Winter Park Town Council approves new dispensary after parking, trash concerns resolved
Special for Sky-Hi News

Town of Winter Park/Courtesy photo
Great Divide Lettuce Colony, a new dispensary, was granted special use permit to operate their business at Winter Park Town Council’s June 20 regular meeting.
After an hour of debate, the town council passed resolution 2067, which approved a special use permit for Great Divide Lettuce Colony. Additionally, the town council, acting as the local licensing authority, granted Great Divide its business license.
Town council has now heard this proposal five times, and most recently rejected a special use permit for a lack of parking access to the dispensary’s building.

On April 4, the town council rejected Great Divide’s plan for a fee-in-lieu of parking and deferred a decision on the special use permit until it adequately addressed parking for their proposed site.
Great Divide then secured a five-spot off-site 20-year parking lease agreement with the building owners of Subway and Active Images on the opposite side of U.S. Highway 40. The dispensary’s secured location, formerly the Winter Park Trading Post, sits next to the Cooper Creek parking lot, a lot zoned as a planned development.
Council members expressed concern that if Subway and Active Image’s building sold, Great Divide would no longer have parking access.
Peter Doerken, representing the Great Divide Lettuce Colony clarified that the lease agreement would apply to any new buyer of the property.
Doerken explained the dispensary has already unsuccessfully sought a parking agreement with the owners of the Cooper Creek parking lot. Dispensary customers cannot park in the Cooper Creek parking lot, and Doerken seemed determined to not let that become an issue.
“Every customer will be told by an ID verification employee that they cannot park in Cooper Creek’s parking lot,” Doerken said.
However, the council members’ concerns did not stop at parking. Mayor Nick Cutrumbos criticized Great Divide’s garbage disposal plan.
Great Divide’s proposed building does not have alley access, which is how most businesses on U.S. Highway 40 receive trash service.
Initially, the dispensary proposed it would haul their trash out to U.S. 40 for pick up, which prompted Cutrombos to rhetorically ask the council, “Is this council prepared to allow businesses to start utilizing Highway 40 for their garbage to be picked up in totes?”
Councilmember Mike Periolat responded “Absolutely not, it’s a safety issue, it’s an aesthetic issue.” Cutrombos added that U.S. 40 is the face of Winter Park.
Doerken argued the dispensary simply won’t produce enough trash to create an issue.
“This is not a bar or a restaurant, we are looking at garbage pickup once a month,” Doerken said.
He went on to explain the company’s commitment to not leaving totes of trash on U.S. 40.
After further debate on its trash pick-up plan, council member Rebecca Kaufman pointed out, “We asked for them to park the space, they parked the space, we’re nitpicking at one particular business.”
Kaufman felt Great Divide had done what the council has asked of them, but the council remained concerned with the garbage disposal plan.
Ultimately, Council Member Art Ferrari made a motion to approve the resolution with a condition that Great Divide dispose all their garbage off site.
Doerken had previously commented that disposing their trash off-site would “be the easiest thing we have done as a company.”
The council passed the resolution with the addition of an off-site garbage disposal condition in a 6-1 vote, with Council Member Mike Periolat issuing the sole no vote. The council then moved to grant Great Divide its business license by the same 6-1 vote, giving the dispensary a special use permit and business license needed to operate in Winter Park, a process that began in January.

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