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…