Mayor's Request for Special Meeting

From: Colleen Murphy <cmurphyws@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Subject: AGENDA ITEM 501 Winter Springs Village HOA President's Statement for July 14th City Meeting
To: <kmccann@winterspringsfl.org>, <pdiaz@winterspringsfl.org>, <vbruce@winterspringsfl.org>, <sbaker@winterspringsfl.org>, Cade Resnick <cresnick@winterspringsfl.org>, <mcaruso@winterspingsfl.org>, Kevin Sweet <ksweet@winterspringsfl.org>, <cmoffice@winterspringsfl.org>, Christian Gowan <cgowan@winterspringsfl.org>

Mayor McCann, Commissioners and City Staff,


I will be out of town and unable to attend Monday's meeting but wanted to send my public input by email.  I was planning to attend the special meeting on July 7th but it was cancelled.  


I will preface my comments with this:  I have lived in Winter Springs since June of 2003, having moved to Winter Springs Village in November of 2012 after 9.5 years in Parkstone.   I've been involved with the WSV HOA as a resident board member when Meritage Homes was still in control of the HOA in 2013.   Now in my 5th term as the HOA President, I've had the opportunity to talk with, meet with and/or email with multiple past city staff members over many years,  as well as current and former commissioners.   I have always appreciated the opportunity to work cooperatively with our city on various topics.  Therefore, it saddens me that the overall tone,  political culture and current state of affairs over the last few years has caused the resignations of invaluable city managers / interim city managers, (i.e., Phil Hursh)  and other city personnel our community had been fortunate to know.   Thankful for their dedication, their work ethic and their efforts as genuine public servants, I was once eager to stay involved with attendance at city meetings and even served, albeit briefly, on the city's code enforcement volunteer board.  Newer candidates for city commission (and unfortunately even one former commissioner returned) opted to sow the seeds of disinformation campaigns over a period of years - which the public readily digested from general apathy coupled with a lack of critical thinking.    As a byproduct of this culture, we now have our own city version of political theatre with pervasive grandstanding at most of the city meetings, not at all reflective of the decorum of former years.  For this reason, I find it difficult to stomach attendance at the meetings.   I am thankful that Mayor McCann has brought this item back to the table because it is a critical vote that will have lasting implications for decades.  For the purpose of this email, I will make my statement regarding the tree provision, Agenda Item 501:  


Our community has watched hundreds of units of multi-family housing and commercial retail projects develop around us since 2012.  We are "boxed-in" so to speak, on our parcel of 202 single family homes adjacent to WSHS and just south of the lake.  We are indeed zoned within the WSTC, so ultimately, we did expect some measure of development.  Overall, I feel the Blake turned out to be a decent project with nice landscaping, as did Seminole Crossing and Hickory Grove Townhomes.  That said - there is reasonable development with smart growth planning within any municipality and then there is reckless development with consequences.  Here in Winter Springs Village, we have lived those consequences since Hurricane Irma in 2017.  


We were invited by Phil Hursh last October to attend a meeting for a presentation on the MBB drainage improvements.  We've been waiting many years for that work, to the point where the water pump we've affectionately named "Big Blue" has become part of our landscape.  We were told the work would be completed by July of this year, ahead of another peak storm season.  The work has not even begun.  We are grateful for the public works employees who check on the pump and keep it running during the rainy months.    It was former city mgr Shawn Boyle who helped us during one of those floods,  digging trenches with his pant legs rolled up as Buckhorn Drive flooded over the sidewalks.  While the addition of the large parking lot at the town center added parking space,  that lot, coupled with the multiple developments surrounding us to our west, east and south, created further impermeable surfaces that exceeded anything we expected, causing extensive flooding of our streets during a summer downpour, let alone a hurricane.   The WSTC drains toward Winter Springs Village.  Wetlands Park's drain outlets have proven unfit for the sheer volume of water coming from the impermeable surfaces of the town center and now Hickory Grove as well.  The drainage turrets along Tuskawilla can't handle the volume of water so they overflow into Wetlands Park which subsequently drains into WSV.  The storm drains fill to capacity and overflow, flooding Michael Blake, well into Buckhorn Drive & Ginnie Way, with the south end of Michael Blake flowing into Treehouse Street and the east end of Fanning Drive now a designated flood zone.  Phase 2 of Fanning Drive was not a flood zone when WSV was built..  My own home nearly flooded in Ian.


