- October 10, 2024
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Though the city of Ormond Beach has stated it doesn't want to include 874 Hull Road — the property where Belvedere Terminals seeks to construct a fuel farm — in its interlocal service boundary agreement with Volusia County, the Volusia County Council voted 5-2 to initiate the process to expand the agreement anyway.
"It's a tool that is still available, and I think we should pass a resolution and let staff negotiate it," Councilman David Santiago said. "The city can change it and we can change it and let it go back and forth as things develop."
Santiago made the motion at the council's Oct. 17 meeting to explore amending the county's North U.S. 1 Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement with Ormond Beach, first adopted in 2014. The agreement established a municipal service area to encourage coordination in planning, service delivery and boundary adjustments between the two government bodies.
The agreement currently only includes properties on the northeast side of U.S. 1. In a statement on Friday, the city said that the county's proposal to expand the ISBA to include the property at 874 Hull Road would prohibit the city from being able to deny utilities and annexation.
"As previously stated, we believe there is no benefit to the citizens of Volusia County for this property to be annexed and zoned within Ormond Beach because it would grant the developer utilities and rights that it does not now have," the statement said.
Currently, the city is trying to eliminate its I-2 "Heavy Industrial" zoning district from its code.
Councilman Troy Kent and Council Chair Jeff Brower voted against the resolution, saying moving forward with amending the ISBA could strain relations between the city and the county.
"I think keeping this on, we're in a situation where we continue to incite negative feelings between the two government bodies and that's not my goal here," Kent said.
He suggested amending the resolution to exclude the property at 874 Hull Road, saying that would communicate that the county is open to reviewing the ISBA, but doesn't want to push the fuel farm issue onto Ormond, something some residents believe the county has been doing.
Brower agreed, adding that he believed the resolution to amend the ISBA to include 874 Hull Road would "bog" the county down.
"I want to keep the focus on how we can stop this," Brower said. "The city of Ormond Beach has taken very aggressive action already to say, 'We don't want this here.'"
Santiago objected to Brower's remarks, saying that the County Council has also taken aggressive action.
"To leave that out of the context, I think it's maybe forgettable or inappropriate," Santiago said. "That's why I want to bring it up. This council has done a lot within the law to do what we can to (fight) this thing."
In previous meetings, the County Council has discussed limitations due to Senate Bill 250, signed by the governor in June. However, as part of the ongoing special session by Florida Legislature, amendments to the bill could be made, including striking the language that disallows local governments located within 100 miles of anywhere Hurricane Ian or Nicole made landfall from proposing or adopting “more restrictive or burdensome amendments to its comprehensive plan or land development regulations" before Oct. 1, 2024.
But, bill aside, the city states that, like the county, it is also restricted by the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act, which was enacted in 1995 to protect the rights of private property owners from being "inordinately burdened," according to the statute.
Mayor Bill Partington said at the meeting
that transferring the property to be under Ormond Beach's jurisdiction through the ISBA would make it more burdensome.
"Belvedere has vested rights on that Volusia County property, no matter what you do with it, trying a gimmick like transferring it through an ISBA with Ormond Beach," Partington said. "The clear plain language reading of SB 250 makes it obvious that you're creating a much more burdensome process for Belvedere by doing a maneuver like trying to transfer it to Ormond Beach for us to annex and so you're still stuck with that liability, no matter what happens."
County Councilman Jake Johansson said he believed including the property in the ISBA gives the city all the options to fight the fuel farm.
"It doesn't restrict them in any way and both county and city can walk away from Hull Road at the end of the day and no harm, no foul," Johansson said.
But, if it's committed and something happens where the ISBA would come in handy, they would need to have this discussion again and occupy more staff time.
