Advisory board sends Farmton plan to Volusia County Council with thumbs-up

BEACON PHOTO/PAT HATFIELD
Making his case — Attorney Glenn Storch speaks to the Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission. In their role as advisers to the Volusia County Council, PLDRC members gave a thumbs-up to his project.

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Sep 24, 2009 - 2:31:20pm

The Farmton vision for a planned development stretching south from Edgewater into Brevard County took a step toward reality Sept. 22.

The Volusia County Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission (PLDRC) unanimously voted to send the 59,000-acre, 94-square-mile project to the County Council with a thumbs-up.

The item will be on the County Council agenda for the 9 a.m. meeting Thursday, Oct. 15, in the county administration building at 123 W. Indiana Ave. in DeLand.

Miami Corp., owned by the Deering family of Chicago, has owned the Farmton property for 80 years. The land currently is undeveloped, and used for timberland, wetlands and hunting.

Attorney Glenn Storch, who has represented the Deerings and Miami Corp. for nearly 20 years, told PLDRC members, “What we want to do is start looking ahead to the next 50 years.”

The timber industry, the mainstay of Farmton, has been in decline, Storch said. The Deering family does not want to develop the land, but wants to set the template for how the property will be developed.

A week before the PLDRC hearing in Volusia County, the Brevard County Commission approved the portion of Farmton that lies in its jurisdiction.

According to the Farmton plan, only a gateway area near Edgewater would be built at first. Any further development would not take place until after 2025.

The property’s current land-use designation would allow the land to be developed into ranchettes, which Storch said would allow sprawl and fragmentation, with septic tanks and wells instead of public utilities.

The land would be cleared and fenced around individual homes, he said, to the detriment of wildlife.

Attorney Clay Henderson said the Farmton development plan is unique in that conservation is being done upfront. More than 40,000 acres will be protected in a perpetual conservation easement, “subject to a conservation-management plan,” Henderson said.

He said the value of that land is estimated at between $600 million and $1.1 billion, and it will be preserved at no cost to the taxpayer.

Land-planning consultant Joel Ivey, who is working with Storch, laid out how the Farmton plan would work.

In the first phase, development rights transferred from the property’s current land-use designation would allow construction of a gateway of homes and businesses on the north end of the project, near Edgewater. Some 8,000 acres there will be developed into 4,692 residential and nonresidential units.

Then, after 2025, a series of clustered residential villages comprising 23,000 or so additional units would complete the bulk of the development, leaving huge areas untouched.

The developer would pay for roads and other infrastructure in the development and pay its fair share for related improvements nearby, Storch said.

Questions about the plan arose during public comments.

Helen La Valley, representing Volusia County Schools, said the school district has concerns about providing schools in the area, which has not previously been identified as the future home of enough population to require school construction. She said the school district is continuing to work on a capacity agreement with Farmton.

Sandy Walters, who currently serves on the Volusia Growth Management Commission, served on the School Board concurrency committee 2006-07. Walters said that planning committee considered the Farmton area a “no school zone” area.

Director of Advocacy Charles Lee of the Florida Audubon Society spoke in favor of the project because of its land conservation.

DeLandite Elizabeth Camarota read into the record a letter from President David Hargrove of the Halifax Audubon Society, which has 480 members. Hargrove opposes Farmton.

There is no demonstration of need for the development as required by the state, his letter stated. Also, most of the development is situated in a 100-year flood plain, on which development would not be allowed.

Volusia County Senior Planning Manager Becky Mendez, however, said regulations do not prohibit construction in flood plains, although the developer must show a means of storing the water.

Soil and Water Conservation District board member Don Kanfer said construction in the 100-year flood plain is supposed to be discouraged. The portions of high and dry land on which construction is planned in Farmton are now deemed agricultural land, on which other uses are not supposed to be allowed, and which the Soil and Water Conservation District wants to protect.

Kanfer said, personally, he wanted the PLDRC to consider that state growth-management laws say a need for development must be demonstrated before changes to land-use plans are allowed.

Farmton is requesting the changes now, before any need is apparent. Also, Kanfer noted, the true cost for providing governmental services, including schools and hospitals, will not be covered by the donation of land for buildings.

Volusia-Flagler Sierra Club member Alice Jaeger also questioned the need for the project, and said the planned wildlife conservation corridor on the property is insufficient and too narrow.

President Betty O’Laughlin of the Environmental Council of Volusia-Flagler also questioned the need for the development, when so many homes are on the market, and many other projects are in the pipeline.

“What’s the rush?” O’Laughlin asked.

In an earlier forum on Farmton, when the development plan was previewed for planning officials and others, Storch explained Miami Corp. hopes to have the plan approved before the Hometown Democracy amendment to the Florida Constitution goes to voters.

If approved, Hometown Democracy would give voters the chance to nix large development plans like Farmton.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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