- December 13, 2025
The Volusia County Council was set to vote to allow staff to explore the issuance of $30 million in bonds to finance the purchase of conservation lands through the Volusia Forever program on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
But some councilmen questioned if the list of properties being considered for acquisition meets the criteria of being "environmentally sensitive," worried that the program will result in taking properties off the tax rolls to avoid future development.
"We can't control the market," Councilman Danny Robins said. "We can't control the amount of people that move here ... But what I'm interested in is making sure that if we're paying premium for this, that we're getting something that's environmentally sensitive."
Councilmen honed in on one specific property: the 605-acre Talmadge Gardens property in DeLand, a $27 million purchase. According to the property's Volusia Forever ranking report from 2024, the property is split into two portions, one spanning 527 acres and the other spanning 77 acres. The land has a future land use designation of industrial and Urban Low Intensity.
The report states that the northern section of the property consists of uplands and a wetland freshwater marsh. The southern portion appears to be a wet prairie habitat.
Councilman David Santiago said the county already has existing ordinances that protect building on wetlands, and highlighted that the property has no connectivity to other conservation lands. It is surrounded by development.
"I'll bet there's probably a lot more environmentally sensitive areas that could buy," he said.
Ultimately, the council voted unanimously for staff to bring back a future agenda item to discuss the funding process and intent for the future of the Volusia Forever program, as well as a list of properties for acquisition.
Community Services Director Brad Burbaugh said to the council that he was caught off-guard about the focus on the Talmadge Gardens property, and asked for an opportunity to sit down with Santiago and talk about how the property serves Volusia Forever's objectives.
County Manager George Recktenwald told the council they had gone "down a rabbit hole" in their discussion, as the agenda item didn't list specific properties — it was an item to allow staff to set up for the bonds. Land purchase approvals would come before the council at a future date.
"All you're doing is saying, 'Hey, if we go forward with these five or six major properties, are you okay with us issuing a bond as the way to pay for it?" Recktenwald said.
In the Volusia Forever ballot initiative, it was stated that the county would borrow money through bonds to purchase land acquisitions, Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower said. Staff also explained that the council's preliminary authorization on bonds would allow the money to be available when a purchase is approved.
Councilman Don Dempsey disagreed with this approach.
"I don't like the fact that we can borrow into the future to buy more conservation land," he said. "We're already number two in the state. It scares me that we're rushing towards a 50% acquisition rate, that we are going to basically encumber half of the property in the county."
Robins agreed with Dempsey and Santiago.
"What I don't want to see is take a good program like this and use it as the easy way out to not put in a development application because people don't want to go through the squeaky wheels and deal with the development application in unincorporated Volusia," Robins said. "I'm not saying I've seen it happen, but I do have ears and I've heard certain things like, 'Hey, this is an easier way to do it, to get paid and stuff.'"
