Volusia Council to seek $4.5M from state in Ormond Beach fuel facility fight

Volusia County will seek several million dollars from the Florida Legislature as part of efforts to stop a fuel storage and distribution facility from coming to Ormond Beach.

Deputy County Manager Suzanne Konchan said this week that the county government plans to seek an appropriation from the state of $4.5 million to go toward an alternative location for the facility. The County Council also voted on other fuel-facility-related items this week.

Konchan said the county will work with one of their lobbying firms and is working with state Rep. Tom Leek's office on the request.

"It (the funding) is necessary to help prepare an alternative site with, say, utilities or road infrastructure to relocate the facility to a more appropriate place than its current site," she said.

Belvedere Terminals officials plan to build the facility at 874 Hull Road in Ormond Beach near U.S. 1 in an area with homes, businesses and a major recreational facility. Residents in the area are opposed to the development and have voiced concerns about safety and environmental hazards.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection granted the project a construction permit for air-quality purposes for 16 storage tanks that would be able to dispense over 357 million gallons of gasoline and other products each year.

Company officials have tried to assuage fears by assuring residents it will have equipment in place to keep the community safe from explosions and leaks. Also, Belvedere Chief Financial Officer Timothy Schwarz said the facility will be much smaller than the air permit allows. It will have three main and some ancillary tanks, he said.

But residents and government officials in Volusia County and Ormond Beach are still trying to nix the project.

Volusia Council floats efforts to stop Ormond Beach fuel facility

The council voted on two proposals related to the fuel farm at Tuesday's meeting.

The council voted unanimously in favor of reaching out to the Florida East Coast Railway about possibly buying or leasing the land at 874 Hull Road.

"I believe that this is yet another tool in our toolbox to deal with this issue," District 4 Councilman Troy Kent said.

Also, the council voted 6-1 to start negotiations to possibly expand the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement between Volusia County and the City of Ormond Beach to include the Hull Road property ― the site has an Ormond Beach address but is actually on unincorporated Volusia County land, so it is under the county government's authority.

The Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement gives the city authority over certain lands "to apply the City's Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Zoning Map categories over unincorporated parcels, to administer specified City codes and regulations, and to provide for enforcement of the codes," according to the county.

The original Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement stemmed from the city's desire to have more control over the U.S. 1 area near the city. Volusia County allowed a strip club to open in the area sometime in 2008-2009, and then in 2013 tried to allow "a criminally violent biker gang to set up shop on U.S. 1," Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington said.

District 5 Councilman David Santiago suggested updating the agreement as a way to give the city more power over the future of the fuel facility project. Currently, the county is limited by a state law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June. That law limits the county's ability to add "more restrictive or burdensome" land regulations before Oct. 1, 2024, because part of the county was within 100 miles of Hurricane Nicole's landfall. Nicole was a tropical storm when it eventually hit Volusia and Flagler counties.

But residents and a city official said the change would end up causing more problems for Ormond Beach.

Partington said he and other city officials do not want to include the land in the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement because, among other things, that would require the city to annex the Hull Road property into the city and provide utilities, two things the City Commission has already said it will not do.

The council said they wanted to keep Hull Road in the proposed agreement so that officials could further explore whether adding it would be a benefit. The vote on Tuesday was only to start negotiations, and Ormond Beach officials don't have to accept the change.

"It gives them all options," At-Large Councilman Jake Johansson said. "It doesn't restrict them in any way, and both county and city can walk away from Hull Road at the end of the day and no harm, no foul."

Kent, a former Ormond Beach commissioner, said he opposed the change to the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement because Ormond Beach officials already expressed that they didn't want it.

"I think keeping this on, we're in a situation where we continue to incite negative feelings between the two government bodies, and that's not my goal here," Kent said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia County seeks to buy land from under proposed Ormond fuel farm