Edgewater officials share early plans for new city center project on West Indian River Boulevard

For decades, Edgewater has known that its operational demands have outgrown the current city hall building on Riverside Drive.

That’s why it has been the city’s intention for just as long to move to a new city hall — somewhere bigger, where the city, a fast-growing Volusia County municipality, can better operate.

The plans are still in very early stages, but the project's location is set. The city last year purchased a 70-acre property on West Indian River Boulevard for around $2.4 million, which is expected to be home to more than simply City Council chambers, according to Mayor Diezel Depew.

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“It will be home to a police station, a new fire station,” Depew said in an interview. “We’re actually hoping to have enough room for a civic center as well.”

The idea is for the property to become a new city center, “centrally located within Edgewater, planning on future development, and it’s right when you get off Interstate 95,” he added.

What will the new Edgewater city center look like?

Depew said the city has outgrown the current city hall “at least for 30 years.”

“Ever since Edgewater has really started to grow,” Depew said. “We have little office space left. We’ve outgrown it for several years.”

In an interview, City Manager Glenn Irby also emphasized the importance of the project.

“The (new) fire and police stations are very important, because we lack fire and ambulance service in that area,” Irby said. “We also lack an emergency operations center.”

He said the idea is for the two stations and the EOC to be located in different areas of the same building. Another building would house the city hall, civic center and other office spaces. Even an amphitheater could be part of the project, though not initially.

“We don’t have a civic center at all now,” Irby said. “This would give the people a place to meet.”

Irby, who has been in the post for five years, said the new location would be a “boom for the whole community.”

He also mentioned that the property has a 52-acre lake, which could offer the opportunity to design the project in a similar fashion to Port Orange’s city center.

City growth and necessary funds

One of the advantages of bringing the project to Indian River Boulevard is the property’s centralized location within the city’s master plan for the next 20 years.

Most of that is due to the planned Farmton development, part of which is coming to the west side of Interstate 95 in Edgewater, where the city expects to see 6,600 new homes in the first phase of that development.

“In the end, that development is going to more than double the current population of Edgewater,” Irby said. “And that, if everything goes as planned, will happen probably within 10 to 15 years.”

According to Ryan Solstice, the city's development services director, Edgewater's current population is between 24,900 and 25,000 people. Census data showed the city had approximately 20,700 people in 2010.

"Based upon unit count entitlement and using Bureau of Economic and Business Research’s 2.3 population extrapolation," the upcoming first phase of the Farmton development "will add roughly 18,230 persons" to the city population, Solstice wrote in an email.

The Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida "provides statistical information for demographics and economics within the State of Florida," he added.

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The city’s fast growth is part of the reason it has taken so many years to move along with the project, according to Irby.

Another factor is the necessary funding for the project, which Depew estimates to be around $40 million.

“We’re going to, at some point in time, have to take on debt to do it,” Irby said.

But for the city to take on that much, “there has to be a voter referendum,” he added.

When will the project be done? How could it benefit Edgewater?

Depew said discussions are ongoing between city government and residents as to what they would like the new city center to look like.

He said a design similar to what Port Orange has "is not out of the question.”

“That’s something that we are looking at,” Depew said. “I think the Port Orange center is a lovely area and space.”

The mayor said he hopes the project can be completed “within the next five to 10 years,” but there is no official estimate as of now.

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The city is currently working to hire an engineer to “come up with a shell design,” which would provide a color rendering of what the project would look like in the end, Irby said.

“It would be a great benefit to the city, because it could be a gathering place, a place for concerts,” Irby said. “Plenty of land.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Edgewater plans to build new city center with 70-acre parcel