Giving Credit Where It Is Due
Today, we are going to give credit where it is due. As most of you know, I can get pretty critical of local government officials. Go through the last several posts and you will find mostly critical comments. That has sort of been the point of this page... point out the things they are doing wrong.
However, I realize that there are also good things they do and those things should be shared as well.
Yesterday, we saw that on display... and I am here to thank them for a job well done!
First up, the vote to deny the continuance for Deltona's application on the Holder Industrial Park project. This request came at 4:45pm on Wednesday evening, just before the PDC meeting the next day. They had asked to go through with the PDC hearing, but delay the BOCC hearing until the meeting in November.
I presume they did that because staff normally is the one that approves delays/continuances if they come before the PDC hearing. If they come at the PDC hearing, the PDC makes the determination. I can only imagine that Deltona's lawyers thought staff would just approve the BOCC continuance as a formality.
And that may have been the case had it not been for intervenors. You see, this application has 2 intervenors. These are people who have joined the hearing to dispute the application. Each get similar rights in the hearing as the applicant to present evidence, ask questions, etc. Both also get the same documents.
When the email was received from Deltona around 4:45pm, it was forwarded to the intervenors by staff because they are part of the hearing. One of the intervenors got word out to Commissioner Finegan, who then told staff not to make any determinations as to the continuance because she wanted to bring it to the board to discuss.
Had that not happened, we may have seen staff approval... or maybe they still defer to the BOCC. In any case, staff did not decide and the BOCC took it up on the agenda.
They voted 5-0 to deny the continuance of the application. Now Deltona comes to the BOCC on July 14th for the hearing or they withdraw the application completely to avoid it. I will have more on this in a few days as to what all that looks like... but for now... Bravo to the BOCC for denying the continuance which appeared to be nothing more than to avoid election time votes by current commissioners running for re-election. We saw with Pine Ridge in 2024 what it looks like to bring a contentious project to the board during an election year... denied in 2024, approved in 2025. Politics.
Secondly, they deserve kudos for their vote on the LDC amendment yesterday. I want to take a moment and acknowledge Commissioner Holly Davis. She may or may not read this or hear about it later, but she was the driving force in that decision yesterday. She referenced the Canterbury concrete plant as the driving factor in her decision, which was an issue she met head on a few months ago. She was the only one to my knowledge to meet with those residents. She even participated in a town hall type question and answer meeting.
She came prepared and on a mission... Make sure asphalt plants and concrete plants require the approval of the board before being allowed to be built... but more importantly... made sure that the approval was part of a public process that allowed the public to participate.
You see, staff determined that asphalt/concrete plants were a by right development in heavy industrial zoning. That meant that no approval by the commissioners was needed. A company could just apply for a building permit and a plant can go up. That became an issue when a concrete plant popped up on property outside of Canterbury Estates... a relatively large residential neighborhood. Residents there questioned how a concrete plant could be built in their backyard.
The answer... "we can't stop it".
The property was long zoned industrial but many residents did not know that for whatever reason. To them, it was just empty land with trees. Then one day the trees are cleared and they ask the county what was being built... and that answer was a concrete plant... and staff could not deny it since it was industrial zoned land.
Davis wanted to avoid that going forward and made sure that it was part of the LDC amendments yesterday, despite staff trying to remove it for whatever reason. The board voted 5-0 to adopt this, but not only requiring a public process for approval (PUD application), but they cannot be located anywhere West of 19 for the most part... The Coastal High Hazard Area.
Bravo Commissioner Davis and the rest of the board for making that decision. Great job yesterday!