- September 24, 2024
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The Daytona North Special Assessment fee will not double for the next fiscal year.
In July, the County Commission voted 4-1, with Commissioner Leann Pennington dissenting, to double the fee. But County Administrator Heidi Petito at an Aug. 21 meeting asked the commission for consensus to keep the fee at 58 cents per foot of property fronting the road instead of raising it to $1.16 per foot.
Community objections to the proposed doubling had made commissioners somewhat reticent to go through with it, so Petito suggested the county go ahead and set the fee at 58 cents for the upcoming year’s budget before the first public budget hearing. That way, she explained, “When we come into the first public hearing, we’re not having to have staff [make changes] in between first and second public hearing.”
The Daytona North special assessment fee pays for the maintenance and paving of roads in the Daytona North area, also known as the Mondex.
Petito suggested the county rework the five-year capital project work plan for paving streets, potentially decreasing the amount of maintenance in that area to negate the need for more funding.
The commission — sans Chair Greg Hansen, who was absent — agreed unanimously during the Aug. 21 meeting to keep the 58-cent rate.
Vice Chair Andy Dance said he wasn’t ready to approve an increase without more information.
“I’ve got a lot of questions, and I think we have to keep it until we answer a lot of those questions,” he said. “We need to spend some time on that.”
The County Commission approved two final plat applications for the Veranda Bay development in two 4-1 votes on Aug. 21, despite a discrepancy between the final plats and previous versions.
Veranda Bay, on the east side of John Anderson Highway within the larger Hammock Beach River Club development, is split into six phases: Phases 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B and 2C, with the Phase 1A and 2A final plats already approved. Commissioners on Aug. 21 approved the final plats for phases 1B and 1C, encompassing a total of 89 residential lots.
Growth Management Director Adam Mengel said a 5-foot drainage and utility easement note written on the Phase 1A and 2A plats was not included on the plats for Phases 1B and 1C.
County staff had read the note as a 5-foot side-lot drainage easement and platted it as such in the final 1A and 2A plats.
But lawyer Michael Chiumento, representing the developer, said the note does not designate an easement. Developer Ken Belshe said a surveyor included the note from an older, previous plat, and it was accidentally left on the submitted Phase 1A and 2A plats.
No one noticed the problem until contractors began to build homes within the easement. The county prohibits a developer from building in an easement — even so much as the eaves of a roof, Mengel said — so if the area remains a marked easement, the developer would need to make the homes smaller to accommodate it. Other municipalities, Palm Coast included, do not have that restriction, Mengel said.
After realizing the problem, the developer removed the easement note for the 1B and 1C plats. Mengel said staff recommended it be added back into the plat.
The commission voted 4-1 to approve the plats without the easement note. Commissioner David Sullivan, the dissenting vote, said he did not support leaving the easement out of the 1B and 1C plats after it was included in the 1A and 2A plats.
