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Planning board recommends cleanup to land development rules; removes downtown step-down requirement
Summary
The Planning and Zoning Advisory Board recommended Ordinance 2025-05, a technical amendment to the land development regulations that aligns tables 8-1 and 8-3 with the 2040 comprehensive plan, clarifies permitting for certain downtown uses and removes a 30-foot step-down height requirement in the downtown waterfront district.
The City of Tavares Planning and Zoning Advisory Board voted to recommend approval of Ordinance 2025-05, a set of technical corrections and targeted amendments to the land development regulations (LDRs). The changes update Table 8-1 (future land use zoning matrix) and Table 8-3 (development standards) to align the LDRs with the adopted 2040 Taking Flight comprehensive plan and to remove an unnecessarily prescriptive "step-down" height requirement in the downtown waterfront zoning district.
City staff described the package as a "cleanup item" that corrects earlier omissions introduced when the LDRs were substantially revised following the 2040 comprehensive plan adoption on Sept. 21, 2022. The staff presentation noted the city and the Planning & Zoning Commission previously recommended text amendments and that City Council had directed staff to prepare the draft changes after a May 7, 2025 direction to revise downtown setbacks and related standards.
The principal substantive change removes a requirement that buildings meeting certain setbacks also be stepped down in massing at approximately 30 feet; staff said the rule had been borrowed from dense urban design guidance and was not appropriate for current downtown development patterns in Tavares. "It was a 2-minute show when we did a lot of changes; this is a cleanup item," the city planner said.
Board members asked whether the change would affect access for emergency vehicles and staff confirmed the amendment does not change fire or access requirements established elsewhere in the LDRs or the Fire Code. The board recommended that the council adopt the amended tables, which board members said will allow vacant lots downtown to be developed more efficiently without repeated variance requests.
A motion recommending Ordinance 2025-05 to City Council passed by voice vote; recorded individual tallies were not provided in the board minutes.
If City Council adopts the ordinance, the updated LDR tables will be the operative development standard for downtown waterfront parcels and the previously listed step-down provision would be removed from the code.
