- December 13, 2025
The Ormond Beach commission could be holding a shade meeting to discuss a settlement offer for a lawsuit with a developer and the city of Daytona Beach.
Avalon Park Daytona Beach sued both Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach in 2024 after it alleges Ormond Beach failed to provide the information needed for the developer to move forward with its water utility infrastructure designs. At its Nov. 5 meeting, the Daytona Beach City Commission voted 4-2 to buy out Ormond Beach’s water and wastewater service rights for $2.3 million to end the dispute.
According to the court documents, the case has been in mediation since June and could soon go to trial. A non-jury trial is scheduled for Dec. 8, but a hearing to continue the trial to a later date was set for Nov. 19, according to the Volusia County Clerk of Court records.
Though the suit was filed in 2024, the disagreement on water and wastewater services has been ongoing for almost four years, since Avalon Park first proposed a 10,000-home development in west Daytona Beach in 2021.
Ormond Beach City Commissioner Travis Sargent said it’s time the commission be given an update on the issue and the water and wastewater service agreements involved.
“We’ve never been able to talk about it together,” Sargent said. “I just think it’s important that we maybe sit down and talk about it.”
Sargent proposed the council hold a shade meeting to discuss the settlement offer specifically, but also hold a general workshop presentation to update both the commission and the public on the details of the problems.
A shade meeting is a meeting in which an elected board meets out of the public eye to discuss active litigation. Once the litigation is resolved, the transcripts are then made public record.
“I understand we’re limited to what we can talk about, but think it’s time for us all to get together and discuss this item,” he said.
The rest of the commission agreed and dates for a shade meeting and a workshop meeting will be scheduled.
The disagreement between Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and the Avalon Park development stems from four agreements between the two cities from 2006.
At the Nov. 5 meeting, Daytona Beach City Attorney Ben Gross said that in 2006, the two cities entered into water and wastewater service agreements that, in part, say the area around Avalon Park is in Ormond Beach’s service area.
According to the agreements, Gross said, Ormond Beach has the right to service the area for water and wastewater utilities and sell the services wholesale to Daytona Beach. In addition, Ormond can charge Daytona Beach impact fees to the city for providing service as well as some of the costs to extend their lines to the development.
Per the agreements, Daytona Beach could then sell the service at a retail price.
Avalon Park, a development that was originally proposing 10,000 homes across the 3,000-acre property, lies within Ormond Beach’s water and wastewater service boundaries. The property is west of Interstate 95 within Daytona Beach’s borders.
Ormond Beach’s rights to service the water and wastewater in the area is functionally the city’s only way to help control the growth in that area. Because of the scope of the project, Ormond Beach residents would feel the impact from its neighboring city.
But, Gross said, under the agreements, if Ormond is unwilling to service the area, Daytona Beach has the right, though Ormond could later change its mind, to begin servicing the development and charge other fees.
This is why the city’s outside attorneys on the suit and Gross recommended Daytona Beach offer the settlement to buy out Ormond Beach’s service rights from the agreements.
“We believe that the costs to Daytona Beach of abiding by those agreements could be exorbitant and duplicative,” Gross said.
The proposed amount of $2.3 million would still be “far less” than the costs facing the city should the agreements remain in place, he said.
The outside attorneys hired for the case attended the meeting virtually and called the 2006 agreements “ill-advised” and said they exposed Daytona to “millions and millions of dollars of liability.”
