Council declines countywide moratorium, directs staff to fast-track stormwater rules and basin studies

Volusia County Council voted 7-0 on Jan. 14 to not impose a countywide moratorium on development and instead directed county staff to bring back ordinances and technical recommendations aimed at reducing future flood risk. The council’s action follows several hours of technical presentations from county engineers and planners and nearly three hours of public testimony from residents, builders and environmental groups.

The decision came after Public Works Director Ben Bartlett and Clay Urban, the county’s director of Growth and Resource Management, outlined why the county has seen more extensive flooding in recent years and what measures staff recommends to reduce risk. Bartlett said the county has funded nearly $8,000,000 in watershed and basin analysis and that the studies will point to targeted capital projects such as additional storage, pump stations and acquisition-and-demolition when areas are deemed indefensible. “We’re here today to discuss a countywide moratorium on development,” Bartlett told the council in his opening remarks; he then summarized how higher annual rainfall, extreme single‑storm totals and elevated groundwater are interacting with local topography and stormwater systems.

Urban framed the county’s regulatory tools and said staff has already advanced two workstreams: (1) a set of low‑impact development (LID) ordinances and (2) technical updates to county stormwater review (chapter 72) and to the countywide minimum standards (chapter 50). “Two years ago you gave staff direction to come up with low impact development standards,” Urban said. He said the LID and chapter‑72 proposals had passed advisory review and were pending formal hearings; staff proposed a tentative Feb. 11 date to…