A crowd of Pine Hills residents persuaded Orange County commissioners Tuesday to deny an appeal for another liquor store with some arguing that 14 in the community are plenty.
“What you heard is they don’t like the use,” lawyer Kurt Ardaman told the board in defense of his client NorthStar Power’s right to open a package store in a strip mall it owns on Clarcona-Ocoee Road. “Your county code allows it.”
Orange County code doesn’t allow a liquor store closer than 1,000 feet from a religious institution and the front door of the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, according to a zoning manager’s measure, is 143 feet too close.
The manager and the lawyer differed on “the shortest route of ordinary pedestrian travel,” the key to the code.
“They have twisted this phrase in order to deny this project,” Ardaman argued.
He pointed out that the zoning official had stepped off the distance of 857 feet from NorthStar Liquors to the church across the road by taking a shortcut up an embankment and through a field pocked with divots and potholes.
He said walking a path along the church’s loose-gravel driveway was longer than required by about 280 feet.
The proposed store, located on Clarcona-Ocoee Road, would be adjacent to a coin laundry and vaping shop.
Sandra Fatmi-Hall, president of the Pine Hills Community Council, called on the board to not only deny NorthStar Power’s appeal for its store but also to impose a moratorium on any future liquor and package stores.
“No more liquor stores,” she said of Pine Hills, an unincorporated community of about 70,000 residents.
The Rev. Alandus Sims, the church pastor, said zoning should not be relaxed to permit alcohol sales.
“If we’re going to deviate from a requirement, we should do so in cases that will benefit the community,” he said. “Somebody who wants something to drink, they can go get it. It doesn’t have to be 1,000 feet outside our church door.”
He said church should be a place of solace.
“The last thing that I want is for people to exit after worshipping and the first thing they see is something that speaks to their weakness,” he said.
About 40 people signed up to speak, nearly all opposed to the store. Some linked alcohol with crime.
Two people said they were in favor of a store closer to where they live.
“I don’t want to shake your world but not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic,” said Carl Minion, who had pledged to shop at the store if it had won its appeal. “I enjoy some of the nice things in life and wine is one of them.”
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
![National Weather Service experts warned Wednesday that the rise of a potent, global climate bully has set the stage for violent weather and killer tornadoes in Central Florida from now until spring. With one occurring every few to seven years at varying strengths, an El Niño climate phase is taking shape as among the stronger on record and is forecast to have a high probability of ushering powerful storm systems across the Gulf of Mexico into the Orlando region and other parts of Florida through March. National Weather Service officials said conditions in place put Central Florida at a comparable […]](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/FLORIDA-TORNADOES.jpg?w=534 "National Weather Service experts warned Wednesday that the rise of a potent, global climate bully has set the stage for violent weather and killer tornadoes in Central Florida from now until spring. With one occurring every few to seven years at varying strengths, an El Niño climate phase is taking shape as among the stronger on record and is forecast to have a high probability of ushering powerful storm systems across the Gulf of Mexico into the Orlando region and other parts of Florida through March. National Weather Service officials said conditions in place put Central Florida at a comparable […]")
