- February 4, 2025
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The Port Orange City Council voted 4-0 on Tuesday, Jan. 8, to annex approximately 3.8 acres of land owned by All Aboard Storage. The land will be added to an existing planned commercial development of 9.5 acres on Taylor Road, west of Fern Park Drive and across from the Crane Lakes residential community.
Council members had reservations about the annexation, but thought it was better to bring the additional land in under city codes and requirements than to have no say in future site development. Before the annexation, the land was under Volusia County jurisdiction.
“I, again, am just expressing reservations going forward with this,” Councilman Chase Tramont said. “I still support it. I’m glad that we’ll get to determine under our code. I just hope there’ll be some proactive conversations with some of our neighbors out there.”
Like Tramont, Councilman Scott Stiltner was concerned that the developers needed to be mindful of the surrounding community through communication and participation.
Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette said he struggled with developments like this when trying to maintain a balance between residential and commercial development. When developments fall under current zoning, the city has no say on what is to be built, he explained.
"At least when we do these things we have a say so," Burnette said. "I do like the fact that, since we know something is going to go there, it's potentially low impact. That's certainly a positive for us."
He also mentioned balance with the city's tax base.
"As we have residential tax base growing, if it gets too large, our residents end up taking too big a share of the tax burden, so we want to maintain the right balance of commercial versus residential," Burnette said.
Councilman Drew Bastian thought it made sense to annex the smaller parcels into the larger one for the same reason Burnette cited. It allows the city to have a say in the codes and ordinances with which the developers must comply.
At the Dec. 18 council meeting, information was shared about landscape design and how the property will be shielded from the street. Detailed information was not given, but there will be a security fence around the perimeter and landscaping will shield the buildings from the road.
Landscape design for the development has already been created. Traffic flow in that area is considered low impact.