How can you all help ?  TREES HELP PREVENT FLOODING.  With another hurricane season bearing down and daily reports of unprecedented flooding throughout the country, we need our permeable surfaces and our green spaces protected.  I thought that was Victoria Bruce's whole campaign platform ???  Tree mitigation and support of tree conservation, correct Victoria ??   Yet Victoria's recent vote was one of the 3 votes that gave a free pass to the developer for the SR 434/MBB project, creating a dangerous precedent for all future development in the city; creating a free pass for clear-cutting remaining green spaces.   I was thankful to see Commissioner Resnick's and Baker's votes in opposition.  For our long-time city attorney to advise against this and yet 3 seated commissioners voted to let the developer get away with non-payment of $227,000 in mitigation fees is an egregious misrepresentation of duty to your constituents.   The city's tree giveaway program has been one of the best ideas in the history of WS; yet your vote will cut all funds for any future free trees at a time when trees are sorely needed.  So --  no accountability for this developer to pay the fees they agreed to pay and an EZ PASS for all future developers to pay ZERO as well.    


I urge you - Commissioners Bruce, Diaz and Caruso - to reconsider your vote and the impacts it will have - not only on our 202 homes in Winter Springs Village but all city residents for years to come.  Much of the public put their faith in you with their vote for you to do what is best for the city's residents.  Now is your chance to step up.    Hold the developer accountable for payment of fees.


Thank you for your time, 

Colleen Murphy
Winter Springs Village HOA
Board President

On Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 11:52 AM Tom Eggebrecht <eggebrecht@aol.com> wrote:

Dear Mayor McCann, Winter Springs City Commissioners, City Manager, and City Clerk:
This email is to support Mayor McCann's effort to stand strong against the developers in our city, who want to strip the land of trees and not pay the required arbor/tree ordinance mitigation fees for the next phase of the project.
Our trees are one of the major factors in keeping City of Winter Springs livable, beautiful, enjoyable, and free from overdevelopment. 
I am all for REASONABLE development in our city. But to continue to tear apart the canopy of trees reduces property values, takes away natural habitat for wildlife, and makes our city look like any other generic spot off of an interstate.
Let's keep that from happening in Winter Springs. 
We love our city and we love our trees. 
Please continue to stand firm against the developers who want to raid our city, take down our trees, and avoid paying any of the cost to do so. 
Sincerely, 
Tom and Tammy Eggebrecht

From: Colleen Murphy <cmurphyws@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: AGENDA ITEM 501 Winter Springs Village HOA President's Statement for July 14th City Meeting
To: Victoria Bruce <vbruce@winterspringsfl.org>
CC: <kmccann@winterspringsfl.org>, <pdiaz@winterspringsfl.org>, <mcaruso@winterspingsfl.org>, <sbaker@winterspringsfl.org>, Cade Resnick <cresnick@winterspringsfl.org>, Christian Gowan <cgowan@winterspringsfl.org>, Kevin Sweet <ksweet@winterspringsfl.org>, <agarganese@winterspringsfl.org>

Victoria, 

To do your job, unless you are an attorney, the protocol for you to follow as an elected official, would be for you to defer to our city attorney for legal guidance & interpretation. 
Attorney Garganese has provided the counsel sufficient for you to oppose this fee waiver.  As a mitigation banker, you clearly serve developers - making your vote to waive these fees a *huge* conflict of interest and an outright betrayal of your obligation to work on behalf on your constituents. 
If you cannot bring yourself to listen to the city's attorney and oppose the fee waiver, then I ask that you abstain from any vote that may occur Monday night.  
Please work for the people by basing your vote on counsel from the people's attorney, (the city attorney) , NOT the developer's attorney nor any other attorney. The city's veteran attorney is working in the best interest of our city. Once again, I will ask you -- who are you working for ?? 
Colleen MurphyWinter Springs Village HOA

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: JGH>

Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2025 at 11:46 AM

Subject: Decision by the commission to waive Arbor fees at the last meeting

To: <Winterspringsresidentsfirst@gmail.com>

As I am sitting with my wife in the hospital I wanted to send an note to be read into the public input segment of the 7-14-2025 commission meeting. As I watched the last meeting unfold in regards to the waiving of Arbor fees for a developer I was deeply troubled by several things, first of which was commissioners meeting privately with the developer representatives and realtor although allowed with proper documentation still seems inappropriate. Secondly the commission seemed to ignore the advise of the city attorney, who was very versed on the agreement, and strongly advised against waiving the fees. Third a member of the commission who might consider recuse themselves due to possible ties to developers during the course of their personal business activities, again probably allowed but gives the appearance of impropriety. And lastly the possibility of gutting the very ordinance put in place by the city to maintain it's "Tree City" commitment. In closing I request the commission revisit this issue and engage in further conversation with council.

JGH

Winter Springs