- January 20, 2025
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Volusia County is reviving an advisory committee, and its purpose will be to review environmental regulations.
During a workshop on growth management and permitting held on Tuesday, June 14, the Volusia County Council directed staff to pursue the creation of a nine-member Environmental Resources Advisory Committee, a proposal borne out of the council's request for information about the past ENRAC and Green Ribbon Panels. The first ENRAC was disbanded in 2004, according to county documents, and the Green Ribbon Panel was made up of environmental experts.
Only four council members attended the workshop: Barb Girtman, Danny Robins, Ben Johnson and Chair Jeff Brower. The rest of the council was absent.
Johnson, who made the motion to go forward with ENRAC, said that the county should approach the municipalities as well to get representation on the committee. With over an hour of public comment — with individuals both for and against changing several county ordinances to manage growth's impact on the environment — Johnson said the issue merits a degree of negotiation best suited for an advisory board.
"We want to protect their property rights and we want to protect our environment too," Johnson said."And what can we do so we can kind of do a little bit of all of it? Nobody is going to get everything they want, but I think it's a good starting point that we can work and listen and have them come back to us with recommendations."
County staff brought to the council a list of items identified as needing updates or amendments in its Environmental Management Division. ENRAC, once created, would review these, per council instruction. The committee's recommendations would then be brought back to the County Council for final review.
Among the items are changes in the county's tree preservation ordinance, which include increasing the tree retention area requirement in environmentally-sensitive areas, requiring additional tree replacements if developers propose clear-cutting in a subdivision and changing the exemption for agricultural use to only areas that have a "bona fide agricultural use," regardless of the property's zoning category.
In addition, the county outlined proposed changes to its regulation of wetlands, such as requiring avoidance and minimization of wetland impacts in its minimum standards, increased buffers and strengthen regulations for disturbance to buffers. Other environmental suggestions included the utilization of grant funding to hire the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council and the University of Florida to develop recommendations for the implementation of Low-Impact Development standards, as well as requiring septic system inspections and study the need to add nutrient reduction standards to the stormwater regulations.
Volusia County will receive $75,000 in state grant funds to develop a draft LID Ordinance and guidebook, This is part of the $1.5 million the governor is awarding to various counties, cities and planning councils for community planning projects.
ENRAC would replace the Green Ribbon Panel, something Girtman disagreed with as she felt the public may view the committee differently if its members are appointed by elected officials. A Green Ribbon Panel, with members selected by staff to represent homeowners, developers and environmental organizations would feel more balanced, she said.
"To me, that's what this really represents," Girtman said. "I don't see division in this room. A lot of what I heard were people who were saying, 'We agree with the need. It's the how we get there.'"
Not all on the council were comfortable with letting ENRAC review the proposed ordinance changes without some council input. Brower wished the council would look at each item in depth and give direction, but the rest of the council didn't share the same desire.
"The final outcome rests with us," Johnson said. "If we disagree with something, we have every right and responsibility to sit and debate it and say, 'Well, we think that this isn't quite where we need to go.'"
Brower said there's water issues the county needs to deal with and that he wasn't excited about pushing issues down the road.
"In a period of the most rapid growth that we've seen in a long time, there's a lot of things that could happen without some direction being given to what Volusia County wants to look like, how we should grow," Brower said. "I don't want to be another concrete jungle like we have in other counties."
