Author: Peter Weldon

I offer some concluding remarks on Weaver’s permit issues and his request for historic designation. I believe there is a lesson here for those promoting and supporting candidates for Winter Park City Commission to be more discerning. At Wednesday’s commission meeting Weaver asked for his historic designation request to be tabled until April, after he is out of office. Weaver later told the32789 that “he knew he had the votes but his decision to put off the hearing was made out of deference to commissioners and staff.” Weaver’s statement bizarrely admits a violation of the Sunshine law that prohibits commission…

Should be a fun vote by the City Commission Wednesday, January 8th on a request by commission member Todd Weaver to declare his home at 1051 Lake Bell Drive as historic. This is a bald attempt by Weaver to legalize his code violations going back at least 10 years. How, you ask? Approving his home as “historic” (which it is not), will grant Weaver the right to continue to rent out his illegal “accessory cottage” while NOT holding him accountable for his years of numerous code violations. This from the agenda language: The rear accessory cottage was a storage shed…

The Winter Park City Charter requires non-partisan elections. No candidate for the office of city commissioner or mayor shall campaign and/or publicly represent or advertise herself or himself as a member of any political party; and shall not accept campaign contributions from any political party. Violations are fined at $1,000 each. So, what good does this do? None! Instead, it hides the true nature of candidates. Based on 35 years of local Winter Park election experience, every Winter Park election is partisan in reality. Candidates routinely hire campaign managers affiliated with their political party. Those elected tend to follow policies…

Commissioner Marty Sullivan, along with other commission members, has voted to waste over $100,000,000 of our money over the past five years. He now wants to raise our tax rate to spend $268,000,000 for undefined and unsupported nonsense (see page 2 here). Marty and his cohorts claim undefined threats where none exist to justify this outrageous exploitation of Winter Park taxpayers. Winter Park spending has been out of control for five years. We need two candidates for the March 2025 election publicly committed to rein in spending and set priorities that support our residents rather than ideologically driven personal preferences…

Winter Park has a complicated and penal tree ordinance because of extreme viewpoints of city staff, board members, and commission members. You don’t need to get caught up in this regulatory tree madness. All Winter Park residential property owners need to be aware that state law supersedes city code when it comes to tree removals. Under state law, a residential property owner can prune, trim, or remove a tree without a city permit and without penalty or tree replacement if the property owner possesses documentation from an arborist certified by the ISA or a Florida licensed landscape architect that the…

This brief video is from the City Commission work session of May 23, 2024. Commissioner Craig Russell to the left was participating from a remote location. Commissioner Todd Weaver at the table to the right is talking. Really?

Request that the city commission repeal Ordinance 3294-24 Expanding and Extending the Community Redevelopment Area (CRA). Contact the city commission here: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org. Please see prior posts on this subject: More perspective is required by the commission in considering this CRA expansion and extension. Only 12% of Winter Park’s population lives within the proposed expanded CRA. Why are approximately 27,000 residents (88%) being denied $84,000,000 in projected property taxes between 2028 and 2037? The commission’s latest 10 year financial projections show a continuing decline of our reserves to finance ever increasing expenses EVEN WITH the addition of the current CRA revenue…

Challenge our commission members to explain how their CRA extension and expansion plan benefits the residents of Winter Park. Demand they put this plan to a citizen referendum. Contact them here: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org. (See my prior post on this subject.) I also encourage you to attend the City Commission meeting this Wednesday, March 27 to comment in opposition to this plan (the vote on the second reading should be about 4 PM). Again, this plan takes $84,000,000 from residents of Winter Park. This is the anticipated city property taxes taken by the CRA from our General Fund from 2028 through 2037,…

Bet you didn’t know the city commission has approved an $84,000,000 money grab from you. Read their expanded CRA Plan and let them know what you think here: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org. This plan needs to be approved by Orange County before becoming effective. CRA stands for Community Redevelopment Area. Within this area, county and city property taxes, net of those based on valuation prior to formation of the CRA, must be spent within the CRA area in accordance with the CPR Plan approved by Orange County. When the current CRA expires at the end of 2027, all county property tax revenue goes…

Having observed Winter Park politics for some 35 years, I am always amused that the Developer Bogeyman shows up every election. This year’s Bogeyman is brought to us by Jason Johnson. Concerns about Jason were noted when he declined to state whether he would support buying electric power at above market prices to pursue an arbitrary goal for our electric utility to use 80% renewable energy by 2035. Instead he claimed to me and many others that “the premise of the question may be fundamentally flawed” without further explanation. Note the lawyerly obfuscation in addressing a direct yes or no…