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Mount Dora Preservation Board Begins Review Of Options To Prevent 'demolition By Neglect'

MOUNT DORA — The Mount Dora Historic Preservation Board began discussions on expanding its options to prevent an historic building’s “demolition by neglect” during a June 29 meeting.

The term generally refers to circumstances that allow a building to deteriorate to the point that it cannot be restored and must be destroyed.

To prevent demolition by neglect, many cities adopt ordinances requiring property owners to properly maintain historical buildings.

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Michele Janiszewski, the city’s senior planner, outlined some of her research into approaches by cities. Mount Dora already has an incentive tool to accommodate growth in the historic area that allows for more intense and dense uses for new development while promoting the rehabilitation of existing residences.

Another option is transfer of development rights, or TDRs.

As an example, if there’s a three-story building that warrants protection and it’s entitled to go up to 10 stories, then a developer could transfer the seven stories to another area. Based on Janiszewski’s experience, she would not recommend this option as it is “typically a mess to deal with.”

Financial incentives or grants may be another option, but she advised that these programs are frequently underfunded.

“Seemed like the one that would be most viable would be an affirmative maintenance ordinance,´’ Janiszewski said.

In this case, blight, nuisance, or abandonment is defined in the city’s code and then its code enforcer would have the responsibility of enforcing it. She will continue to review the code requirements as to what changes would need to be done to help the board to determine if that’s a viable option.A weakness in code enforcement

Janiszewski commented that the city’s current Land Development Code is “vague and lacking” regarding enforcement of maintenance and repair provisions. It simply states that the board may request appropriate officials or agencies of the city to correct deficiencies under applicable ordinances, laws and regulations.

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When queried about the city’s current capacity for enforcement, Adam Sumner, the city’s deputy planning director, replied that there is one code compliance officer budgeted, but the full-time position is not filled. He added, although the unfilled position offers a competitive wage, flexible schedule and “take-home car,” four qualified candidates to date have not accepted employment.

Among his other responsibilities, Sumner is also serving as the acting officer, also known as “enforcement inspector.”

The Police Department also has a similar position.

He said that he requested an additional compliance position in the next budget, although it is currently not included. Sumner noted that the City of Eustis now has four inspectors and one administrative support position. According to the United States Census data for 2021, Eustis has an estimated population of about 23,500 while Mount Dora has around 16,600.Code violation has a process for complaints

Common complaints may include overgrown lots, abandoned vehicles, violations of the zoning ordinances, and "other violations that make the city look shoddy or unkempt" states the city’s website. Any additional rules imposed by home owners associations are not enforceable by the city. Noise level violations may also constitute a complaint.

If a Mount Dora resident suspects a code violation in the neighborhood — at either another residence or business — then the complaint can be reported to the city.

As of 2021, Florida law encourages complaints to originate with residents as opposed to government. Complaints cannot be made anonymously. The resident making the complaint must provide their name and address to the code enforcer to log a complaint. However, according to Florida statute, if the code inspector has reason to believe a violation presents a serious threat to the public health, safety, and welfare then initiation by the city would be warranted.

Sumner said that on a recent Monday morning, he had 30 complaints — mostly from one neighborhood. An issue can usually be resolved through voluntary compliance by the property owner.

If a resident is not comfortable with providing their name or address, then Sumner may drive by to see if the issue is noticeable. If so, then Sumner can initiate the complaint.

“But I don’t do that often, because, if every complaint is initiated by staff, then it’s not embodying what the state law is trying to get us to do,” he added.

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Mount Dora board is considering how to prevent 'demolition by neglect'

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'A Gateway To The City:' Mount Dora Council Rezones Highland St. Property, Paving Way For Development

The Mount Dora City Council approved a zoning change for a nine-acre property on Highland Street.

MOUNT DORA — The Mount Dora City Council approved a rezoning request for a nine-acre property on Highland Street, paving the way for future development.

Six council members and Mayor Chrissy Stile voted to approve the ordinance on Tuesday after deliberations at two meetings. Council member Austin Guenther abstained from voting due to a potential conflict of interest.

The application to the city requested to rezone the acreage from a Workplace or WP-1 area to a Mixed Use Traditional or MU-1 zoning designation.

