DeLand narrowly approves housing on old golf course

Beresford Reserve will need second OK at March meeting

The application to rezone the 167-acre former Southridge Golf Course in southeast DeLand to allow a 597-unit housing development was approved on first reading by the DeLand City Commission Jan. 31, with a 3-2 vote. 

 After more than four hours of debate by experts, citizens and the commission members, Mayor Bob Apgar and City Commissioners Kevin Reid and Charles Paiva voted to approve the rezoning. City Commissioners Jessica Davis and Chris Cloudman voted against it. 

The Jan. 31 special meeting was dedicated to one topic: to rezone or not to rezone the former golf course that once housed a municipal dump. This was Elevation Development’s fifth attempt at requesting planned development zoning for the property, which is already zoned for residential development.

Since Beresford Reserve last came before the City Commission in November, the number of homes was reduced from 615 to 597, a shopping center planned on the property was removed, and various amenities were shifted around. 

The project includes a public park of approximately 21 acres that will be constructed during the first phase. That park will sit atop a portion of the former golf course that was once used as a municipal dump. 

It’s not over for Beresford Reserve — the application to rezone the former golf course must still be approved on a second reading. This discussion is not expected to come back to the City Commission until March. 

When it does return, the City Commission’s new provisions for the developer include: 

• The adoption of a number of environmental considerations suggested by the city’s newly hired environmental consultant, Pegeen Hanrahan. Among Hanrahan’s suggestions were keeping a close eye on future environmental testing, and potentially creating a new, site-specific Brownfield committee to watch over the site cleanup. She also recommended prohibiting the use of soil blending, a process of mixing clean soil with contaminated soil, to remediate the site. Contaminated soil, instead, will be removed from the site if its toxicity levels far exceed limits. 
• That the City Commission receive copies of all future correspondence from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection relating to the site. 
• That the City Commission receives periodic reports from the developer on the status of the project.
• That the city have final approval of the public park and all facilities that will be open to the public once constructed.

There’s more to come on Beresford Reserve, including a detailed report of the four-hour meeting that led to the development’s first approval by the DeLand City Commission. Keep up with The Beacon for updates.