Work halted on Seminole Tax Collector branch
A plan by Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg to open a branch office in Winter Springs where residents can renew their drivers licenses, apply for concealedweapons permits or pay their property taxes has been delayed because a construction contractor has not obtained a permit.
On Jan. 31, city officials posted a “stop work notice” on the glass door of the old bank building at State Road 434 and Vistawilla Drive that the Tax Collector’s Office bought last May and was being renovated into a branch office.
Greenberg said he doesn’t understand why Winter Springs halted the work because no work has taken place in the building for weeks. And the only work done so far, he said, didn’t require a permit.
“We requested these permits back in November,” he said. “Why it’s taking so long for the city of Winter Springs is beyond me. We’ve got work to do, and we’re being held up by bureaucratic B.S.”
Through the building’s glass doors, onlookers can see a stripped down interior and some equipment on the bare floor.
City records show that Performance Construction, based in Sanford, applied for a commercial construction permit Nov. 15 with the Winter Springs building department to do $38,500 worth of interior renovations.
But the permit was never issued, city officials said, because of concerns from the Seminole County Fire Department and the city’s building department about the lack of details in the application regarding exit door signs, smoke detectors and the maximum number of people that can occupy the building at one time.
Because neither the contractor nor representatives from the Tax Collector’s Office had addressed all of those concerns as of late Thursday, a permit had yet to be issued, city officials said.
Revised plans were submitted Thursday, “and they are currently under review,” Brian Fields, the city’s community development director, wrote in an email Friday. “The ‘stop work order’ remains in effect until a permit is issued.”
Dustin Johns, president of Performance Construction, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Alan Byrd, a spokesman for the Tax Collector’s Office, said the branch was scheduled to open in March but now the opening is expected in May.
Greenberg, who was elected after defeating longtime incumbent Ray Valdez in the Republican primary in August 2016 and a write-in candidate the following November, said during his campaign that a branch office was needed for that fast-growing area of the county. The agency has branches in Casselberry, Sanford, Lake Mary, Oviedo and Longwood.
He said the new office will offer drivethrough services for motorists by utilizing the old teller lanes still standing at the former bank building, he said.
“People can just drive through and get their services and drive out,” Greenberg said. “There will be a number of services they will be able to do without getting out of their vehicle.”
In May, the Tax Collector’s Office paid $810,000 for the vacant 3,200-square-foot bank building on the 1-acre property from Shooters Orlando Inc. The company had bought it the same day for $680,000, flipping it to the Tax Collector’s Office for a quick 19-percent profit, according to county records.
The Seminole Tax Collector’s Office also gave Shooters Orlando Inc. $132,000 for the office furniture and old vault as part of the deal.