The City of DeBary City Council on second reading approved Ordinance O‑4‑2025, updating the Southwest Sector Mobility Plan and creating a single, consolidated mobility fee to be collected by the agency that issues development permits.

City Management Director Stephen Babgrove, who presented the ordinance materials, said the consolidated fee responds to 2024 state changes and aims to have new development finance a 20‑year list of mobility projects. "The Southwest Mobility fee consolidates the existing mobility fee and county fee into one single mobility fee schedule to be collected by one agency," Babgrove said.

The change responds to House Bill 479, passed in 2024, which altered methodology for assessing transportation mitigation and specified that a single fee be used and collected by the permitting agency. Under the new plan the city projects about $44 million in mobility needs; roughly $8.5 million of that was identified for improvements to Dirkson Road. Babgrove told council staff’s consultant found "extraordinary circumstances" that justify fee increases up to the statutory 50% cap in some categories after inflation and construction‑cost escalation.

Council debate at second reading focused on how development credits are calculated. The city manager described amendments added between readings "to make it a little more clear what our intent is as far as providing credits," noting three principal clarifications: 1) a 100% credit for contributions of city facilities (including roads), 2) reimbursements for property acquired for trails must be based on acquisition cost (not later fair‑market value), and 3) limits on developers using required landscaping to receive double reimbursement. Babgrove detailed a recent negotiation on Shell Road where parallel parking used by a developer was treated as the developer’s commercial parking allocation and reduced the city’s credit accordingly.

Council member Stevenson pressed for more shade along trails and asked whether additional landscaping beyond the Land Development Code (LDC) requirements could be eligible for credit. Stevenson said, "As a trail user myself, I would appreciate having trees and more shade along some of the trails." Staff and council ultimately left trail credits limited to sod only in the ordinance language, with a brief discussion allowing the possibility of later tree plantings through other programs; the city manager said the ordinance text will restrict credits to sod but left open separate efforts for additional vegetation.

Fee changes varied by land use in staff presentations: single‑family rates fall under the new methodology, multifamily increases about 7.5%, hotels about 23%, offices about 17.5% and general retail about 15.1% in the staff’s example schedule. Babgrove said the National Highway Construction Cost Index and other construction‑cost indices rose sharply since the plan’s 2018 baseline, increasing the plan cost by roughly 130% excluding certain road projects.

The council voted unanimously to approve the ordinance with the redlined language on credits; the same vote also confirmed the council’s finding that extraordinary circumstances exist and adopted option 4 as presented. Council members Papalardo, Stevenson, Sowell, Vice Mayor Butland and Mayor Chazet voted yes.

Next steps for staff include preparing interlocal arrangements with Volusia County for fee collection and distribution, finalizing mobility agreements with developers, and implementing the clarified credit procedures in development agreements and mobility reimbursement contracts.