|
Article Courtesy of The
Daytona Beach News-Journal
By
Clayton Park
Published July 20, 2023
|
WATCH VIDEO |
|
ORMOND BEACH -- Thursday night's Ormond Beach Planning Board meeting to review
developers' plans to convert the former Tomoka Oaks Golf Course into a 276-home
gated community was an impassioned affair.
|
It included jeering from an audience member when Carl Velie,
one of the project's three developers, spoke, sharp
back-and-forth exchanges between Planning Board members and
Velie and his team of attorneys and experts, as well as an
inadvertent mic drop by one of the dozens of citizens who
got up to speak.
But in the end, the Planning Board held off on making a
decision regarding the project. They agreed to hold a
follow-up meeting next month where they will likely vote on
the matter.
But then again, maybe not.
Tomoka Reserve could be one of the city's most impactful
Planning Board Chairman Doug Thomas, who lives in Tomoka
Oaks, called the project, dubbed Tomoka Reserve, one of the
most significant he has reviewed in all the years he has
served on the board. He said this was one decision he didn't
want to rush without carefully deliberating every detail,
even if it meant delaying a vote for two to three months.
"I think that developers have rights, the landowners have
rights, but you know who else has rights? All these people
out here," Thomas said gesturing to the estimated 300 people
who turned out for the meeting. "Whatever goes in there,
it's going to impact their life. It's going to impact their
happiness."
|
|
Tomoka Oaks resident Barbara Doliner addresses the
Ormond Beach Planning Board to voice her opposition to developers'
plans to convert the old Tomoka Oaks golf course into a 276-home
gated subdivision within the 547-home Tomoka Oaks community on
Thursday, July 13, 2023. "It doesn't fit!," she said several times.
On the left are representatives of the developers of the proposed
Tomoka Reserve project.
|
The crowd included Tomoka Oaks residents as well as residents from neighboring
communities. Of the 31 who spoke, only one supported the project.
A wide range of concerns raised
Concerns ranged from the incompatibility of a new home gated community being
placed inside an established community with older homes, the proposed density of
the project, the increased traffic that would be created that could result in
more people driving through neighboring communities to get to Nova Road and West
Granada Boulevard.
Several bemoaned the loss of the golf course, which many Tomoka Oaks residents
said they paid a premium to live next to.
Some also voiced concerns about the area's already over-burdened service
providers including hospitals and first-responders.
Some opposed to any development
Carolyn Davis, a Tomoka Oaks resident, urged the Planning Board to recommend
blocking any development on the property so that it can either be turned into a
park, left as open space or reopened as a golf course. During her remarks at the
microphone, she asked those sharing her view to raise their hands. At least a
hundred did so.
A different citizens group, members of the voluntary Tomoka Oaks Homeowners
Association, are advocates for letting homes be built, but with more
restrictions. They include requiring Tomoka Reserve lots on the project's
periphery to be 100 feet wide, as opposed to the developers' proposal for
80-foot-wide lots, to match Tomoka Oaks homes currently along the old golf
course. Some of the proposed lots within the Tomoka Reserves development are as
small as 50 feet in width.
Tomoka Oaks is unique
Tom Harowski, a certified urban planner who lives in Tomoka Oaks, accidentally
caused the microphone to fall to the ground when he tried adjusting it, but
didn't let it phase him from expressing his concerns about the project.
While the developers' plans are not much different than other new home
communities going up throughout Volusia County, Harowski noted one key
difference.
"We're looking at a project that's not the next domino down the road. When they
build it (Tomoka Reserve), it's going to become the heart of Tomoka Oaks. These
are going to be bigger houses on smaller lots," he said.
Harowski and several others who spoke also noted that one of the things that
gives Tomoka Oaks a unique character is that it has a wide range of
different-style homes as opposed to newer communities that offer homes with a
more uniform look. The developers for Tomoka Reserve are currently proposing 16
different models for homebuyers to choose from.
Planning board urges developers to rethink their plans
Thomas and the other planning board members were critical of the current plans
for Tomoka Reserve and urged the developers to make revisions based on the
concerns expressed at the meeting.
Rob Merrell, a land-use attorney representing the developers, said his clients
were open to making changes. He thanked the board for making suggestions on what
could be revised to more likely win approval.
"Something is going to go in there," said Thomas of the likelihood that the
developers who paid $2.6 million to acquire the former golf course will
eventually get the green light to build homes. "We've got to compromise. We've
got to find something, because there is a hard-core group of residents who don't
want anything in there, but I'm going to tell you something, that's just not
going to happen."
Follow-up meeting in August
The meeting wound up going for five hours, adjourning without a decision by the
board because Calvary Christian Center, the venue where it was held, has a rule
of shutting its doors at 11 p.m.
The Planning Board unanimously voted to hold a second special meeting on Aug.
21, starting at 6 p.m., to continue its review of the project.
|
