Jennifer Cotto Salisbury presents draft strategic plan as residents press for better outreach in Lake Placid

Jennifer Cotto Salisbury, representing the Central Florida Regional Planning Council, presented a draft strategic plan at a public workshop in Lake Placid, calling it "a roadmap to help in guiding policy and investments" and emphasizing that the document is a draft open to revisions.

The plan, Salisbury said, groups priorities into eight goals including preserving small-town character, promoting economic vitality and living wages, strengthening downtown as the community heart, improving infrastructure resilience (including stormwater planning and sidewalk connections), expanding housing opportunities, and improving governance and transparency. "The town of Lake Placid is a vibrant town that creates opportunities for generations to come," Salisbury said, reading the plan's vision statement.

Residents and council members praised the outreach and the plan's action orientation but pressed for clearer communication and an implementation path. "Better communication from the town of Lake Placid to the residents and to the surrounding area" is essential, said Reverend Norris, a local pastor who urged the town to work with churches on emergency response and community needs. Norris said a recent cold spell left the laundromat as the only open cold shelter, and argued churches could be a resource for coordinated sheltering and outreach.

Council participants and staff responded that meeting times had been adjusted to increase participation and discussed several approaches to better public notice, including push notifications and distributing information through local organizations and homeowner associations. A council participant suggested emailed push distribution to larger community organizations to broaden reach.

Staff presented engagement metrics and said the outreach included hard-copy and online surveys, door-to-door outreach and four public workshops; Salisbury said the online survey had 198 participants and that staff would prepare a summary report. A staff member summarized housing-permit figures for the surrounding planning area from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2025: Leisure Lakes 145, Placid Lakes 281, Highlands Park Estates 64 and Sun and Lake Lake Placid 112 (combined 602), contrasted with about 19 permits inside the town during 2013'2025, which staff said informed the town's capacity and infrastructure discussions.

Several speakers welcomed the plan's action items and the inclusion of performance measures tied to outcomes such as reduction in commercial vacancy rates, median household growth and new business tax receipts. Participants discussed the plan's non-regulatory nature and noted that current regulations and growth-management rules would still govern approvals; Salisbury said the plan should help the town coordinate with county partners and update the comprehensive plan where applicable.

Staff and council members urged residents to submit edits before the council's next meeting; a staff member said a resolution to bring the draft before the council will be presented Monday, and Salisbury said the downtown master-plan concepts would be posted on a website for public comment. The meeting closed after a brief logistics reminder about a 10-day median closure on Dowhall Boulevard at Tower Street starting the next day.