Town Center store proposal sparks EV charging station debate 

A proposed ordinance to allow a convenience store with gas pumps led to a rehashing of the debate over electric vehicle chargers in Winter Springs during the commission April 28 latest meeting. 

Staff worked to draft proposed changes to the city’s zoning code, which would allow for the consideration of a corner neighborhood convenience store with gas pumps in the Town Center District. The changes were presented to the city’s Planning and Zoning Board and approved with the suggestion certain language be removed detailing the convenience store’s features and offerings. 

But staff recommended that the language remain as “the City could potentially attract development proposals that resemble a pit stop rather than a neighborhood convenience store.” 

Director of Community Development Terrilynn Role presented the ordinance proposal and said the intent was to have a community-focused convenience store with several offerings to serve the town center in addition to gas, which it would have a limited number of pumps for. 

“So the focus would not be on just gas sales or fueling stations, but really a convenience store with multiple offerings of the community,” Rolle said, before allowing the Commission to ask questions. 

Questioning Winter Springs’ lack of EV chargers

Limited discussion was had before Commissioner Paul Diaz began a line of questioning focused on why electric vehicle charging had not been included in the proposal. 

Rolle said the ordinance, as proposed, allows for a traditional convenience store with gas options, specifically fuel like petrol, and not EV charging stations in lieu of those options. 

“If an applicant desires to have [charging stations] considered, there are other processes following for them to be allowed to do that,” Rolle said. “[The planning and zoning board] had questions about it, but that was not proposed in the ordinance. That would be an additional consideration should an applicant pursue a convenience store within the town center.”

Diaz continued, clarifying that the proposed ordinance change was from the city and not a particular applicant, to which Rolle affirmed.

“Is there a reason why the city is hostile toward the idea of having superchargers or electric vehicle charging stations?” Diaz then asked, a question which prompted Deputy Mayor Cade Resnick to speak out. 

“We don’t use the word hostile from the dais,” Resnick said. “That is a targeted conversation. Can we use different language, please?”

“I’m sorry I offended your sensibilities,” Diaz said, before rephrasing. “Is there a reason why we have continued negativity toward electric charging? I mean this Commission, this dais.

“in fact, I think maybe you [Resnick] were even on this dias when it voted to remove charging stations in the city, making us probably the least forward-thinking city in the county,” Diaz said.

The Commission previously did vote to remove the city’s only two public electric vehicle chargers in October 2023, in the face of the Duke Energy Park and Plug pilot electric vehicle charging program coming to an end the following month. 

The chargers were installed in the city as part of the program in 2021, and would have been the financial responsibility of the city had it chosen to keep them following the conclusion of the Duke program and its funding. 

Winter Springs is the only city in Seminole County with zero public electric car chargers, according to the electric car charger tracking company Plugshare. 

Diaz pushes the EV issue

“To address you, Commissioner, I can’t speak to any hostility,” Rolle said. “But the code is to address the convenience store with gas.”

She continued by explaining the city does not have language in its code regarding electric vehicle charging stations and that the proposed ordinance change was not intended to address the matter, calling it “another topic of discussion.”

“I can’t really speak to your question about the cities or the previous Commission’s position on EV stations and having them removed, but this is just an amendment to the code to allow for a convenience store with expanded offerings,” Rolle said. “Because it is in the town center, we want it to be a nice convenience store with gas.”

Mayor Kevin McCann asked City Attorney Anthony Garganese if it’d be more appropriate to say the city was “neutral” regarding electric vehicle charging stations, as there was no direction of mandating or banning the equipment in the city. 

Garganese did not affirm or deny the question, but said that Rolle’s point was that the ordinance was about the corner store itself and not charging stations.  

“So this ordinance proposes to provide an exception to the distance requirement a developer would have to come in for conditional use,” Garganese said. “There’s nothing in this code that would prohibit the market to have a developer come to add an EV charging station to a corner store with gas pumps.” 

Discussing the two public charging stations that were removed previously, Commissioner Victoria Bruce added they’d found them to have “very low voltage” at the time. 

Plugshare reviews of the Central Winds Park charging station in the months before the closure reported the station working correctly and charging at 7 kilowatts per hour. More than 80% of electric vehicle chargers in America are the same Level 2 type chargers with similar output, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Fears of a busier Town Center 

The ordinance received some pushback from residents who opposed adding the convenience store itself, finding it to not keep in character with the town center and asking why the city needed another gas station.  

“How much do you need is what I’m saying, gas stations in the town center sector,” resident Gina Shafer said. “ The traffic is horrifying. And if you’ve ever tried with kids going to school or whatever across Tuscawilla —I’m just saying, it’s horrifying.”

Resident Sheila Benton echoed the sentiment as she was concerned about how adding gas options near the town center would contribute to traffic. 

“Building more gas stations does not generally encourage pedestrian friendly cities,” Benton said. “In fact, they contribute to more car-dependent environments, discouraging walking and other active transportation modes … You bring in more retail like this, you’re asking for more cars.”

Former Commissioner Robert Miller said the town center, as it stands today, is not the vision that he and other Commission members had when they broke ground for the site in 2009.

“Now we have what we have here, which the Publix is anchoring that and on the other side, we have a McDonald’s and what I think looks like a prison,” Miller said. “I’m not knocking the design of those buildings, but it looks like what we see for a prison complex … it’s not beautiful. We have a gas station on one corner.”

The motion passed 4-1, with only Diaz dissenting, and will go to public hearing before approval. 

“We need people that want to make [this city] what I told you about a year ago,” Miller said, prior to the Commission’s vote. “I said, ‘make this the best looking city in the United States.’”

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