Lake Placid planning agency urges council to approve Church of the Nazarene rezoning with tree, sewer and path conditions

The Lake Placid Local Planning Agency voted unanimously to forward ordinance 2025-01 to town council with a recommendation of approval, while attaching conditions to preserve canopy tree coverage, coordinate on a planned multi‑use path and confirm sanitary sewer capacity before final development approvals.

Town planner Dana Riddell presented the application — hearing LPTC.25.001RZ — saying the owner, Lake Placid Church of the Nazarene, through Polston Engineering (Marvin Wolf and an engineer identified as Vlad), seeks to rezone the parcel at 512 West Interlake Boulevard from limited commercial (C-2) to a limited commercial plan development (C-2 PD). The change would formally allow church uses and a custom plan development ordinance (section 160‑22 of the town code) that spells out allowable uses, setbacks and three development phases: phase 1 (acknowledge existing church), phase 2 (building addition, landscaping and stormwater with a 36‑month timeframe), and phase 3 (possible expanded parking).

Riddell said the proposed development does not request any increase to the code maximum lot coverage (50%) and that the current sanctuary seating — used to calculate parking demand under town code — would not increase. Highlands County engineering must still sign off on a traffic study at the time of development; the county earlier told staff an off‑site improvement permit may be required. Riddell also noted that wastewater infrastructure is not currently directly available to the parcel; the ordinance would require the owner to connect to sanitary sewer at its expense within one year of sewer availability.

Polston Engineering’s representative, Vlad, answered specific landscaping questions and confirmed the team will provide a landscape/irrigation plan during site development review (Polston intends to work with landscape architect Chad Clouser). Church representatives described the need for additional fellowship, classroom and office space; Mark Lidecker, church board secretary, said the fellowship hall and classrooms are currently undersized.

Agency members focused discussion on two technical deviations in the ordinance package: (1) a requested reduction of the standard 10‑foot collector‑road landscape buffer to 7.6 feet with the same number of plantings, and (2) a request to waive canopy tree coverage across the vehicular use area because part of the church’s low‑intensity parking is proposed on grass. Board members proposed retaining the canopy/tree coverage requirement but allowing credit for trees placed in the landscaped buffer along Interlake and Tangerine, and asked the church to prioritize shade trees along the sidewalk to benefit schoolchildren walking nearby.

After questions and public comments — including a request to verify whether the town’s planned multi‑use path and future sewer alignment would conflict with the church’s landscape or future utility work — the agency voted to forward the ordinance to town council with the following recommendation language: keep the canopy tree coverage requirement by allowing required buffer trees to meet 100% of the canopy coverage credit, and continue staff coordination regarding the planned multi‑use path and wastewater capacity and infrastructure before final approvals. The roll call recorded all five agency members voting yes (Chris Duncan; Donald Clark; Dustin Woods; Gary Freeman; Alex Ramos).

The recommendation does not itself rezone the property; it forwards the ordinance and accompanying plan development text to the Town Council for final action. Highlands County comments, commercial site‑plan review, required permits for any off‑site improvements, and a sealed traffic study will still be required at the development stage.