Ormond Beach Planning Board recommends rejection of developers' Tomoka Reserve rezone bid

The Ormond Beach Planning Board on Thursday evening voted unanimously to recommend that real estate developers' request to rezone the former golf course at Tomoka Oaks be denied.

The developers, doing business as Triumph Oaks of Ormond Beach, must now try to persuade the Ormond Beach City Commission.

The commission, which has final say in the matter, is tentatively scheduled to review the developers' rezone application on Feb. 20, confirmed Steven Spraker, the City's Planning Director. The location has yet to be determined.

The developers' aim: to redevelop the former 18-hole Sam Snead signature golf course in the heart of the Tomoka Oaks community into a new gated community called Tomoka Reserve.

What makes the project so controversial?

The project has drawn strong opposition from the voluntary Tomoka Oaks Home Owners Association as well as residents of neighboring communities. Some want the property to either reopen as golf course or become a park or preserved as a conservation area. The HOA has been advocating that the developers should be allowed to redevelop the property, but only with a significant reduction in the number of planned new homes and other concessions including further measures to address traffic congestion and safety concerns.

The developers have maintained they have a right to redevelop the property into homes after having purchased it with the understanding that it had been zoned for many years to allow housing.

Why the rezone request?

The developers, doing business as Triumph Oaks of Ormond Beach, paid $2.6 million to acquire the 147.9-acre former golf course at Tomoka Oaks in April 2021. The course opened in 1961 but ceased operating as a staffed facility in 2018.

The property at one time was zoned R-2, or "Residential-2 low-density single family," to allow the potential development of housing units. That zoning was changed in 2006 to Planned Residential Development or PRD when its then-owner sought to create townhomes in the middle of the golf course. That project was never developed and the PRD zoning agreement eventually expired.

The Triumph Oaks partners spent nearly three years trying to reach a mutual accord with the city and residents of Tomoka Oaks for a new agreement to allow the former golf course to be converted into a new 272-home gated community.

The developers' proposal included creating a natural landscape buffer around Tomoka Reserve's perimeter of at least 50 feet in width to separate it from the existing homes at Tomoka Oaks that abut the former golf course.

After holding three lengthy public hearings to review the request, the Planning Board in September voted unanimously to recommend denial of the application while urging the developers to come back to the table with a revised plan that would significantly reduce the number of proposed homes.

The Ormond Beach City Commission in November voted unanimously to remand the project back to the Planning Board for further review while also urging the developers to significantly reduce the number of planned homes.

Instead, the developers announced they were withdrawing their application in favor of seeking a restoration of the former golf course's old zoning. It would potentially allow them to develop at least 300 homes with only a six-foot-wide perimeter natural landscape buffer, however the actual number of homes has not yet been determined.

The Planning Board on Thursday night was instructed to only consider the zoning request, not any actual plans to redevelop the former golf course, as the developers have yet to submit any such development plans.

What's the zoning?

The existing 547-home Tomoka Oaks community that surrounds the former golf course is zoned R-2 as are several neighboring communities.

R-2 zoning allows for the development of up to 4.3 housing units per acre. At 147.9 acres, the former Tomoka Oaks golf course under R-2 zoning could in theory have as many as 635 homes. In actuality, it could probably only accommodate about 300 because of the need for new roads and storm water ponds as well as the unusual butterfly configuration of the property, according to a 2006 City planning staff report.

The proposed Tomoka Reserve community would also be different from other communities in that it is completely surrounded by the homes at Tomoka Oaks. And under the developers' now-withdrawn PRD plans, Tomoka Reserve as a gated community would only have one entrance/exit that would feed into Tomoka Oaks Boulevard. That short stretch of road is also the only ingress/egress for the older Escondido condo community near the front entrance to Tomoka Oaks on Nova Road.

Why did the Planning Board vote 'No'?

Doug Thomas, a Tomoka Oaks resident who was re-elected Thursday night to a new term as chairman of the Ormond Beach Planning Board, told The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Friday morning that "the consensus of the (seven-member) board was that the applicant did not supply substantial and competent evidence to change the zoning. On the other hand, (city planning) staff provided numerous evidence that the said property should remain as zoned."

The 7-0 vote to recommend that the rezone application be rejected came after less than two hours of deliberations and listening to comments from more than a dozen citizens. The relative speed in reaching the decision came in sharp contrast to the Planning Board's review of the developers' previous application which kept getting extended to the next month. The three meetings in July, August and September totaled nearly a dozen hours.

Thursday's meeting drew between 150 and 200 people, according to attendees who spoke with The News-Journal.

Tomoka Oaks HOA representative reacts

Jim Rose, chairman of the golf course committee for the Tomoka Oaks HOA, praised the Planning Board's decision to vote "No" on the developers' rezone request.

"We were pleased with the outcome," he said on Friday morning. "We've had so many hearings already and gone over so much material. They've heard pretty much everything there is to hear about the matter. The fact that (Thursday's) meeting went quicker was not a surprise to me.

"I think the reasoning the Planning Board gave in making its recommendation is something that the City Commission will follow."

Rose added, "I think it's going to eventually end up in court."

What the developers have to say

Carl Velie, one of the developers for the proposed Tomoka Reserve project, on Friday morning, said he and his partners were working on a statement that will be released regarding the Planning Board's latest vote.

In a Jan. 10 letter to Ormond Beach City Attorney Randy Hayes prior to the Planning Board meeting, Karl Sanders, one of the attorneys representing Triumph Oaks, wrote: "The quasi-decision of both the Planning Board and the City Commission to either approve or deny the pending application must be based on legally competent evidence, which is limited solely to those facts that are actually relevant to the pending application. Mere opinions as to 'appropriateness' of any new proposal are just that, and they are completely irrelevant to the city's lawful consideration of this (rezone) application.

"Triumph Oaks respectfully requests that the city vote to approve its request and restore the legally required development entitlements for its property."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ormond Planning Board rejects Tomoka Reserve rezone bid. Here's why.