Winter Haven Mayor Asks Staff to Review Grass Parking Rules After Dewdney Plaza Code Violation

Winter Haven Mayor Brian Yates asked city staff Monday night to look at whether the city’s parking rules could make room for short-term overflow parking on grass, after a lot at Dewdney Plaza drew a code violation for doing just that.

The issue was addressed first during public comment, when Jeffrey Guillaume, a Polk City resident and residential housing builder, raised concerns about limited parking near the plaza. Guillaume said he has talked with developer Terry Dewdney about working together and asked city leaders to visit the site in person.

“I look at it more as a missed opportunity,” Guillaume said, adding that other properties have received city incentives while this one has not.

Yates circled back to the issue at the end of the Oct. 12 City Commission meeting. He said customers who cannot find a paved space at lunch, and sometimes at breakfast, pull onto a grass lot on the north side of the plaza for 30 minutes to an hour, then leave. The lot’s owner was cited because city ordinance does not allow parking on that grass, he said.

“I just don’t want government to be a hurdle for small businesses,” Yates said.

No commissioner objected to the request, and City Manager T. Michael Stavres said staff would start by looking at how other cities have handled the issue.

What the Mayor Asked For

Yates said he understood the rule but questioned how it fits a lot used for short stays during busy hours. He said the owner could post no-parking signs and call a tow truck, but the cars would likely be gone before a tow truck arrived. Building a gravel lot would require a site plan and would be expensive for what he described as a temporary need.

The Mayor asked for a report on what options exist, not only for this business but for small businesses across the city, without hurting Winter Haven’s quality of life.

What City Code Allows

Eric Labbe, director of Economic Opportunity and Community Investment, said the city updated the parking section of its code about five or six years ago. Before that, Winter Haven did not allow grass or gravel parking at all, he said.

Labbe said the code now allows gravel for employee-only spaces, allows pervious gravel for overflow storage on car lots, and has always exempted churches, which may use grass parking. He said the main concern for commercial properties is safety and access for customers. 

Winter Haven Church of God By Faith has a grass parking lot (pictured below) near the corner of Palmetto and First Ave N, just feet away from the business properties at Dewdney Plaza. Current city code allows parking here.

“You generally don’t want uneven surfaces, surfaces that are hard to traverse,” Labbe said.

Stavres said other properties have been cited for the same thing. He said the city made its earlier changes to address some of these problems and that letting people park anywhere could create more problems for the benefit of a few. He said reviewing what other communities have done would be the first step.

Dewdney Plaza 2

Dewdney, the owner of the plaza property, has proposed a second project in Florence Villa. Dewdney Plaza 2, planned near First Street North and Palmetto Avenue NE, calls for a two-story building with 1,200 square feet of retail space and a 1,200-square-foot apartment above, plus a separate 672-square-foot building for Cheryl’s Cakes, Tampa Bay Business and Wealth reported in June.

The developer’s agreement would provide up to $10,000 in tax-increment financing rebates and reimburse up to $38,465 in water and sewer connection fees for the $750,000 project. The Florence Villa Community Redevelopment Agency’s advisory committee recommended the incentives in March, and the CRA board approved the agreement in April. City commissioners were scheduled to consider it in June.

Yates did not set a deadline for the staff report.

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Sources:”Winter Haven City Commission Regular Meeting,” City of Winter Haven, mywinterhaven.com, October 12, 2026; “Developer Plans Retail Space, Apartment in Winter Haven,” Tampa Bay Business and Wealth, tbbwmag.com, June 8, 2026