WINTER PARK, Fla. — Winter Park unveiled some big changes at its first meeting of 2025.
What You Need To Know
- City of Winter Park held its first city council meeting of the new year and announced some big changes for residents
- City commissioners unanimously voted to approve the sale and purchase of the Winter Park Playhouse using $8 million of Tourist Development Tax funding
- With those funds, the city will purchase the property for $3.875 million and use the remaining amount to remodel the building and expand the theater’s seating capacity
- The city has determined that it will conduct an in-person general election on March 11 because it is more cost effective than voting-by-mail
Entertainment Staple
City commissioners unanimously voted to approve the sale and purchase of the Winter Park Playhouse using $8 million of Tourist Development Tax funding, previously awarded by Orange County in October 2024.
With the funding, the city said it will use a little less than half to pay for the property and allocate the remaining money to pay for the building’s renovations.
Plans include expanding the seating capacity by 50% to improve the overall patron experience at the theater.
The city will now begin its 60 day inspection process and will come up with a lease agreement since it will be the new landlord of the Playhouse.
There is the possibility that the property would become tax-exempt once the city takes ownership of the land, resulting in an annual loss of expected CRA tax increment revenues — totaling $15,000.
However, the city would be the new owner of a piece of land worth close to $4 million.
“We’re very excited for the partnership with the playhouse. They’ve been a great community partner and Orange County has just been a fantastic partner in all these types of things. All of our cultural events and our cultural organizations — the county’s just such a big part of that,” City Manager Randy Knight said.
General Election
A second reading to determine how residents would vote on the referendum on gas-powered leaf blowers in the city’s general election, March 11, was pulled from Wednesday night’s agenda.
Randy Knight said he was surprised to discover that it’s actually more cost effective for the city to hold an in-person election rather than voting-by-mail, claiming it will save them close to $20,000.
“You have to send a ballot to every registered voter and there are 24,000 registered voters in Winter Park, so you have to mail it to each one. There’s a cost of mailing and printing all those ballots and then for each mailed ballot that comes back, it costs $1.85 for each one that comes back,” Knight explained.
The qualifying period for those interested in running in the city’s general election starts on Monday, Jan. 13, and will close on Jan. 21.
The only two candidates presently running for District Seats 3, Commissioner Kris Cruzada, and 4, Candidate Warren Lindsey, do not currently have any opponents.
If it remains that way after Jan. 21, Winter Park voters will only have to worry about one item on their ballots — the referendum on gas-powered leaf blowers.