Planning board recommends comp‑plan amendments and PD zoning for 276‑acre Florida Logistics Center with caps on intensity and trips

The Daytona Beach Planning Board on June 26 recommended approval of two linked actions to clear the way for a master‑planned industrial/mixed‑use park at a 276.5‑acre site south of State Road 400 between I‑95 and Williamson Boulevard.

Emilia O’Brien, city planner, presented a large‑scale comprehensive plan amendment (LSCPA) that would change multiple existing future land‑use categories on the site to an overall mixed‑use designation and add a new neighborhood policy (Issue G) that caps the project’s intensity. O’Brien said staff finds the LSCPA "consistent with the comprehensive plan" and recommended approval. The Planning Board voted to recommend the LSCPA to the City Commission, with applicant and staff required revisions, by a 5–1 vote; the item is scheduled for transmittal Aug. 6, 2025.

Applicant Jessica Gao (Cobb Cole) and the project team described a development framework that targets logistics and light industrial uses while including mixed‑use components. In the proposed policy language, the applicant caps nonresidential development at 6,000,000 square feet (office/industrial), retail at up to 100,000 square feet, residential at 1,500 units and limits external PM peak‑hour vehicle trips to 3,000. O’Brien noted these caps reduce the site’s theoretical intensity and density compared with the current future land‑use entitlements; staff’s materials quantify the changes and conclude potable water, sewer and trip estimates remain within city capacity under the proposed caps.

The PD rezoning filing (DEV‑2024‑378) seeks Plan Development General zoning to implement the master plan; staff recommended forwarding the PD to the City Commission with a recommendation of approval, and the Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend the rezoning to the commission.

Traffic, school capacity, wetlands and neighborhood connectivity were the most discussed items. The applicant and staff said they have studied access and coordinated with Volusia County on the Williamson Boulevard widening project (noting county funding and anticipated construction ahead of project impacts). On schools, O’Brien summarized that the Volusia County School District "did not issue a standard finding of adequate capacity," and the applicant negotiated a tri‑party School Capacity Enhancement Agreement (CEA) with the district; the CEA ties capacity mitigation payments to the final approved number of dwellings and conditions certificate of concurrency on full compliance with the agreement.

Adjacent property owners asked staff and the applicant to refine neighborhood policy language, including removing a direct reference to a named adjacent development, clarifying internal connector roads, and limiting digital signage near residential edges. Corey Brown (Storch law firm), representing the adjacent Walker’s Green/owner interests, said the parties had reached common ground on edits and nontrucking/no‑truck signage and traffic‑calming options for the proposed North‑South connector. The board’s favorable votes include the direction that the applicant and staff incorporate agreed clarifications and return the ordinance and PD to the City Commission for the transmittal and public hearing process.