Clermont City Council will consider rezoning and annexation that will allow for construction of a Tesla “store and gallery” on State Road 50, west of Autoplex Boulevard. The first reading of the ordinances was on Tuesday.
Orlando-based real estate brokerage firm First Team Commercial applied for the rezoning, annexation, and a small-scale use change for a dealership of the electric cars made by Elon Musk’s Tesla. The proposal is for a 61,253-square-foot facility on 9.8 acres, with two access points along Tiny Morse Boulevard. Atlanta-based GK Rogers Construction is the landowner.
“We are asking for an exact mirror of what we have in the county,” local attorney Jimmy Crawford told the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission at its June 7 meeting.
Lake County existing land use is Regional Commercial, and the current zoning is Lake County Planned Commercial designation. The property is located within the Clermont Joint Planning Area (JPA) and Utility Services Boundaries. Annexation and a change to Clermont Planned Unit Development would allow for the permitted use in the C-2 General Commercial zoning district, according to planning documents.
The dealership, which Tesla calls stores and galleries because there isn’t much inventory onsite, would be the carmaker’s 18th in Florida, according to the company’s website. In Central Florida, the company operates a showroom at The Florida Mall and another in Eatonville. The carmaker bought a building 1051 W. Sand Lake Rd. in 2021 and opened a collision repair center there.
“This is the only one that’s going to be located in this section of Florida and it will draw people from all over,” Crawford said. “They don’t store a large inventory of cars for you to walk through 200 Teslas and pick one out. They have several models of each and there’s a small office/showroom.” “The majority of the building is maintenance facilities,” he said. “That’s really the primary thing for it.”
Battery storage and disposal are strictly regulated and will be included in the site plans, Crawford said. The facility will share an entrance off S.R. 50 with Toyota of Clermont, according to a concept plan by Engineer Kimley Horn, but the developer will have some work to do on the road, according to the city’s analysis of a traffic study.
City consultants with Orlando-based Kittelson & Associates recommended the developer create a directional median opening at the intersection of Tiny Morse Boulevard and S.R. 50 to improve access.
Planning and Zoning Commissioners approved the annexation, rezoning and small-scale use change. The second reading and consideration before at City Council is June 28.
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