- May 13, 2025
When it comes to low impact development, most of the Volusia County Council remains unwavering in its opinion: it should be voluntary.
The council unanimously approved an amendment to its future land use element in the county's comprehensive plan on Tuesday, May 6, to create a flexible and voluntary process for implementing LID and green stormwater infrastructure standards with incentives. This was the second hearing of the issue, with the council voting 6-1 back in February to adopt two voluntary LID ordinances.
Should developers implement LID standards, they may be offered incentives such as increased density, flexible lot sizes and higher maximum building heights. Since the council approved the voluntary process in February, the county has heard from two developers interested in implementing LID standards, in the form of pre-applications.
"They have not finalized the plans yet, so we're hearing people are interested — just haven't fully followed up on it," said Clay Ervin, the county's director of Growth and Resource Management.
If the council wished to have its Environmental and Natural Resources Advisory Committee look at a future program to implement either a hybrid or mandatory approach, Ervin said staff was ready to follow through. Local environmentalists had pushed for a hybrid approach earlier this year, which would have included both mandatory and voluntary standards for developers.
However, the majority of the councilmen thought the voluntary process was enough for now.
"I think we're on the right path," Councilman David Santiago said. "Certainly, I hope for it to work, but if it doesn't, then maybe we go to that step (to make it mandatory)."
About five projects in the last year have proposed using some LID elements, added Councilman Jake Johansson, though Ervin explained that the difference is that the voluntary process is a more cohesive way of ensuring a project meets multiple LID development criteria.
Johansson said that was further confirmation for his conclusion that voluntary LID is starting to take hold.
"As time goes on and things get more common, they will become more common," he said.
Councilman Danny Robins said the council is "trying not to add bureaucracy and more red tape." Only two out of the state's 67 counties mandate LID, he said.
"Every county is different," Robins said. "Some of them may not work here and once we put some of these in place, or make mandates, it's hard to get out of."
Councilman Troy Kent and Chair Jeff Brower were the only ones to express a desire for a stricter LID approach. Kent favored a hybrid approach and Brower, who said he struggled with providing incentives for a voluntary process, wanted a mandatory process.
"In my mind, nothing's more important than saying, 'If you want to develop in Volusia County, you do it in a way that provides the maximum protection to our environment, our quality of life, potentially reducing flooding," he said.
If the county wants to be known as one that protects residents, Brower said, why implement a voluntary process instead of a mandatory one?
"Will we lose a potential developer?" he asked. "We might and I can live with that. What I would prefer to see is developers that come in and have the same respect and love for our community and the residents around where they're building as we do."
If there was data that would show mandatory LID practices would solve the county's flooding concerns, Robins said "there wouldn't be any question up here."
"We have to pay attention to the data and the facts, and I think it's very important," he said. "We've been down this road several times and I'm ready to vote."
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a holistic implementation of LID — which includes standards to preserve natural drainage processes or mimic them for replacement — "reduces the volume and speed of stormwater runoff and decreases costly flooding and property damage" as well as help retain more rainfall onsite.
Councilman Don Dempsey said he didn't like government mandates — but he does like incentives. He's not convinced LID is a "silver bullet."
"I think it's dangerous territory to act like we know what the cure is, when truth be known, we really don't," Dempsey said. "We're just trying to steer the ship to get it where we want to be."
Additionally, Dempsey said that if economic experts are correct about a looming real estate market crash, then development will slow down anyway. What he said could be pulled back are the incentives for affordable housing.
"I would rather see much more incentivization going towards LID than to affordable housing," he said.
LID is not an unproven system to mitigate flooding impacts, Brower said. He also knows it's not a "silver bullet."
"It's not going to solve our flooding problem this hurricane season, but it can slow it doesn't in the future by the way that we build, where we build, how we build and we have a responsibility to the people that will live here in 50 years or 100 years," Brower said. "We also have a responsibility to people who live here now who want this."
