Winter Park's City Commission hit the brakes Wednesday on a proposal that would give the city its first permanent synagogue, voting 4-1 to table a final decision on Chabad of Greater Orlando's plan for a mixed-use campus at 210 E. Morse Boulevard. The delay pushes the conditional-use request to the commission's October 28 meeting, leaving the congregation waiting once again for a permanent home nearly two years after fire destroyed its longtime Maitland facility.
The vote marked a reversal from just weeks earlier. As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, commissioners had approved the project on first reading in a 3-2 vote on August 28, with Craig Russell and Elizabeth Ingram previously backing it before both joined Mayor Sheila DeCiccio and Commissioner Warren Lindsey in supporting the motion to table. Only Commissioner Kris Cruzada dissented, having voiced support for the proposal even as he raised concerns about traffic, parking and water retention, according to the Sentinel.
DeCiccio, who made the motion to table, said the proposed development was too intensive for the site and suggested the applicant consider eliminating the rooftop venue, daycare or townhomes, or scaling the project back to just the synagogue, per the Sentinel's reporting. Ingram said she still wants Winter Park to have a synagogue but cited concerns about parking, traffic, rooftop-event noise and the elevated daycare playground. Separately, DeCiccio told Heritage Florida Jewish News that the city's objections were strictly about site intensity, not opposition to a Jewish house of worship, and reiterated that Winter Park would welcome a synagogue in the right location.
A Long Road Since the Maitland Fire
Chabad of Greater Orlando has been searching for a permanent home since its Maitland campus at 708 Lake Howell Road was heavily damaged by a fire blamed on an electrical malfunction, according to the Sentinel. The two-alarm blaze struck on September 22, 2024, though firefighters and local rabbis managed to rescue all six sacred Torah scrolls from the building, including a Holocaust-surviving scroll, as reported by WFTV. Hoodline previously reported on the congregation's displaced holiday services at a Winter Park hotel just weeks after the fire.
The congregation has since been meeting in rented space on North Park Avenue for about two years, per the Sentinel, a temporary setup with limited space. Rabbi Dovid Dubov, the organization's director of operations, said the congregation remains committed to working with the city toward approval and asked for continued community support, according to the Sentinel's account of the meeting.
What the Project Would Replace
The proposed development would replace the historic El Cortez Apartments, located one block from Park Avenue and four blocks from Rollins College. In their place, Chabad plans to redevelop the 0.61-acre parcel into an 80-seat synagogue, a religious daycare for up to 60 children, five attached townhome units and an underground parking garage, per the Sentinel. Municipal filings reviewed for the August planning board hearing show the three-story synagogue building would front Knowles Avenue, with the five townhomes fronting Morse Boulevard.
The daycare's rooftop playground has drawn particular scrutiny: it spans 525 square feet, sits with just 8 feet of clearance above a private drive below, and is surrounded by a 4-foot barrier, according to the Sentinel's reporting. Any daycare enrollment beyond 60 children, or any synagogue expansion beyond 80 seats, would require additional city approval.
Concessions Offered, Concerns Persist
Rebecca Wilson, an attorney with the Lowndes law firm representing the project's backers, said the applicant added operational conditions in a good-faith effort to address neighborhood concerns, according to the Citizen Portal AI account of the proceedings. Those conditions, as detailed by the Sentinel, include a ban on amplified music and outdoor speakers, a requirement that daycare vehicle queues stay contained to the property, and a rule that project employees park onsite. The plan also caps initial daycare capacity at 50 children, limits the rooftop deck to non-religious-service events no more than four days a week, and requires rooftop events, noise and lighting to end by 10 p.m., with rooftop and exterior lighting shielded to prevent spillover. Only one event or service may occur at a time, and events or services are prohibited during daycare hours.
Despite those adjustments, neighbor Doug Sangster, who lives next door to the proposed site, continued to oppose the current plan, per the Sentinel. Nearly 30 people spoke at the meeting, with testimony split almost evenly between supporters and opponents — echoing the divide Citizen Portal AI described from the initial August hearing, a two-and-a-half-hour discussion that drew comments from more than 20 residents.
Federal Law and Regional History Loom Over the Debate
The Winter Park Planning and Zoning Board had voted unanimously in August to advance the project to the commission before the back-and-forth votes that followed, according to the Sentinel. Land-use disputes involving synagogues carry particular legal weight nationally: under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, local governments are barred from imposing zoning rules that substantially burden or discriminate against religious institutions on less-than-equal terms with secular assemblies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which has noted that synagogues account for 20 percent of religious zoning litigation despite representing a small share of the population.
If eventually approved, the Morse Boulevard campus would give Winter Park its first permanent synagogue — a notable milestone for a city that has never had one, a point community members raised during public comments, according to Heritage Florida Jewish News. Central Florida's Jewish community dates back a century in the region: Congregation Ohev Shalom built the area's first purpose-built synagogue in 1925 at Church Street and Eola Drive in Orlando before moving to a new building on Goddard Avenue in 1974 and later to Maitland in 2011. For now, Chabad of Greater Orlando's future in Winter Park hinges on the commission's rescheduled vote next month.
