- February 5, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Since the first parcel of land was cleared for local developer Paul Holub's project, Granada Pointe, tree preservation and the city's future in terms of growth has been a hot topic among Ormond Beach residents, some of which have spoken at City Commission meetings, started advocacy groups and decided to run against the incumbent City Commissioners in the upcoming election.
Holub moved to Ormond Beach with his parents in 1972 from Connecticut. He attended schools around the area and has raised his own family in this town. Having gotten into development in 1986, Holub has been a major part of developing Ormond Beach, from building the Tuscany Shoppes on Granada to bringing in Chili's, Applebee's and Steak 'n Shake across the Ormond Towne Square.
Here's what he had to say about his new development and the citizen group that opposes it — CANDO 2.
Holub said Granada Pointe is a 32 acre multi-parcel development of which about 17.5 acres are conservation, either under the form of storm water retention areas or the 10 acres behind the Moose Lodge that he preserved. One of the ponds being installed in the south parcel is almost seven acres, which Holub said is almost twice the size of Walmart.
The development will be home to a Wawa convenience store, grocery store, bank, retail and restaurants. He'll also reforest the buffer areas of the development. Holub said on the south side alone, he's putting in over 3,000 shrubs, 100 shade and understory trees with trunks measuring 3.5 inches and above and 1,000 ground cover plants.
“That’s what people are missing today," Holub said. "They don’t see any of the replanting or reforesting of the land.”
He said the project will be similar to every other project along Granada, many of which have been clear-cut in order to be developed. One of them is Tuscany Shoppes, which he also developed and is the site of his office, along with Peach Valley Cafe and Pet Supermarket.
He also talked about Shoppes on Granada, which was developed in 2015 by The Ferber Co. He said every single tree came off that property for the same reasons he had to clear-cut the sites for Granada Pointe — the elevation was low and needed fill to be developed.
“The misconception is this is so much different than what has been built in the past and it’s not," Holub said.
Holub said people believe he received many waivers for his project, when he only asked for five: For the city Big Box Structure Standards to not apply to the sides and rear of the grocery store, permit parking in front of it, add a vinyl chain link fence to the stormwater retention ponds, let Wawa display their signage in the pump island canopy and permit two Wawa signs under the canopy as well.
When asking for a Planned Business Development, the developer must provide double the public benefits for every waiver he asks for. Holub is providing 19.
“All of which I challenge anybody to read them and say that they are not significant and substantial," Holub said. "So, a lot of these people, the CANDO group, they certainly could understand it, but they don’t want to understand it because this project is their platform to stop all development.”
CANDO 2 Founders Julie and Ken Sipes said in an emailed statement that the public benefits are not an adequate tradeoff for what the public lost and that CANDO 2 supports development that is "proportional and compatible to existing development without adversely impacting adjacent property rights and values."
"The intensity and magnitude of this project has violated long-standing environmental and development standards and would not have been possible without abandoned wetland rules (2009) and Granada Boulevard rezoning (2014, 2017)," the Sipes wrote.
Holub said he’s offered Boyle on two separate occasions to meet with CANDO 2 and explain Granada Pointe in detail, and that the offer still stands. The Sipes said he has never offered to present at their meetings.
“I can’t say it’s size," Holub said. "I think it’s political season. [CANDO 2’s] leader Jeff Boyle, even though he is not running for commission or mayor and doesn’t want to run, I think he wants to work with the group to replace the current commission.”
CANDO 2 has previously stated to The Observer that Boyle is not their leader, but their spokesperson. The Sipes said the reaction is in fact due to the size and density.
"It’s a large, high-impact development in the center of our town, which is already congested," they wrote.
As for the politics, the Sipes said that without any public mandate, five commissioners unanimously approved the project and three of them previously voted to dismantle applicable development rules.
"Maybe they felt empowered by the fact that incumbents win more than 80% of all local elections," the Sipes wrote. "For years, many of us have been writing letters and speaking at Commission meetings to ask for more environmentally-friendly development. CANDO 2 started before the project broke-ground and was in response to the Commission’s unanimous approval of the project in September 2017."
Holub said one of CANDO 2's "talking points" is that he destroyed all the wetlands on site.
“It’s absolutely, positively, not accurate," Holub said.
On the south side of the project, Holub said there was three-tenths of an acre of wetlands. He explained it was isolated, and under current rules by the St. Johns Water Management, no mitigation is needed because it is under a half acre.
“Even under the city’s old wetland rules, you still could’ve impacted it because of the size, because of the quality and because it was isolated," Holub said.
On the north side, he said there were wetlands, both in the area that was cleared and in the designated preservation parcel. He mitigated 1.3 acres of impacted wetlands, spending about $180,000.
“Again, what they don’t talk about is all of this land was zoned commercial [B-9], even this,” he said, pointing to the preservation parcel.
Under B-9, permitted uses include offices, nursing homes, vet clinics and schools.
“What people don’t realize is we took 10 acres, not only did we preserve it, not only is it densely forested so in hurricanes and those type of events these trees will survive better because they’re in a forested area versus an open area — it’s next to three chimneys, it’s taken 10 acres off the commercial zoning maps," Holub said. "I could’ve built apartments back here. I could’ve developed this land.
I could’ve mitigated additional wetlands, and, having restaurants and retail across the street... and a traffic signal with a drive, I could’ve easily done an apartment complex here that would’ve been immensely successful.”
He said the conservation parcel houses 18 historic oaks that will be preserved forever.
“If tree preservation is truly their goal, they got a lot more bang for their buck with this preservation of land," Holub said. "And if they don’t want more commercial, and they want less commercial, they got two things happen. They got 10 acres of commercial B-9 property removed from the zoning maps.
You don’t hear that in the talking points and you don’t hear that in their discussions. It’s obvious it’s counterproductive to what they would like to see.”
"Absolutely," Holub said.
He said this has happened many times before, where residents fight commercial development. It happened in the 90s with Chili's, Applebee's and Steak 'n Shake. It happened with the Regal Cinemas on Williamson Boulevard.
“And then they showed up and used it," Holub said.
When asked if the fact he is a local developer makes a difference, he said yes.
“I do think it makes a difference for the [City] Commission," Holub said. "I think it makes a difference for the community. That’s not going to make everybody happy because this group is, in my opinion and I think becoming more factual now, with them having people announce that they’re running in opposition at their meetings and so on, is that the use of this is a springboard to energize their group so that they can replace the commission, so that they can curb all development and all future growth, and change the codes so that they are so restrictive that people will just pass by our community.”
The Sipes said CANDO 2 encourages elections, and that they did not recruit the two candidates that spoke at their meeting on April 10. They said candidates may announce an intent to run at their meetings, but they do so without any endorsement.
If they reverse the codes to what they were a decade ago, Holub said, people will avoid the community, affecting more than just commercial development. He said it will affect multi-family apartments, institutional buildings, schools and affordable housing.
“If we come across as a community that doesn’t want anybody else in, they’ll pass us by and they’ll just go somewhere else," Holub said. "They do not need to be in Ormond Beach, and that might be okay for some, but I don’t think it’s okay with the majority.”
