- April 24, 2024
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Growth.
Can something be done to manage and mitigate its impacts? On Tuesday, April 12, the Volusia County Council held a six-hour workshop on the topic, where county department heads outlined how Volusia approaches issues like land uses, building permits, and environmental management, as well as established some potential changes for the County Council to consider in the near future. These changes — among them expanding the county's low impact development standards, requiring septic system inspections and establishing a citizen's advisory panel — are meant to address growing concerns in the community that elected officials are allowing too many new developments, said said Clay Ervin, county director of growth and resource management.
"It's happening at the city level, it's happening at your level," Ervin said. "It's a situation where folks are coming in and they're concerned about whether or not we are providing enough facilities, enough service to accommodate the folks that are moving in here."
But Ervin was also quick to point out that this isn't just a Volusia County problem.
"What you're seeing is it's a statewide phenomenon that's impacting everybody," he said.
In nearby Palm Coast, with locals expressing concern about rising development — especially when that development includes apartments — the city government is considering surveying residents about their views on development and multifamily housing.
The proposal came from City Councilman Eddie Branquinho, who'd initially suggested a moratorium on multifamily housing east of U.S. 1 in Palm Coast before opting to address growth and density issues during the city’s strategic planning process.
"I think that the density of Palm Coast — it's going to be overwhelming if we keep on building up instead of sideways," he said after a Palm Coast City Council workshop.
From 1990 to 2020, Volusia County grew by 49%, or 182,831 people. But according to the county workshop's presentation, Volusia is neither alone in its growth spurt, nor is it the most affected — Neighboring Flagler County has grown by 298%, going from 28,701 people in 1990 to 114,173 in 2020. St. Johns, Lake, and Orange counties have grown by 212%, 141% and 109% respectively.
Putnam County has grown the least, with a 13% population increase from 1990 to 2020, though population decreased by about 1,400 people from 2010 to 2020.
According to the county, Volusia's population increase amounts to an average annual growth rate of 1.6%. However, the growth isn't linear, Ervin said; there have been periods of "intense growth" and others where growth has slowed.
Volusia County spans 808,385 acres, which includes 112,716 acres of water. Cities account for 215,467 acres. When you factor in the 274,522 acres of conservation lands, as well as the acres tied with interlocal service boundary agreements and other local plans, Ervin said the county has planning, zoning and development control over about 10% of the county unincorporated areas.
"I think it's very clear that a coordinated effort is necessary to ensure that we and the cities work hand in glove to address some of these changes," Ervin said. "... Do we need to work closer and have better coordination in regards to utilities? Infrastructure? Yes. We can always make improvement on those."
Palm Coast, in its initial phase as an ITT Levitt community before incorporation as a city, was projected to be a community of, potentially, as many as 750,000 people, but that number was soon moderated downward, with an ITT Palm Coast Comprehensive Land Use Plan predicting a population of about 224,000 people at buildout. The city's population as of 2020 was about 89,400.
But if the population grows too fast and new development is too dense, Branquinho said, "It's going to be an overwhelming burden to the people of Palm Coast, and that's going to throw away the whole idea of quality of life."
Palm Coast hopes to avoid overdevelopment in the core areas of the city by expanding west of U.S.1 into areas that are now undeveloped.
The city sought $3.14 million in funding from the state government this year to extend its major arterial roadways westward, but didn't get the money.
When residents see vacant land being developed, it is sometimes difficult for them to understand that the property owners already had certain rights within their zoning classification and existing future land use designations, said Carol McFarlane, planning and development services director. But it's part of the legal framework the county has to deal with, she explained.
Ervin added that Volusia had several developments of regional impact in the 1980s, and these were longterm multi-jurisdictional projects that have taken, in some cases, 40 years to become reality. Halifax Plantation, Plantation Bay, Hunter's Ridge, Breakaway Trails, LPGA International, Indigo Lakes and Venetian Bay were all DRIs at one point.
"So for example, Hunter's Ridge, which spans over into Flagler County — There's folks that are residing in Hunter's Ridge right now that are upset that something is going on in Flagler County and that's been approved since approximately 1989," Ervin said. "So it just takes that long for some of these projects to come to fruition and it is disconcerting to many of the residents who've established themselves in those areas."
County Chair Jeff Brower said it's also disconcerting to the council when a project goes on for 30 years.
"Things change," he said. "And water changes, land use changes, population changes and there needs to be a way to go back and update a 30-year-old vested [project]."
Ervin said county staff agreed.
County staff is currently working on technical updates to its comprehensive plan and the final element to be updated will be the future land use element. They want to reach out to citizens to gather feedback for this purpose.
Concurrency is also a challenge.
In addition that Volusia's 16 municipalities are each responsible for ensuring there is sufficient public infrastructure for new growth within their boundaries, the state has also played a critical role in this front.
Prior to 2011, concurrency was required for transportation, schools, parks, potable water, sanitary sewer and stormwater. In 2011, the Community Planning Act was enacted, and concurrency was made optional for transportation, schools and parks, meaning the county cannot deny a development solely for concurrency, per the statute's "pay and go" provisions.
"We cannot make the developer make up for the existing deficiencies," Ervin said.
Developers are required, however, to mitigate the deficiencies created by their project, and the mitigation may result in the payment of proportionate fair share dollars or dedication of land. The county must also provide credits toward impact fees, if applicable, for mitigation.
Brower said everybody knows that new development isn't paying for its impact.
"We're constantly adding to the backlog with no way to pay for it," he said.
In regards to potential improvements to the county's environmental standards, Ginger Adair, director of the county's environmental management division, outlined suggestions such as increasing the tree retention area requirement in environmentally-sensitive areas, increase buffers to protect wetlands and wildlife, require permitting and mitigation if agricultural land is converted to another use within a set timeframe and require septic systems to be inspected and if faulty and sewer is available, require property owners to hook up to the line.
She also suggested the incorporation of low impact development practices. These include the conservation of green spaces, clustering of homes, the reduction of impervious surfaces and bioswales.
"We actually did make changes to three of our comprehensive plan elements to encourage the use of green infrastructure and low impact development," Adair said. "I know that encourage is maybe a soft word, but we have at least been moving forward on green infrastructure. It didn't use to be in the comprehensive plan at all."
Adair also listed four entities that encourage low impact development now: Alachua County, Hillsborough County, Sarasota County, and the city of Ormond Beach.
During the public comment portion of the workshop, Ormond Beach citizen and Dream Green Volusia Founder Suzanne Scheiber said that the city may have a low impact development plan, but it doesn't implement it.
"A manual sitting on a shelf does not help," she said.
She also said that the county should strive to surpass its minimum environmental protection requirements, not just meet them. She spoke about the Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail, which has areas with homes fronting the road without any buffer. Establishing a buffer for scenic highways should have happened a long time ago, she said, especially when county officials knew there was a DRI for that area for decades.
"In addition, the road up there floods," Scheiber said. "It's flooded for years; it's partially tidal. So the DRI was established with a road that we know floods and has been flooding forever, and yet impact fees are not covering anything to fix that road, and it's underwater and we just accept it. How did this happen?"
Brower said he felt the county needed to move from just encouraging low impact development practices to requiring them, but that first they need to decide which low impact development practices the county wants to implement.
"I hope that we will move in that direction," he said. "Honestly, I don't think we have any choice. Stormwater is a big problem and every bit of pavement that goes down prevents water from being absorbed into the ground."
— Jonathan Simmons contributed to this story.
