ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The Winter Park City Commission has tabled a proposal by Chabad of Greater Orlando to build a new synagogue in downtown Winter Park for the second time, delaying a decision until Oct. 28.<\/p>\n
The proposal drew more than 25 speakers during public comment at City Hall.<\/p>\n
Supporters said the project would provide a long-awaited home for Jewish worship in Winter Park, while opponents raised concerns about the size and mix of uses planned for the site.<\/p>\n
The project includes a synagogue, a daycare for 60 children, a parking garage, a rooftop venue and five townhomes on 0.6 acres. The site backs up to a residential area and would include drop-off and pickup lines.<\/p>\n
Molly Losey, a Winter Park resident of 53 years, said before the meeting that she was excited about the project. After the vote was tabled, she said she was disappointed by the delay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a town with 47 churches and has never had a temple, ever. I think it\u2019s time. I think it\u2019s more than about a building,\u201d Losey said.<\/p>\n
Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said she believes the proposal includes too much activity for the size of the property and surrounding area.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one can stand in that area and say it is not a mess now, plus I am sure that the synagogue will be successful and is going to grow. Saturday mornings are already congested with the farmers market. Parking and traffic are a real problem,\u201d DeCiccio said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Warren Lindsey said he was concerned about the proposed use of the rooftop venue for rentals up to four days a week.<\/p>\n
Since the commission\u2019s last meeting on the proposal a few weeks ago, conditions have been added to the plan.<\/p>\n
They include limiting rooftop deck rentals to no more than four days a week and requiring at least two staff members to have intermediate maintenance of traffic certification to help manage traffic flow on the site.<\/p>\n
Chabad of Greater Orlando did not comment on the commission\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
The next meeting to discuss the proposal is scheduled for Oct. 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The Winter Park City Commission has tabled a proposal by Chabad of Greater Orlando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,43147,2287,115,1335,139,141,140,278],"class_list":["post-395777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-top-stories","tag-devin-martin","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}