Economic Development Board urges council to block residential rezoning of 137‑acre parcel near InsurTech

The Economic Development Board voted to recommend that the city council not approve additional residential development on a 137‑acre property near US‑1 adjacent to Boston Whaler and InsurTech, saying the site should be preserved for industrial or space‑industry uses.

The board’s motion, made by a board member (speaker 6) and seconded by Mr. London (speaker 1), directs staff to draft documentation for Planning & Zoning and city council explaining the board’s position. The motion passed in a roll call with affirmative responses from members present.

Why it matters: county and board members said industrial land in Volusia County is extremely limited — Lou Paris of the Volusia County Economic Development Department told the board that “industrial land use in the county is 0.8%,” and urged preserving sites that could support aerospace and supply‑chain firms. Board members said the parcel is the city’s only heavy‑industrial property and is near regional space industry assets, making it strategically valuable for long‑term job creation and tax‑base diversification.

Board and staff debate centered on competing near‑term and long‑term goals. City staff said Holiday Builders has submitted an application that would place residential and commercial uses on the parcel’s front acreage while around 48 acres are currently zoned heavy industrial and the remainder contains a mix of public/semi‑public uses. Staff also noted constraints: the industrial portion has approximately 24 acres of wetlands and mitigation would be expensive; power capacity and transportation access were cited as factors that must be addressed before industrial development can proceed.

Lou Paris said county staff would support and help promote industrial designation, arguing the county’s scarce industrial acreage makes a long‑term industrial strategy important. “It is a longer‑term play that will be more beneficial to the community than an immediate use of residential,” he told the board.

Board members worried that converting the parcel to residential would foreclose future manufacturing and space‑industry opportunities. One member said the city risks “tak[ing] the only heavy industrially zoned piece of land that we have, and we’re going to change it to residential.” Another warned that future residential neighbors could later complain about odors, noise and truck traffic from nearby plants.

Staff and members discussed mechanics: the draft policy language allows rezoning of nonresidential designations inside a commercial space industry overlay but does not itself change future land‑use designations required to authorize development. Several members urged staff to develop an expedited review framework that would align overlay designation, land‑use changes and infrastructure planning so vetted industrial projects can proceed more quickly.

Next steps: the board asked the mover to prepare a written recommendation linking the board’s economic development strategy (SEDS) and the space opportunity overlay; staff will refine the language, pull the county overlay map for the board to review at a future meeting, and forward the board’s recommendation to Planning & Zoning and then to city council.