- November 23, 2024
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The Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement between Volusia County and the city of Ormond Beach has been extended for another 10 years — and despite the majority of the County Council wishing to incorporate the proposed fuel farm site at 874 Hull Road, the agreement's territory remains unchanged.
On Tuesday, Aug. 6, the Volusia County Council unanimously approved the decade-long extension to the ISBA, which was first adopted in 2014. The ISBA established a municipal service area to encourage coordination in planning, service delivery and boundary adjustments between the city and the county.
The ISBA only includes properties on the northeast side of U.S. 1.
Last November, the County Council voted 5-2 to initiate expanding the ISBA with the city to include 874 Hull Road, a move that the city of Ormond Beach said in a statement would prohibit the municipality from denying utilities and annexation to Belvedere Terminals, the company seeking to construct the fuel farm on the unincorporated property. The denial of annexation and utilities is a result of the city's opposition to the project.
Councilmen Troy Kent and Jeff Brower were the two councilmen that were against expanding the ISBA.
At Tuesday's meeting, Councilman Danny Robins asked if the council should instead look at renewing the ISBA more frequently: Perhaps every two or four years.
"We ran into some issues, obviously, where it was brought up that maybe we should have looked at things sooner or earlier because of cities growing outward," Robins said.
Senior Assistant County Attorney Paolo Soria said there is a five-year review period in place, where the county and the city can invoke a termination process, if needed.
"This has been one of our more successful ISBAs because it's small," Soria said. "It's pretty purpose-built. ... When staff got together in 2020, 2021 to review it, there were no issues with it."
The ISBA is a planning document, he added, so the county and the city are preparing these properties for voluntary "orderly annexation, including services and infrastructure."
"This smooths the process of annexation into the city because we've identified these parcels that should go into the city and so we've generated a process to make it easier without a lot of friction," Soria said.
Councilman Don Dempsey said he shared Robins' concern about the ISBA being a 10-year commitment, particularly due to the issues with citizens about responsible growth. He asked if the county could exit out of the agreement at any time, which Soria said it could. The termination would need to be noticed to the city prior to May 1, and it would be terminated by Dec. 31 of that year.
Robins asked Soria if it was fair to say that there were issues with the ISBA.
"I don't believe there were any issues with the ISBA," Soria said. "There were issues with properties that were outside the ISBA."
The city does not have land use, zoning, or building permit control of unincorporated properties outside the ISBA, he added. Currently, Ormond Beach's ISBA with the county is the only agreement that allows the city to take over these rights for properties included in the agreement. The city of New Smyrna Beach had a something similar in its ISBA with the county, but the provision was removed.
"I would think a reasonable person would want more control of that — some properties that were still in limbo," Robins said. "I think there were some obvious issues with it, and I just want to make sure if we renew it, if it failed prior ... why are we renewing it? But if you're saying that everything is hunky-dory, I'll take your word for it."
