Zoning board: former Pappy’s Patch should remain inside rural boundary

Growing up, Geneva resident Cali Adams went to Pappy’s Patch to pick strawberries. As an adult, she’s brought her two daughters there as well.  

“It was a staple in the community, and I was really sad when they closed down,” Adams said. “And the owners said that they were just closing down because their lease was ended, and they didn’t really give any details to the community about that.” 

Right now, the land is an open cow field. Adams’ 15-year-old daughter Chloe said she would rather see cows in that area than a proposed development of 136 houses. 

“I do not like the possible use of the land being a housing development or whatever,” Chloe Howard said after she spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting. “I think that’s an incredibly inefficient use of wonderful land, and as I said up there, I don’t want to grow up seeing that every time I drive up there.”

VIDEO EMBED OF THEM SPEAKING 

Adams and her children were just a few of the more than 30 residents who spoke to the Seminole County Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday night about a proposal to pull the 67 acres of land that used to be Pappy’s Patch out of the rural boundary.

Other than the developer Chris Dorworth, none spoke in favor of allowing the property to be pulled from the rural boundary. 

“Maybe I’m a traditionalist in this regard, but I have this thought that the most important opinion about a piece of land and its use should be the owner of it,” Dorworth said. “Under this rural boundary, it’s the least important person.”

Ultimately, after a nearly four-hour meeting, the Planning and Zoning Board agreed with county staff and recommended denying the Strawberry Lane application. The final decision will now go to the Seminole County Commission on Dec. 8, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. 

“We’re just a recommending body,” said Planning and Zoning Chairwoman Carissa Lawhun. “So I encourage anyone who cares to be there.” 

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Developer Chris Dorworth brings court reporter to meeting

So what exactly is being proposed for the former self-service strawberry farm?

The 67-acre property is currently zoned agricultural, and could be developed into  a 17-home subdivision with just staff approval of the technical plans. 

But Dorworth is asking for the property to be pulled out of the rural boundary and to be developed at the higher density of the nearby Preserve at Black Hammock and Southern Oaks neighborhoods. 

Using those ratios, Dorworth is proposing a maximum of 136 single-family homes on 80-by-125-foot lots; 25% of the 67 acres would be open space, and stormwater would be handled with a 15-acre pond on the site.

“This is not some Brazilian rainforest, folks,” Dorworth said. “This is a graded-out cattle field. Cows go out there, they eat, they poop. This is not some pristine thing. It’s an open field across the street from two subdivisions.”

Dorworth told the board Wednesday night that everyone agrees there’s a housing crisis, and Central Florida is “ground zero.” County officials said Seminole County is expected to need housing for an additional 40,000 residents by 2045, which would require about 16,000 houses. 

County staff argued that current zoning can meet the need. Even within the rural boundary, the future land use would allow for an additional 4,600 homes to built on land currently vacant with its existing and future land use. Each could also have an accessory dwelling unit, or mother-in-law suite, to double that. 

Dorworth disagreed with that idea.

“I’d like to point this out, but what they (staff) are saying is you don’t ever need to have any property taken out of the rural area because you could theoretically develop every single one of the 40,000 or so (acres) owned by private citizens.”

Dorworth brought a court reporter to the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. Some residents have said that Dorworth will challenge the decision in court, or could appeal to the Florida Legislature to end the boundary, which was proposed earlier this year. 

“Is this boundary just a permanent lock?” Dorworth asked. “My contention is that there’s no condition by which anything is coming out of the rural boundary. And if that’s the case, the rural boundary has to go. Because that’s an abuse of government property. That’s government tyranny.”

Planning and Zoning Board Member Richard Jerman wanted the planning board to send the project to the County Commission without a recommendation. 

“There are a considerable amount of factual disputes, which we heard from both sides, and many legal issues and related conclusions have been raised.,” Jerman said. “I’m not qualified to interpret those issues.” 

That idea ultimately failed, and county attorneys told the board they have to make a recommendation one way or another. 

Maitland Mayor John Lowndes spoke during public comment Wednesday night. He said that Seminole County voters have been very clear about wanting to keep the rural boundary and that it has to be respected. 

Lowndes is running against FL Sen. Jason Brodeur for Florida Senate’s District 10. Brodeur backed legislation that would have gutted Seminole County’s rural boundary. 

“If people have the right to develop the property to the maximum extent that’s allowable by the regulations currently in the boundary, that’s fine,” Lowndes said. “What he’s [Dorworth] looking to do is put 136 homes on something that should take only 17 homes, and that’s a different matter altogether.”

For Adams, who brought her two children to the Wednesday night meeting, this is just another time where the board is pushing the decision down on the commissioners.

“I was involved with the fighting of the land swap with the Econ Wilderness Area several years ago that Chris Dorworth was trying to get done,” Adams said. “The county commissioners fought it or rejected it, and then he took them to court and that cost the taxpayers, like they said, $400,000 …. And now he’s got the audacity to try it again.”

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.