Daily sales times for alcohol in the city of Winter Park were made uniform with the passing of an ordinance amending the Sunday start from 11 a.m. to 7 a.m. The staggered start times date back to state Blue Laws that restricted alcohol sales on days of worship.
The ordinance, heard at the July 24 City Commission meeting, was in response to requests from grocery store managers prohibited from selling during the first four house of Sunday business. North Orlando Avenue resident Bob Schwitter, identifying himself as “a team leader for a Winter Park grocery store – not Publix” thanked commissioners for the ordinance during public comments. “It tends to be the 20-year-old cashiers that get to be the enforcers of policies like these,” he said. “That’s a lot to put on a cashier that doesn’t necessarily understand the ‘why’ or have the same beliefs.”
The ordinance was passed by a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Craig Russell dissenting. “I have a belief that Sunday is a day of rest,” he said, adding that he appreciates the rights of business owners but was not in favor of the change. “I wouldn’t look to compromise my principals on agreeing to something like this.”
Mills and nonprofits
As one longstanding city practice was rescinded, another remained when commissioners voted to keep the city’s current millage rate of 4.0923 for the 2024-25 fiscal year. One mill is equal to $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value and City Commission sets the rate at the start of yearly budget reviews. The current rate has been in place since 2009 and stands as the second lowest property tax rate in Central Florida after Windermere.
The proposed 2025 budget also includes inflationary support for the city’s nonprofit organizations, but Commissioner Marty Sullivan suggested creating a policy for nonprofit support.
A city-approved funding source for nonprofit organizations allocates 0.25% of the gross revenue from each of the city’s three major funds: General, Electric, and Water & Wastewater; however, no policy exists for determining the distribution of funds. “Sometimes there’s some confusion about why we give money here and not there,” Sullivan said. “And there is no answer to that.”
Budget & Management Division Director Peter Moore said nonprofits could request funding equal to no more than half their operating revenue, but that distribution had always been decided by City Commission in a majority vote. Commissioners agreed with Sullivan’s idea to appoint a group to form a plan for nonprofit funding, but opted to wait until after the start of the next fiscal year.
Solar paneled parking lots
Vice Mayor Todd Weaver floated the idea of changing city building codes or incentivizing developers to incorporate rooftop solar panels into their designs as an alternative to the “greenwashing” practice of placing solar arrays over agricultural and wild lands.
Greenwashing is defined as acts that appear more environmentally friendly than they actually are, and Weaver noted that placing solar canopies over parking lots would reduce the “heat island” effect, created when asphalt reflects heat back into the atmosphere. He suggested a similar idea for one of last year’s proposals for a new Winter Park Playhouse building by Seven Oaks Park, but the project was replaced by an ongoing effort to purchase the current Playhouse building.
“The cost of solar now is so cheap that if you have a parking lot or a roof that faces south, it doesn’t make sense not to (add) rooftop solar,” Weaver said.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio suggested Weaver speak with the city’s Electric Utility, Planning & Zoning Department, and Sustainability Division in moving the idea forward.
The next City Commission meeting will be held on August 14. Meeting schedules, agendas, and virtual access is available at cityofwinterpark.org/meetings.
