- August 10, 2026
As a lifelong resident of Ormond Beach, it is my honor to represent the residents of Zone 4 and serve our great city on the City Commission. Community service runs deep in my family — my Grandfather Briley was a founding member of the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce in 1945, and served as its fourth president in 1948. I became active in our community in 1987 as a board member of Citizens for Ormond Beach, and have since served on many city advisory boards and committees, including 21 years on the Planning Board up until my election to the City Commission in 2022.
Ormond Beach is a very special place — the city we are fortunate to call home. We have beautiful parks, treasured environmental areas, a city that is rich with history, cultural activities, recreational opportunities for all ages, quality city services and a great quality of life. But like all cities in Florida (especially those along the coast), we face challenges associated with growth. The secret is out that Ormond Beach is a premier city along Florida's east coast, and people come here.
Overdevelopment is a concern of many of our residents. We have witnessed (and continue to witness) growth in the area, but the fact is, the impacts that many of us see are not from growth in Ormond Beach, but in neighboring communities. For instance, from 2020 to 2025, the number of residential new construction building permits issued in Ormond Beach totaled 841. For that same period, the number of residential new construction building permits for Daytona Beach was 5,568, a neighboring city. For comparison, DeLand had 3,193, Deltona had 2,058, Edgewater had 1,310 and DeBary had 1,243 (source: www.volusiabusiness.org) — all more than Ormond Beach. Our city has consistently had a growth rate between 1 and 2 percent for several years. I am proud to be the only candidate for Zone 4 City Commissioner who has worked to reduce the growth rate in our city.
Growth can present issues; demands on our infrastructure like increased traffic, stormwater/flooding, water supply, medical facilities/hospitals, environment — the list goes on and on. Our city has taken steps to mitigate these issues. We are working diligently with the Transform 386 initiative to get projects funded to alleviate flooding in our neighborhoods, our Land Development Code has requirements that new developments cannot allow stormwater that is generated to negatively affect neighboring properties and must be kept onsite, our environmental requirements are some of the most restrictive in the county. Unfortunately, not all cities are like Ormond Beach. There needs to be more cooperation between cities (like a Regional Planning Council) to review developments — especially those that are large in scale, to determine how to address and mitigate pressures of growth so that we can truly achieve smart growth.
Harold Briley
Candidate for Ormond Beach City Commission, Zone 4
