DAYTONA BEACH — The economic boom that's bringing tens of thousands of new homes to Volusia and Flagler counties is also creating a greater strain on the area's roads, public services and natural resources.
DAYTONA BEACH — The economic boom that's bringing tens of thousands of new homes to Volusia and Flagler counties is also creating a greater strain on the area's roads, public services and natural resources.
More than 200 area residents packed the L. Gale Lemerand Auditorium at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on Tuesday evening to express their concerns. The public community forum on "What Does 'Smart Growth' Look Like" was sponsored by The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
While the developments are creating new jobs and boosting the local economy, audience members who spoke raised a wide range of concerns, including the growing traffic congestion, depletion of the area's fresh water supply, the destruction of wildlife habitats and the need for increased infrastructure.
The forum included a panel of experts — John Albright, the CEO of Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co.; civil engineer and transportation planner Maryam Ghyabi of Ghyabi Consulting and Management; and former Volusia County Councilwoman Pat Northey, who is also an environmental activist.
"Smart growth is an oxymoron," said local resident Elliott Gross. "The truth is growth doesn't pay for itself."
Ghyabi disagreed, noting as an example the "mind-boggling" expansion projects underway throughout Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus.
But she acknowledged that the area needs to have more infrastructure, including widened roads, to accommodate the growing population.
"Developers need to pay for some of it — you can't have a sales tax (hike) pay for all of it," she said, adding that she supports increasing impact fees for new developments, a view also shared by Albright, Northey and many in the audience.
Northey said she also supports the idea of adding a half-cent increase to Volusia County's sales tax, but only if the local government can "tell me how you're going to spend the money."
A Deltona resident who spoke expressed concerns about the area's new 55-and-older communities, including the new Jimmy Buffett-themed Latitude Margaritaville community in Daytona Beach that's bringing 6,600 new homes.
"We need to start looking at these retirement communities that are going to be social welfare communities," he said of the expected growing need for health care services.
Albright saw the increase in active adult communities in a different light. "Look, the hospitals are delighted. It's going to bring in more doctors," he said.
Daytona Beach community activist Anne Ruby expressed the need for more affordable housing.
"We keep approving residential projects that are completely unaffordable to existing area residents," she said.
Ghyabi said she believes the solution can be found by encouraging more "infill development" of the area's existing urban areas, including Daytona Beach's blighted beachside, as opposed to only encouraging new developments in the areas west of Interstate 95.
Morris Brennan, a retired Volusia County Schools employee, spoke about the destruction of the area's natural wildlife areas.
"We have a foreign developer that's building homes on the original Florida panther habitat," he said, referring to new developments such as the planned 1,300-home Coastal Woods community between Pioneer Trail and State Road 44, just east of I-95 in New Smyrna Beach.
"The land companies have already destroyed most of Central Florida ... they're gouging the old cypress ponds," Brennan said.
Northey said the county's Volusia Forever program helped preserve much of those wildlife habitats, but said, "the problem is some of that land is still in private ownership ... and Volusia Forever is out of money (to acquire more land)."
"It's been some of the best money spent to preserve the central heart of Volusia County," Northey said, expressing hope that funding can be restored in the future for the program.
New Smyrna Beach resident Joel Paige also raised concerns over the effects of development on the area's wildlife and the destruction of wetlands. "How many gopher turtles have been affected?" he asked.
Daytona Beach resident Greg Cardino, who lives in the LPGA International community just west of I-95, across from the new Latitude Margaritaville as well as ICI Homes' planned 1,200-home Mosaic community, questioned how those and other nearby developments could have been allowed when LPGA Boulevard on that side of the interstate is limited to just two lanes.
"Did the county, the state and the city not realize that all of this development is running over a two-lane bridge over the Tomoka River? There are a lot of people who have to use it," he said.
Albright, whose company sold the developers the land where those projects are being built, responded, "I agree with you. It's crazy. We're trying to figure out who should be doing it (widening both the Tomoka River Bridge as well as LPGA Boulevard). ... It caught everyone flatfooted."
Ghyabi said that issue, in particular, is "something I lose sleep over. There's no plan for it (widening the bridge)."
Another Daytona Beach resident voiced frustrations shared by many in the audience: "What I don't understand is why the county didn't have a master plan (for growth)."
The resident also questioned why impact fees in Volusia County haven't been raised in the county in more than 15 years.
"Look at Orange County," he said, referring that a county that has raised impact fees for new development, which has not appeared to discourage developers. "Impact fees do promote growth," he said. "It doesn't stop it. It promotes it. We've got 16 cities and the county (in Volusia) and they're not doing their job."
Local resident Doug Hall spoke about the need for more public transportation to accommodate the area's new retirement communities and other new developments. "We (already) have a large population of older people and people with disabilities (who don't drive), yet Volusia County has not provided (enough) public transportation. That makes no sense."
Ghyabi said she agreed. "We need to have a transit system that will take us both east (to the beaches) and west (to Orlando)."
Daytona Beach resident Ken Strickland said he believes the real "elephant in the room" is the area's fresh water supplies, which are already in danger of being overused.
"Why has nobody addressed our cup limit, the amount we can draw from the aquifer?" he asked.
Northey concurred. "Water is the next emergency. We're running out."
News-Journal Editor Pat Rice acknowledged that it would be impossible to solve all the area's growth concerns in one meeting. "I don't know that we got to define what smart growth looks like, but you asked a lot of good questions." he told the audience in wrapping up the event. "The News-Journal plans to use the discussion to frame our coverage of growth and development issues in the coming months."
The strong turnout for the forum did serve to send a message to local elected officials, Rice added: "People really care about this issue."