- March 31, 2026
The Ormond Beach City Commission has once again rejected a $2.3 million settlement offer in the ongoing lawsuit regarding Avalon Park, even as the developer and the City of Daytona Beach have taken the matter to federal court.
The commission voted 4-1 to reject a renewed proposal by Avalon Park and Daytona Beach during a special meeting on Tuesday, March 31. Commissioner Travis Sargent voted against.
The proposal was essentially the same as the one brought before them for consideration back in December, "but with additional onerous conditions," according to a staff report. One such condition, as stated in the resolution to deny, is "to not raise any challenge to Avalon’s future development, including its land use applications, comprehensive plan amendments, permits or requested exemptions regardless of their lawfulness or impacts on the Ormond Beach community."
If the commission had accepted the settlement offer, a 2006 interlocal agreement — which gives Ormond the right to provide water and wastewater services at a wholesale rate to Avalon Park — would have been partially terminated, impacting all property located west of I-95 within the corporate limits of Daytona and future parcels the developer wishes to incorporate into his development.
The interlocal agreement was the result of a previous lawsuit between Ormond and Daytona.
"For nearly 20 years, from 2006 to 2023, Daytona Beach never objected to or raised concerns regarding the comprehensive settlement agreement and release of claims that had been mutually negotiated, drafted, approved, and subsequently ratified and affirmed," the city staff report states. "Importantly, Daytona Beach never claimed that Ormond Beach violated the comprehensive settlement agreement. In fact, Ormond Beach has consistently indicated that it is ready, willing, and able to comply with the comprehensive settlement agreement.
Four people spoke at the special City Commission meeting, including Coleen McMahon and Jennifer Bright, who are running for Ormond Beach City Commission to represent Zone 1 and 2, respectively. McMahon and Bright questioned how the city found itself in litigation.
"Tonight is just not about Avalon Park," McMahon said. "It's about how decisions are being made in the city, who's at the table, and whether the people of Ormond Beach are being represented at all."
She called rejecting the proposal "not a real option."
"We're already knee-deep into this," McMahon said. "There's no clean return."
Avalon Park sued the city of Ormond Beach in December 2024, accusing it 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.
According to the resolution to deny the settlement, Ormond Beach has constructed over $4.5 million in improvements to its potable water and wastewater utility system, in anticipation of providing utilities to Daytona in the service area. This service area was part of the 2006 agreement, which also led to the annexation of 3,000 acres of land by Daytona Beach at Ormond's western border. This land will now become Avalon Park Daytona Beach, a residential development of almost 8,000 homes.
The resolution states that Daytona rejected Ormond's request to engage in a governmental conflict resolution process and instead chose to pursue the lawsuit with Avalon Park.
"Daytona Beach does not want to comply with its financial obligations to Ormond Beach, and Avalon does not want to incur the expense of connecting utility lines to Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach’s utility systems that will serve the entire development," the city staff report states.
On March 10, Avalon Park sent the city of Ormond a written notice and demand letter regarding an alleged federal takings claim.
On March 26, the developer filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida. The lawsuit states that "Ormond’s regulatory actions all have the same goal — to prevent any development of the Plaintiffs’ property. These actions are taken pursuant to a plan Ormond has described in its internal documents, namely, that prolonged litigation over utility capacity will carry out its political agenda that it simply does not want development of this land."
The developer's attorney, Todd Norman, of Nelson Mullins, further argues that Ormond's actions have resulted in a regulatory taking as the city's "adverse statements and threats" that Daytona is prohibited from providing utilities have resulted in Avalon Park being unable to complete final engineering plans and a final plat for the first phase of the development.
The lawsuit states that the city has cost Avalon Park $50 million, a figure associated with purchasing the property and pursuing the development for the past five years. It's asking the courts to award damages for just compensation to Avalon Park, including attorneys' fees.
The Observer has reached out to the city of Daytona Beach for comment.
