Happy Veteran’s Day! Thank you to all who have served our country and this great experiment!
No absences. It was a full house again tonight!
The next City Council Regular Meeting is scheduled for December 1st.
I wanted to give the following two topics the time and care they deserve, so I’ll post the rest of the meeting’s points Thursday morning, which also need their own time and care.
1) DOG UNLEASHED – a doggie daycare, boarding, and grooming facility is coming to James Business Park, just to the right of Wellington Allstars! Guys, basically a 5-10 minute drive from anywhere within the city!
Dog Unleashed will be open 7 days a week. My understanding is that daycare hours will be generally regular (like 7AM-7PMish), but the drop-off/pick-up hours for boarding could be more flexible. As Councilman Gary Werner said, if you’ve used these facilities before, sometimes you get home late or need to leave early for your trip so it’s nice to have some flexibility with your boarding facility.
However, outdoor activities at the outdoor pet play and relief yard at the back will be limited to 5AM-11PM, except for emergencies.
There will be all sorts of noise management treatments inside and out. Furthermore, the distance from the back of the facility (at the east side of James Business Park) where the outdoor relief/play yard is located is buried in a commercial/industrial district, backing up to Publix’s backyard, and is hundreds of feet away from the nearest residential. But as any noise exceeding that established by the City’s noise ordinance, if it gets loud it will be investigated. Hopefully, they’re all good doggos though!
Cats are also allowed, no discrimination here. And the other small pet here and there will also be allowed.
Waste: there will be a waste station at the front of the facility for that inevitable drop-off potty. Solid waste from the front waste station and from within the facility is safely stored and collected by a professional outfit multiple times a week (nothing hits the dumpsters). For wet pet relief in the outdoor play area: a very cool, scientific “dry well” (very commonly used throughout PBC) is used to collect, filter, and slowly drain back into the soil. A bio-enzymatic cleanser will be used to clean throughout the facility.
The facility is 10,855 sq. ft., essentially the same size as Wellington Allstars next door which is 10,857 sq. ft. This includes 2,435 sq. ft. dedicated to boarding and 1,840 sq. ft. for the outdoor yard. The rest of the square footage will house the daycares for small, medium, and large dogs, the reception area with small retail shop, offices, and grooming space. Three dedicating parking spaces for drop-off/pick-up!
Surveillance equipment will be installed throughout the facility. I really hope they allow pet parents to log in and watch. Nothing more entertaining than watching your little four legged fur baby spend their day away from home!
2) DATA CENTERS AND SMALL-SCALE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENTS – Mayor J.P. O’Connor and Councilman Gary Werner made a couple of great points here. Mainly, that two issues intersected requiring this new ordinance 2026-13:
(I) the fact that SB 180 has preempted local governments from creating moratoriums against (i.e., outright banning) data centers; AND
(II) that without this ordinance, which puts standards and limits on them, data center applicants would simply be *allowed by right* to come to Westlake. Creating this ordinance defines what they are and where they can be located within the city and under what conditions. It’d be like the wild west without the ordinance.
Mayor O’Connor wants it known that he is personally highly against data centers near schools and residential areas. Without the ability to ban them outright, he says our only option is “regulate the crap out of them”. That’s what this ordinance is meant to do. Westlake, in all of its six square mile glory, is just too small for them.
The ordinance, approved 5-0 on its first reading, requires that a minimum distance of 1,000 feet separate residential property boundaries from data center buildings and exterior equipment. A maximum continuous operational sound of 50 dBA is allowed.
It is with the suggestions and urging of Westlake residents that spurred our City Council into action. This is a big win, ya’ll!
Thanks to Vice Mayor Greg Langowski, I’ve got these snazzy visuals to show you what the 1,000 ft ordinance looks like when taking into account the city’s land zoning. The POTENTIAL development area is in the yellow hashed rectangles below, along SPW. But we all know that most of that land is already occupied. This essentially precludes any data centers in Westlake. (See the 500 ft image below for comparison.)
This distance was originally set by city staff at a minimum separation of 500 ft, increasable to 1,000 ft. But residents and city council members together wondered why we don’t just bite the bullet and set the ordinance for 1,000 ft.
It appears staff was just being a little conservative, because sometimes extreme limitations won’t stand in the courts. But Westlake’s City Attorney felt like we had precedent for the 1,000 ft distance since we have the same distance set up for relative locations to 24 hour massage parlors, electronic gaming arcades, and sex offenders, which were all based on other municipalities’ distances to similar commercial outfits.
For reference, below is the image showing the potential development area for the original 500 ft distance (but remember the image above showing the 1,000 ft distance is what the City Council approved).
Now the City Council just has to approve the ordinance on its second reading December 1st, and we’ll be all good, free of the potential for data centers in Westlake!
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