With Mayor Bryan Nelson and Commissioner Diane Velazquez unable to attend the Apopka City Council meeting due to COVID-19, the meeting still went on as planned with Commissioner Doug Bankson, serving as vice mayor, conducting the meeting on Wednesday, August 18, at City Hall.
Mayor Nelson participated in the meeting by phone, while Commissioner Velazquez was unable to do so.
Among the votes the City Council took was the second and final approval of a temporary moratorium on what city staff refers to as small-box discount stores, commonly referred to as dollar stores.
With the stores proliferating throughout the nation, including Apopka, city staff and the City Council agreed to the temporary moratorium on approval of the dollar stores through January 31, 2022, as staff looks into drafting an ordinance that would more tightly regulate where the stores will be allowed to be built or placed into an existing building.
“The city will cease to consider applications for small-box discount stores during the pendency of this moratorium as staff begins to consider the proper mechanisms and potential regulations and requirements for these stores within the land development code,” city attorney Michael Rodriguez told the City Council at its August 4 meeting.
“The intent of the moratorium is to exist until January 31, 2022, at such time we may have the amendments to the land development code prepared, but this gives the staff enough time to consider how to implement such regulation without going into generalities as to what these regulations could entail.
“Allowing the moratorium will stop any new applications from coming in prior to the development of the LDC (land development code) regulations.”
According to city documents, “the moratorium will be applied to small-box discount stores defined as retail stores of less than 15,000 square feet that sell directly to consumers a limited assortment of physical goods, products, or merchandise, personal grooming or health products, household good, and other consumer products, including food or beverages for off-premises consumption, most of which are sold for $10 or less and that do not dedicate at least 15 percent of shelf space to fresh food and produce.”
In the written summary of the ordinance, City Council was told, “Staff believes it is in the best interest of the city to adopt this moratorium to pause the proliferation of small box discount stores, which contributes to food insecurity and change the food environment that keeps fresh food inaccessible and unaffordable to vulnerable communities.”
To learn more about what happened at the August 18 City Council meeting, read the page 1A story of the Friday, August 20, issue of The Apopka Chief.
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