DeBary council OKs lease for Volusia County to build 2-million-gallon ground storage tank

The DeBary City Council on April 16 approved a lease agreement to allow Volusia County Utilities to construct a 2,000,000-gallon ground storage tank on roughly 2.5 acres owned by the city in the southwest portion of DeBary.

City Manager Carmen introduced the item and said the tank would support the rapidly growing southwest area — improving water quality, increasing pressure, providing emergency storage and supporting the new fire station near Fort Florida Road. Carmen said the lease term is 30 years with an option to extend another 20 years and the nominal lease payment is $1 per year.

Mike Ulrich, Volusia County Utilities Director, said the tank will provide essential fire-flow protection, pressure and storage redundancy; the project also includes a two-mile waterline extension that will loop service around Fort Florida Road and provide stub-outs for Alexander Island. Ulrich described coordination with the fire-station build and said construction engineering was roughly 60% complete.

Council members asked about road closures, impacts during construction and whether connection fees would apply to the fire station and Alexander Island. Ulrich said work would be staged within the existing right-of-way and that he did not expect any full road closures; on connection fees he said county council would decide policies and suggested staff could estimate likely connection charges if the council wanted that information.

Council approved the lease unanimously; the agreement proceeds to the Volusia County Council for its approval. City staff said they would continue coordination on construction phasing, hydrant flushing and efforts to minimize service disruptions.

Why it matters: The storage tank and associated looped water main are intended to address service, water-quality and fire-flow shortfalls in DeBary’s rapidly growing southwest area and to provide capacity and redundancy for future development.