- January 20, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
The Ormond Beach City Commission approved amendments at its meeting on Tuesday, May 17, to the Plantation Oaks Planned Residential Development, allowing for the addition of 163 lots to the subdivision.
Plantation Oaks was approved to build 1,577 homes; now it will be able to build 1,740.
Developer Parker Mynchenberg was originally seeking approval to add 291 single-family homes to the project, to be built on land that had been formerly designated for a golf course and a school site, but the Planning Board at its April 14 meeting was not in favor of adding that many lots. Board members negotiated with Mynchenberg to reduce his lot request by half for phases 1 and 3, decreasing from 80 and 86, respectively, to 40 and 43.
Mynchenberg was also initially seeking 125 more lots to be added in phase 4, but the Planning Board denied his request. By the time he reached the City Commission, he had reduced this figure to 90.
Several residents spoke against the project at the meeting, citing concerns of increased impact because of the project’s proximity to the Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail.
One resident, Missy Herrera, said she felt like the community is at a crossroads. She understood there was a need to provide housing, but asked the commissioners to consider the development’s impact to the quality of life of existing residents.
“I wonder if this particular plan was presented to you 20 years ago — without the golf course, without the school — if you would have looked at it and the way the Loop was 20 years ago and said, ‘That’s crazy. We’re not going to approve all that,’” Herrera said.
The commission voted 4-1 to approve the reduction of lots proposed by the Planning Board for phases 1 and 3. City Commissioner Susan Persis voted against, as she wanted less lots and more greenspace for those phases.
When it came to phase 4, the board was close to either denying Mynchenberg’s request or allowing him to withdraw it. Mayor Bill Partington had suggested reducing the lots to 45, but Mynchenberg said that number of lots wouldn’t be worth the amount of infrastructure needed (such as a $400,000 lift station and the paving of Pennsylvania Avenue) to build homes in that area.
“The numbers don’t work,” Mynchenberg said.
The commissioners later changed their minds as phase 4, which is next to I-95, would allow for more moderately priced housing. They voted unanimously to allow 80 lots to be built instead of 90.
The Ormond Beach City Commission during a workshop on Tuesday, May 17, directed staff to proceed with the acquisition of a 147-acre site within Ormond Crossings for the purpose of increasing its reclaim water storage.
The city estimates that the property, once developed accordingly with a pond and a storage tank, will grant them about 100 million gallons of reclaim water storage. The city currently only has a capacity of 10 million gallons.
Public Works Director Shawn Finley estimates that the project will cost about $3.3 million.
The additional storage would also reduce the amount of effluent going into the Halifax River.
The commission praised staff for coming back to them with a plan to increase reclaim water storage. They had directed staff to do in November 2021.
“It will allow us to be in a position where we never run out [of reclaim water] for all the users and we don’t have to pump any gallons into the intracoastal waterway, into the Halifax River,” City Commissioner Dwight Selby said.
A semitruck loaded with watermelons overturned on I-95 at mile marker 277 in Ormond Beach in the late evening hours of Saturday, May 14.
According to Florida Highway Patrol, a Jeep was traveling northbound on I-95 on the inside lane when its driver lost control. He ran off the roadway and struck the guardrail. The driver, a 27-year-old Jupiter man, re-entered the northbound lanes in the direct path of the semitruck and crashed into it. The semitruck overturned across all northbound lanes.
Neither driver was injured.
The city of Ormond Beach will receive just over $106,000 as a result of the state’s settlement with Walgreens for the national opioid litigation.
Funds will be used for strategies, programming and services to expand treatment of those affected by opioid use disorder. The commission appointed Mayor Bill Partington to serve on Volusia’s Opioid Abatement Funding Advisory Board.
