NSB stops new development in Venetian Bay neighborhood until flooding issues are resolved

The City Commission Tuesday voted unanimously to adopt an emergency ordinance temporarily halting building permits issued in New Smyrna Beach's Venetian Bay neighborhood.

The recurrence of flooding incidents in the area has resulted not only in property damage concerns but also in public health and safety concerns for affected residents, who are calling for a resolution to problems identified in the area’s stormwater system.

City Commissioner Randy Hartman, who represents the area, asked staff in a Feb. 13 City Commission meeting to prepare the ordinance after hearing some residents’ concerns.

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He said he hoped the ordinance would be in effect “until we figure out, is it a design problem? Is it a retention problem?”

Most of the affected area is near the Portofino Estates residential community, north of State Road 44, east of Airport Road and south of Modena Way. The ordinance does not affect “single-family residential homes that have been platted in an approved development phase.”

The 701-home Shell Pointe Colony development, for instance, will not be affected.

City staff Tuesday brought the ordinance for a public hearing, where Venetian Bay residents shared their experiences before the measure was adopted.

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Janet Hall, a resident in the Portofino, spoke about the planned development project on the corner of State Road 44 and Airport Road.

“The additional impervious surfaces and runoff will only exacerbate the existing serious drainage issues that we have within the area,” Hall said.

She quoted part of the project’s stormwater report, which claimed that expanding the stormwater pond would “eliminate the possibility of causing adverse impacts to surrounding areas.”

Hall, however, said she cannot see “how it would not cause an adverse impact on the already stressed and inadequate drainage infrastructure.”

“The canal is fundamentally inadequate as a stormwater system; our roads are periodically flooding, they are buckling, and water and slime is oozing through the road surface and drains due to the pressure of retained water,” Hall added.

Several other residents spoke about their own homes and streets facing similar issues in the area.

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On Oct. 20, the St. Johns River Water Management District sent a letter to the Venetian Bay Homeowners Association and the area's master developer company, Geosam Capital, about what the district identified as part of the stormwater system “not functioning as designed and permitted.”

Part of the letter indicates an ongoing issue with a canal ditch on the west side of Airport Road.

Assistant City Manager Ron Neibert said during the Feb. 13 meeting that the city had been in contact with Geosam about the situation.

“(Geosam) have already engaged services of a professional engineer to research and evaluate their system, to address and find any potential physical or design problems,” Neibert said.

According to the ordinance, “the Venetian Bay Homeowners Assciation needs time to address the comments issued by the St. Johns River Water Management District, without further exacerbation of the issues by new development.”

Fixing the problem and next steps

Hartman validated the points brought forth by residents, saying that the Portofino neighborhood “has always consistently flooded in the roads, whether it’s a named storm, unnamed storm, almost any rainstorm.”

“The intent of this was to start the process at some place,” Hartman said. “This will start the process to say maybe we need to change the way we design things in the future or maybe there is a problem … . If it’s determined that the canal along Airport Road is not dumping the water as it’s supposed to, that will be the next phase, so that we can get ahead of this problem before we get any further in the hole.”

The emergency ordinance will now go before the city’s planning and zoning board and come back to the City Commission for two readings, which is the way the process would normally work.

“This is done as an emergency ordinance due to the concern for future development that might be occurring within (the Venetian Bay) area,” Assistant City Attorney Shey McCurdy explained. “That’s why we did it as an emergency ordinance … . We will comply with our due process rights.”

Mayor Fred Cleveland said the city was “late” addressing the issue and apologized on its behalf.

“We’re going to catch up and then we are going to get ahead,” he said. “Even the longest journey begins with a single step. Lest you think that this is it, it is definitely not it. We are going to take a stairstep approach using math, logic and science.”

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He said the focus should be on trying to find a long-term solution to the problem, which would “fix the trouble for the generations to follow us.”

The ordinance took effect immediately after the vote and is set to expire June 25. The city could lift the ordinance if the problems are fixed before that date or extend the measure if more time is needed.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: New Smyrna Beach halts Venetian Bay permits due to flooding concerns