- April 19, 2024
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Fast food may have been shot down on Park Avenue, but government offices and educational buildings could be coming if a proposed change gets the green light from the City Commission on Monday.
Staff proposed two changes in May to the city’s zoning codes for Park Avenue. One would allow any restaurant to be located on Park Avenue south of Comstock Avenue. The second would allow offices or any of more than a dozen types of office-based businesses to operate at street level alongside the traditional retail stores and fine dining restaurants. Currently such businesses are relegated to upper levels.
At least one resident is concerned about how quietly changes were proposed. The Planning and Zoning Board meeting’s time and date were changed at the last minute, resident Sally Flynn said. The meeting’s original scheduled time was 7 p.m. July 3, but it was canceled and the only notice given of a rescheduling happened July 2 on another calendar, Flynn said.
“There was nobody there, because nobody knew about it,” Flynn said.
Only one of two changes discussed at the meeting was approved by the P&Z board — allowing more types of offices along Park Avenue. The proposal to have fast food restaurants along the Avenue was shot down. But Winter Park Chamber of Commerce President Patrick Chapin said that fears of drive-through restaurants wouldn’t have come to fruition, even if it had passed.
“Nobody’s objecting about Tropical Smoothie (Café), which is 30 feet off of Park Avenue,” Chapin said. “Fast food scares people, but I don’t think people are thinking about drive-throughs, they’re thinking about Panera (Bread) and things like that.”
Chapin said that the goal of those proposed changes was to start a conversation about different types of businesses that could be more at home on Park Avenue south of Comstock Avenue.
“It’s a definable area of Park Avenue that’s just different than the rest,” Chapin said. “That’s why a place like BurgerFi can work down there, I think.”
Commissioner Carolyn Cooper agreed that walkable businesses, including restaurants, could be a good idea. She said she welcomed the idea of BurgerFi, the new restaurant on the south end of the block that opened on Monday.
“It’s just helpful to keep the continuity so that people will continue to enjoy their pedestrian experience on Park Avenue,” Cooper said. “We need people to keep walking.”
At the P&Z meeting, a staff-recommended proposal that could open the gate for businesses ranging from medical offices to finance firms passed. For Debbie Farrah, whose Bajalia Trading Company is thriving on the south end of the Avenue, new business around her could be a good thing, as long as it’s local.
“I don’t have a problem with local business, no matter who they are and what they are,” Farrah said. “I love diversity on the Avenue. I think that’s good for us.”
Flynn said she worried that if businesses who are too far off the theme of Park Avenue are allowed to move in, it could leave the wrong impression to visitors coming from the south end.
“If you have cosmetic treatments, massage therapists, it’s just not going to be Park Avenue,” Flynn said. “I just feel that when you turn off of Fairbanks, whatever is there should be an eye catcher that says, this is Park Avenue.”
On June 23, the City Commission will discuss the potential for new business types and code changes for the Avenue, and is scheduled to vote on a first reading of the ordinance. Chapin said that he looks forward to broadening the conversation about what could help revive the south end of the Avenue. It’s just ideas right now, he said.
“The alternative is vacant storefronts, and we’ve done that, and done that really well,” Chapin said. “So the question is: is it time to have a discussion about the pros and cons about other businesses?”
