Developers scale back plans for Avalon Park Daytona. Here's what they are now proposing.

DAYTONA BEACH ― The developers of the long-delayed Avalon Park Daytona Beach project have scaled back their ambitious plans to create a city within a city.

Instead of 10,000 homes and a "downtown" with 1 million square feet of commercial space, the Orlando developers are now looking to develop 7,878 residential units in addition to the planned commercial district, confirmed Jeff Fuqua, a partner in the Avalon Park Daytona project.

"With Avalon Park Daytona, we are focusing on what we can accomplish with our existing PD (planned development) and our existing comp (comprehensive) plan entitlements," said Fuqua. "The million square feet (of commercial space) and the 7,878 (housing) units is what we feel confident we can accomplish within those parameters."

What remains to be seen is whether the reduction in homes is enough to resolve the issues preventing the project from getting underway.

Currently, the zoning for Avalon Park Daytona only allows 3,250 homes, said Daytona Beach City Commissioner Stacy Cantu, who represents the area that includes the development site. Cantu said the rezoning of the site was approved in December 2018, long before the current developers acquired the property.

It would still be the area's biggest master-planned community

Even at the reduced size the developers are now proposing, Avalon Park Daytona would become the Volusia-Flagler area's largest-ever master-planned community, dwarfing the size of Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach, which is on track to sell its 3,900th and final new home this year.

ICI Homes has entitlements to develop 6,000 homes at its Plantation Bay golf community on the Volusia-Flagler line. ICI Chairman and CEO Mori Hosseini said that development, half in Volusia and half in Flagler, will likely be capped at 5,000 homes.

Where is Avalon Park Daytona?

Beat Kahli, chairman and CEO of Avalon Park Group, in July 2020 paid Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. just over $40 million to acquire the development site for Avalon Park Daytona.

The roughly 3,000 acres of undeveloped land is along the south side of State Road 40/West Granada Boulevard, roughly one mile west of Interstate 95.

The property abuts Tiger Bay State Forest to the west, Ormond Beach's Hunter Ridge area to the north, and the Latitude Margaritaville 55-and-older community in Daytona Beach's fast-growing LPGA area to the south.

The development site is within the city limits for Daytona Beach, but just barely. Granada, west of I-95, is the city's dividing line with neighboring Ormond Beach.

The development site is within the water service area for Ormond Beach, meaning that the city has the responsibility for providing water to Avalon Park Daytona Beach.

So when might the project break ground?

Kahli originally hoped to break ground on Avalon Park Daytona in 2021.

Avalon Park Group officials are now looking to break ground next year. The initial 783-acre development phase would consist of 1,609 housing units and 90,000 square feet of commercial space, Fuqua confirmed. He added that the 2025 start date is only tentative.

The developers still have issues to resolve including talks with the City of Ormond Beach over water service, as well as concerns regarding traffic and wetlands.

"We're just going to take these issues one at a time and try to resolve them and move forward," Fuqua said.

What's the dispute with Ormond Beach about?

Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington said he is concerned about the increased traffic that Avalon Park Daytona Beach will create, especially on the already chronically congested Granada Boulevard, his city's main east-west corridor.

Avalon Park Group officials want to provide their own water service. Ormond Beach strongly opposes that move.

"To best protect the rights of our residents, we definitely want to protect our water service rights," said Partington, who added that his city is more than capable of providing water service.

Relinquishing its legal obligation to provide water service to Avalon Park Daytona would take away Ormond Beach's only leverage in having a say over how many homes get developed there, Partington said.

"The unbridled growth around Tanger (Outlets) and the LPGA area (in Daytona Beach) gives us cause for concern," he said.

So far, there has been no progress in resolving the dispute.

"This thing could be headed to multiple years of litigation," he said.

As for the developers voluntarily scaling back plans, Partington said, "Going from 10,000 (homes) to less than 8,000 sounds like movement in the right direction, but I don't know if that's the final acceptable number."

What's the plan for alleviating traffic?

One solution Avalon Park Group is proposing to address traffic concerns is to create a new road through its development called Avalon Park Boulevard. The road would start across from the entrance to Ormond Beach's Breakaway Trails community along Granada and wind through the Avalon Park Daytona to connect with Tymber Creek Road at Latitude Margaritaville.

Avalon Park Daytona could also include a westward extension of Hand Avenue, the east-west road that currently ends at Williamson Boulevard in Ormond Beach, just east of I-95.

Fuqua said Avalon Park Group officials have also spoken with owners of the various tracts of land along the Tomoka River west of I-95 about a potential future northward extension of Tomoka Farms Road.

The new roads would provide residents of Avalon Park Daytona Beach more ways to get in and out as opposed to solely relying on Granada.

How did they come to own the land?

Prior to Kahli's purchase through his SitEX Properties USA company, the land where Avalon Park Daytona is now proposed was divided into separate parcels. The two largest were previously under contract to different developers.

Minto Communities, developer of Latitude Margaritaville, had a pending agreement to buy the eastern-most parcel to become a future 3,400-home expansion of its popular Jimmy Buffett-themed active adult community, complete with a grocery store-anchored neighborhood shopping center.

Daytona Beach-based ICI Homes had a contract to buy the adjoining parcel to the west where Hosseini envisioned creating an all-ages community with roughly 1,000 homes and its own grocery store-anchored neighborhood shopping center.

Both Minto and ICI wound up letting their options to buy the parcels expire.

Kahli acquired both properties in addition to some adjoining smaller parcels with plans to develop them all as an example of "smart growth." His vision for Avalon Park Daytona included setting aside a large swath bordering Tiger Bay State Forest as permanent conservation land and concentrating the commercial space into a single several-block downtown where residents can stroll to restaurants, shops and offices as well as a grocery store and entertainment venues.

Avalon Park Group has developed similar Avalon Park communities in east Orlando and at Wesley Chapel near Tampa. Both include schools as well as parks and walking/bicycle trails.

Kahli said he got the idea for Avalon Park Daytona from Fuqua, former chairman of the board for Consolidated-Tomoka. He told Fuqua he would buy the land if he would become a minority investor in the project. Fuqua agreed.

What makes Avalon Park's communities different?

Avalon Park Group models its communities after the villages in Kahli's native Switzerland, which he described as pedestrian-friendly enclaves where people can live, work and play.

He said his mixed-use developments differ from most master-planned communities in the United States which he said tend to be single-use in nature.

Why is Fuqua now overseeing the project?

Kahli recently turned over the task of overseeing the entitlement process for Avalon Park Daytona Beach to Fuqua so he could focus on his other businesses.

Why did the project get downsized?

Fuqua said one of the first things he did was convince Kahli to scale back his ambitious plans for Avalon Park Daytona.

"We don't want to talk about aspirational things beyond (what is allowed under the existing comprehensive plan entitlements)," Fuqua said. "We have no interest in pursuing a Comp Plan amendment. The original thinking was more than that, but as we got into the details of that, particularly the utilities and transportation plan ... this just seemed the wiser approach."

Why does Fuqua's name sound familiar?

Fuqua is the former longtime chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority that oversees Orlando International Airport. One of the main access roads to the airport is named after him.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Developers scale back Avalon Park Daytona. What they're now proposing.