- December 13, 2025
The City of Ormond Beach has rejected Daytona's $2.3 million settlement offer in the ongoing Avalon Park lawsuit.
Following a shade meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 2, the Ormond Beach City Commission voted 4-1 to decline the offer and continue with mediation, with Commissioner Travis Sargent voting against. There was no discussion on the dais by the commissioners about their decision, and the city declined to comment due to the litigation.
In an email to the Observer, Mayor Jason Leslie said the shade meeting went well.
“In my view, it was very similar to meeting individually with staff, as we’ve been doing," he said. "Although we were limited in what could be discussed, we received a full update on the situation and had the opportunity to ask questions before reconvening the commission meeting and ultimately voting to provide city staff with direction moving forward.”
The shade meeting — which in this case was a meeting held privately between the elected officials and its attorney to discuss the pending litigation — was held a day before settlement offer was set to expire. Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach and Avalon Park are scheduled to go to court on Wednesday, Dec. 3, for a docket sounding prior to going to trial. Daytona's settlement offer would have bought out Ormond Beach's right to provide water and wastewater services at a wholesale rate to Avalon Park, the result of a 2006 lawsuit between the two cities.
In addition to the utility agreement, the 2006 lawsuit also opened the door for Daytona Beach to annex 3,000 acres of land at Ormond Beach's western border — land that is now slated to become Avalon Park Daytona Beach, a residential development of almost 8,000 homes.
Avalon Park filed a lawsuit against both cities in December 2024, accusing Ormond Beach of refusing or failing to provide utility services for their development, alleging that the city doesn't have the present ability or capacity to provide water and wastewater services to Avalon Park. The lawsuit states the city would need to "incur more than $157 million in expenditures from undetermined sources to build the infrastructure necessary to be able to provide water and wastewater services to Avalon Park Daytona Beach," and if such funds were available, it would take years for infrastructure to be completed.
Daytona Beach, however, has the "present capacity and willingness" to provide utilities, the lawsuit states.
In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed in February on behalf of Ormond, the city's attorneys argued that Avalon Park had no standing to adjudicate the city's utility rights, as they are not third party beneficiaries of the service agreement established in 2006. Additionally, the city argued Avalon Park has no enforceable rights in a preliminary plat approval; a final plat approval has not yet been approved by the City of Daytona Beach.
Ormond Beach is arguing that the developer and the City of Daytona Beach are trying to get out of the 2006 service agreement.
"They don't want to design the system and connect to Ormond because Ormond then will service," Attorney Abe McKinnon said to the judge during a hearing held May 1. "They don't want Ormond involved. The developer has their reasons they don't want Ormond involved, because they're concerned about future development. And Daytona doesn't want Ormond involved because that's a massive income stream that they would like to have for themselves. "
During that hearing, Brent Spain, the attorney representing Avalon Park, said that the developers have tried for the past three years to obtain information from Ormond Beach to finalize their engineering plans and final plat. But that Ormond, Spain said, is refusing to give Avalon Park needed information until they receive a master utility plan for the entire service area.
"We're being held hostage by the City of Ormond," Spain said.
Daytona is asking for different connection points and Spain said Avalon Park cannot finalize its plans, as there is a potential the cities' utility systems may not be compatible with each other, and therefore engineering plans need to be city-specific.
Seeing as Daytona Beach, though sued also by Avalon Park, has no allegations made against them in the lawsuit, Ormond Beach argues this is a way for Daytona to get out of the 2006 service agreement.
"So the inference that you were making was that Avalon's the Trojan Horse to get Daytona Beach into court?" asked Judge Dennis Craig.
"That's exactly what this is, your honor," McKinnon replied in the May 1 hearing. "And it's a misread of the statute."
While the current commission did not comment on the settlement offer on Dec. 1, and the decision to refuse it, one former Ormond Beach City Commissioner did.
Jeff Boyle was on the commission during the original dispute in the late 90s and early 2000s with the city of Daytona and Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co., which owned the land now slated for Avalon Park.
Boyle challenged the public claim that Ormond Beach can leverage the size of Avalon Park by withholding water and sewer service.
"No we do not have that leverage and the courts will agree," Boyle said.
He also argued that providing utilities to Avalon Park won't bring in "enormous future cash profits," as the city will need to build more infrastructure. The latest lawsuit, he said, has already cost the city $320,000 in legal dees and with the commission rejecting Daytona's settlement offer, Boyle said those figures are likely to double.
"If we provide water and sewer, we'll be partners with Daytona Beach forever — a city, Daytona Beach, that is intent on paving the planet and flooding the Tomoka River," Boyle said. "A city we would have to trust to make payments on time. You had a $2.3 million offer on the table tonight to sell the rights, avoid court and extricate Ormond Beach from this hopeless mess. I'm disappointed you rejected the offer and on information the public doesn't have. We've had no input on this."
