City Commissioner Sam Ruth says his recent push to revisit the city’s Planning Commission structure stems from a growing concern that development in the city is moving faster than the infrastructure needed to support it. 

Ruth, a former city commissioner who was elected to Seat 1 in March, said while he supports growth, the city needs to take a closer look at whether its current planning and infrastructure systems are prepared for what lies ahead.  

“Growth is good, but controlled growth is smarter, wiser and better for the community as a whole,” Ruth said in an interview with The Apopka Chief. “I think we’ve lost sight of that in the last several years.”  

According to Ruth, the debate is not about targeting individual Planning Commission members or dismantling the city’s existing review procedures, which he described as “solid.” Instead, he said he wants city leaders, staff and advisory boards to pause and evaluate whether Apopka’s infrastructure can keep pace with continued development.  

“This is not about any board member,” Ruth said. “This is about seeing who can get the brightest and smartest people to fulfill these spots while we really do a deep forensic audit of what our infrastructure is like [and] how we can support the city’s needs.”  

Ruth’s comments follow a May 6 City Commission meeting where discussion led to the cancellation of the May 12 Planning Commission meeting until the city could hold a workshop examining the board’s future direction and development priorities. 

Ruth said his concerns intensified during a May 6 meeting discussion involving a proposed eight-unit townhome project within the Community Redevelopment Agency district, which the commission voted 5-0 to deny.  

During discussion of that project, Ruth said he saw a disconnect between city staff’s development recommendations and what he believes are the city’s infrastructure limitations. 

“When you sit back and you see that disconnect, it only leaves you to ask the question, there’s something wrong here, and it needs to be at least questioned,” he told the Chief.  

Among the issues Ruth cited during the Chief interview were aging water and sewer infrastructure, roadway congestion, and increasing residential density in some neighborhoods. He said the city needs a more comprehensive review of infrastructure capacity before approving additional projects.  

“We don’t have the roads to support it,” Ruth said. “We don’t have the infrastructure to support it.”  

Ruth also said he would like to see wider community participation in future Planning Commission appointments. That would include encouraging current board members to reapply alongside new candidates from across the city.  

“This board hasn’t changed in 30 years,” he said. “I think there’s great talent here in the city.”  

Ruth said he believes elected officials and board members need a deeper understanding of Apopka’s land development code and the planning tools available to manage growth.  

“There’s tools there, and if you know how to use them, we can slow some of this development down,” Ruth said.  

The City Commission is expected to discuss the Planning Commission further at its May 20 meeting. Ruth said he hopes the conversation leads to wider collaboration among city leaders, staff and residents about how Apopka should grow in the coming years.  

“This needs to be a community-driven, community involvement process,” Ruth said. “This is not about me. It’s not about anything I’m doing. I’m trying to make Apopka better.”  

During his report at the May 6 Commission meeting, Ruth asked his fellow commissioners to temporarily pause Planning Commission activity. 

“Because I’ve been elected for a month and a half now, this [is the] first open conversation I’ve had,” Ruth said during the meeting. “By the end of this month, that’s two months that they’re ahead of me, and I’m going to be on defense coming straight out of the chute.”  

Mayor Nick Nesta questioned whether delaying Planning Commission meetings could create legal complications under state law or negatively affect developers with pending applications. City attorney Cliff Shepard responded that discussing the issue in a workshop setting would not amount to a development moratorium or code change.  

“You’re simply saying we’re going to have a workshop to discuss the issue of how we’re going to deal with planning and planning board and so forth,” Shepard said.  

Nesta later directed staff to postpone the May 12 Planning Commission meeting pending further commission discussion.