- April 16, 2024
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Dear Editor:
The neighborhood meeting for the 45-foot high, 106,140 square-foot building on the site known as Ormond Central, at West Granada Boulevard at South Old Kings Road was held last week. Led by Joey Posey, attorney for Dunamis Development, dozens of residents from surrounding communities took the opportunity to query developers who were also there with their engineer, and Paul Holub, property owner, and Steven Spraker, city planning director.
The PBD, approved in 2017, is still in place, but the use and size of the proposed building exceeds what is permitted. Thus, the public meeting...
Posey and the developers were accommodating in their responses to concerns, except for the size of the building, saying their profit margin would not be insufficient without that much space. We were told what we wanted to hear: Hours of operation would be 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.; no big truck traffic would be allowed with a clause to that effect in the facility’s contracts with their renters; trees would be spared in the greenspace; they would further develop the architecture to resemble an office building; more mature plantings and possibly an 8-foot fence along South Old Kings Road.
The primary concerns, however, did not include the proposed use as most of the nearby residents preferred the storage facility over some of what is already permitted. Rather, concerns centered around the height and size of the building. The HOA president of Reflections Village, the community directly across the site, told Holub the residents abutting South Old Kings Road feared they would never see the sun again. Holub offered to build a dummy sun shade demonstration to show how sunshine would actually be.
Posey asked for names of those present in order to continue the dialog and, when asked, said he would be glad to hold another neighborhood meeting.
In a meeting with city Planning staff members Steven Spraker and David Allen, and several members of Reflections Village, discussion included removing access to South Old Kings Road. When it was raised during the meeting, the developer's engineer stated that a secondary road was mandatory in case of emergency. Holub intends to build another internal road from Granada for the three units still vacant. Isn’t that the secondary road? Four residential communities abut South Old Kings Road — children, dogs, dog walkers and bike riders. The street signs say “residential." Could we please keep it that way?
We can only hope and pray...
Susan Barfield
Ormond Beach
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