The dilemma for the property owners was that, although the city’s Future Land Use Map labels the land as MU-1, the zoning remained at WP-1.

Without the city’s approval for the zoning change, the property could not be developed because the map and the zoning were in conflict.

In general, the MU-1 zoning category allows for a combination of land uses that may be public, civic, commercial, office, multi-family residential, and limited single-family use as an adjunct to a business use. Whereas the WP1 designation focuses on manufacturing and employment.

The site lies on the southeast corner of Highland Street at the corners of Camp Avenue to its north and Robie Avenue to the south. Highland Street is an entranceway into Mount Dora from U.S. Highway 441 on the south and from State Route 46 and 1st Avenue from the east.

In other Mount Dora news: Mount Dora preservation board begins review of options to prevent 'demolition by neglect'

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More: Lake Sheriff's Office body cam footage shows Mount Dora car chase, shootout with policeStaff and zoning committee recommended the change

Vince Sandersfeld, director of the city’s Planning and Development Department, reported to council members that the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend that the council approve the change.

“This request is for the MU-1zoning to be consistent with the underlying Future Land Use designation,” said Sandersfeld during the first reading of the ordinance earlier in July. “The applicant currently does not have a development plan for the property and is only seeking to rezone the property so that the zoning district matches the land use category.”

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The city’s attorney Sherry Sutphen reminded the council that “the code does not require a site plan when they (the applicant) come forward to ask for zoning change.”

A developer’s application for any proposed construction on the site would undergo multi-stages of review, including examination by the city’s Development Review Committee as well as the planning commission. Eventually the plat – a map that details the use of the property – would come before the

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The EU DORA Digital Operational Resilience Act For Digital Finance

On September 24, 2020, the European Commission published the proposal for a regulation on digital operational resilience for the EU’s financial sector, further paving the way for a robust and resilient ongoing digital transformation of finance.

On May 11, 2022, a preliminary agreement was reached on this so-called Digital Operational Resilience Act, in short, ‘DORA.’ This should make the EU’s DORA a legal reality around the end of 2022 (however, it will still take some time before everything is also operational).

So what do you need to know about DORA, and how does the Digital Operational Resilience Act impact various organizations within the EU financial world and its ICT supply chain of partners and providers?

The Digital Operational Resilience Act aims to be the regulatory framework ensuring that the EU financial sector and critical third parties providing ICT-related services to its various layers and players have sufficient capabilities to prevent and mitigate cyber threats.

To this end, the ICT systems and networks of organizations operating within the EU financial sector must meet the uniform security requirements established by DORA. Such financial entities include banks, insurers, pension funds, credit institutions, and brokers, to name a few well-known ones.

DORA sets uniform requirements for the security of network and information systems of companies and organizations operating in the financial sector as well as critical third parties which provide ICT-related services to them, such as cloud platforms or data analytics services (Council of the EU)

In addition to all these financial entities, we also have the mentioned critical third-party ICT partners, which take different forms and shapes as ICT service providers for financial organizations. In our world of digitalization and tightly connected digital ecosystems, as we know it in finance, some third parties are often almost inseparable partners rather than “simple” suppliers.

Examples of such third-party ICT partners include cloud services suppliers, software suppliers, system integrators, payment solution providers, companies that offer tools and services for cybersecurity and cyber risks, such as penetration testing, etc.

In short: an entire ecosystem whereby risk and security experts will undoubtedly see the many aspects of risk management (vendor risk management, supplier risk management, and third-party risk management in general). With DORA, third parties, such as critical cloud providers, obviously enter into the control of the proper designated supervisors and regulators.The Digital Operational Resilience Act in a digital finance (regulation and guideline) context

So cybersecurity, cyber resilience, and in particular digital operational resilience, are at the heart of DORA, where the financial system’s vulnerability due to cyber threats and ICT disruptions is the challenge. It’s a familiar theme.

Indeed, as in other industries and services, this increasing vulnerability and the rise of cyberthreats and attacks are directly related to increased digitization and still-rising digital transformation in all areas, with growing digital footprints, software supply chains, and attack surfaces as a consequence.