealt with over the past year, everything we buy costs more and the wages of our excellent staff must be increased accordingly. Even with these inflationary pressures I am confident that we will be able to build a budget that will suffice without raising our millage rate. Let's hope that Idalia or another hurricane doesn't cause massive damage that would wreck our projections.

Our quote of the day comes from Christine Dern who said; "Thank you Lord. As the world gets crazier, the nuts get easier to find."

Thanks for your interest in our city. I appreciate the opportunity to represent District 4.

By Marc Crail
Mount Dora Vice-mayor and District 4 Representative

Sign up for Mount Dora Buzz