Deltona details $50 million stormwater plan, preps 10,000 sandbags and pump projects before hurricane season

Phyllis Wallace, the city’s public-works presenter, briefed the Deltona City Commission on June 9 about ongoing and planned stormwater projects, grant applications and operational readiness ahead of hurricane season.

Wallace told commissioners the packet lists roughly $50 million in stormwater projects across about 45 priority sites; the city has completed 51 stormwater projects in the last eight years but the stormwater assessment fee alone will not fund the new list. She said staff are exploring bonds or loans to accelerate construction. "Within your package, you have the list of the nearly $50,000,000 worth of stormwater projects," Wallace said.

Key projects Wallace described include improvements at El Cam Boulevard and Lake Helen-Osteen Road (Transform 386 submission), a joint effort around Osteen Elementary (city, Volusia County and school board coordination), a Sterling Lake drawdown and the Blue Heron Stormwater Park tied to control-structure work. Staff also are evaluating Drysdale Pond and other retention basins. Wallace said the city has pre-positioned emergency piping at 36 known locations and has already buried piping at 15 of those sites to speed responses during storms.

On grants, Wallace said Deltona applied for Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funds for some elevation and demolition projects and that county and state programs (Transform 386, Elevate Florida) were used where projects qualified. She said the HMGP window was small (one application per agency, limited dollars, one-year period of performance) and that some projects were not shovel-ready for those timelines. The city sought replacement or bypass pumps for lift stations and permanent traffic-signal generators through grant requests that together total about $4.8 million, with cost-share assumptions noted in the packet (examples: $1.5 million for bypass pumps at five lift stations; $2.1 million for nine pump-station requests; $1.2 million for 15 signal generators).

Wallace said the city’s hurricane preparedness includes a sandbag operation at Dewey Boster with a 10,000-bag staging plan and two bag-filling machines. "We can do about 1,200 bags a minute," she told commissioners, noting staff and volunteers will manage distribution and restocking.

Commissioners pressed staff on local flood sites including Lake Leeson, Hampton Oaks and Cortland Park. Wallace replied that some basins and HOA ponds are not functioning as permitted, that several neighborhoods have pond outfalls that require further engineering and that the city is drafting letters to the water-management district and pursuing coordination with developers and engineers of record where necessary. She also confirmed two homes near Fort Smith had flooded; those homeowners were told about mitigation options and some applied for grant support.

Wallace said Transform 386 applications were partially rejected where the county deemed the proposals maintenance work not eligible for funding; she noted staff re-scoped other projects for the current round. She added the city is working with county stormwater subcommittees to seek holistic, basin-scale solutions that cross jurisdictional boundaries.

Ending: Staff will continue grant pursuit, coordinate with county and state partners, stage equipment and return to the commission with more detailed project schedules and funding recommendations.

Note: All project descriptions and dollar amounts were presented by city staff. No new appropriations were approved at the workshop.