Proposed Volusia County development standards are too easy on developers, opponents say

New development standards aimed in part at reducing flooding are moving forward in Volusia County ― but they’re not as strong as some would like.

Volusia County Council Chairman Jeff Brower found himself the lone vote this month against a couple of ordinances to implement voluntary low-impact development standards. He opposed having strictly voluntary standards with incentives, arguing they should be mandatory.

If adopted, the ordinances would reward developers with incentives such as density bonuses and reduced fees. This month, the council also unanimously moved forward with an ordinance that would revise stormwater standards.

The ordinances will return to the County Council for second reading and adoption, probably in April.

The meeting marked another loss for Brower, who has repeatedly called for the county to change development standards to address flooding problems. Brower won re-election in November, and part of his platform was implementing low-impact development standards. His proposal to implement a temporary development moratorium died in January when he couldn’t get backing from other members of the council.

How would Volusia County developers use the low-impact development program?

If the County Council adopts the ordinances, developers would be allowed to take advantage of incentives in exchange for choosing to implement low-impact design features.

Low-impact development is “An ecologically driven stormwater management approach, prioritizing soft engineering strategies to intricately mitigate rainfall on-site through a network of vegetated treatments,'” according to the ordinances.

A county presentation showed an example of how the program could work with a hypothetical development. Some low-impact design elements:

• Preserving all of the floodplain on the property and clustering the subdivision on the other 70% of the site.

• Keeping a large natural landscape buffer along the property boundary.

• Creating multi-use trails at the site to connect to a larger trail network.

• Using a wet pond with more stormwater storage, “a pretreatment system and planted with native vegetation.”

• Using rain gardens and other biological best management practices on 10% of the site.

Incorporating those options would unlock a wide array of potential benefits for developers to choose from. Those would include, among other things:

• Flexible building setbacks.

• Increased maximum height.

• Reduced tree replacement requirements

• Reduced building permit fees.

• Reduced land development application fees.

• Off-street parking flexibility.

Brower, others take issue with incentives and voluntary approach

Brower opposed handing out incentives, especially financial ones. He said requiring developers to use low-impact development methods would reduce flooding across the county.

“I would like to see this council take bold action,” Brower said.

Some members, however, voiced their discomfort with making low-impact development mandatory.

District 1 Councilman Don Dempsey said he doesn’t like mandates and doesn’t want to see developers take their projects to another county.

“We don’t want to scare them off,” Dempsey said.

Members of the Environment and Natural Resources Advisory Committee made the recommendations to the council.

Wendy Anderson, an environmental science professor at Stetson University who specializes in low-impact development standards, is on the committee. She urged the council to make the program mandatory instead of voluntary.

“An ordinance is by its very definition mandatory. What is the point of having an ordinance that is entirely voluntary? And not just voluntary but actually gives away incentives like increased density or discounts on fees just for choosing to do the right thing,” Anderson said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia County Council splits over development changes