FAIRBANKS

When that agreement expired in September 2015, commissioners allowed sales to continue for two more years.

Now the agreement is up again, and Winter Park’s planning staff thinks it’s time the city takes a stand.

The owners of the affected properties, Jim Veigle and Frank Ray, have asked for another extension through December 2018 because such an extension was granted to three other similar Fairbanks Avenue properties, city records show.

Planning officials contend that the landowners will be motivated to either sell the property to a developer or to seek redevelopment projects if they aren’t collecting income from tenants.

“At some point, the city wants to see Fairbanks redeveloped from car lots into something different, like restaurants and offices,” Winter Park Planning Manager Jeff Briggs said.

Veigle said he plans to develop his eight acres of property on Fairbanks in about a year.

Meanwhile, the city has continued to invest millions of tax dollars into infrastructure upgrades along Fairbanks Avenue to fix up the busy corridor.

Winter Park shelled out $8 million for new traffic and street lights, extending sanitary sewage lines and repaving the road.

An additional $12 million in projects is earmarked for that area, which will fund burying all of the power lines on Fairbanks including crucial ones that bring electricity into the city, Briggs said.

Ryan Ashe owns Garage Autos Inc., which neighbors Chowdhury’s lot on Fairbanks Avenue. When Ashe decided to lease the lot, he knew that the commission could one day decide to enforce the rules and force him to leave.

He said he’s confident his business will survive if he’s forced to move but is hopeful they receive the same December 2018 deadline as their competitors.

“They definitely need to let us stay as long as everyone else,” Ashe said.