The DeLand City Commission approved two developments near the city’s southeast boundaries aiming to accomplish a project initially undertaken 30 years ago to draw visitors and locals to the intersection of DeLand, Deltona and Orange City. While the project, known as the Southwest Activity Center, formally dissolved in the 2000s, DeLand approved plans to build rental housing and commercial developments in the chunk of land Volusia County gave to the city.
Rezoning for the two developments, CTC DeLand and DeLand Tech Park, was approved on second reading by the DeLand City Commission Oct. 3.
DeLand Mayor Bob Apgar, who is nearing the end of his final term as mayor of DeLand, said it was exciting to see progress in an area the city has been interested in developing for so long.
“From a personal perspective, I’m glad to see that we’re going to finally have the realization of a project that would bring jobs and be a synergy for that part of our community,” he said.
CTC DeLand will see the construction of 233 multifamily units designed to mimic a single-family neighborhood at an approximately 29-acre parcel at the corner of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Beltway and Cassadaga Road.
The cottage-style units won’t be targeted at first-time renters, but instead at people looking to downsize, or younger people able to afford above-market-rate housing.
At the development’s second reading for rezoning, the DeLand City Commission wanted to make sure that some of the project’s “mays” would become “shalls.”
DeLand attorney Mark Watts of Cobb Cole, representing developer Taylor Morrison, said the developer could guarantee a number of amenities, but some weren’t locked-in. The development’s clubhouse, pool and dog parks are definite, as are the multiuse trail connecting the adjacent properties and a butterfly garden.
“We may have supplemental trail areas and gazebos and other enhancements for open space as the engineering allows,” Watts said.
CTC DeLand was approved by the City Commission by a unanimous vote.
The second project is DeLand Tech Park, a 143-acre development just south of CTC DeLand with room for commercial and industrial growth in the form of warehouses and other buildings.
Members of the community, like Stetson University professor Dr. Wendy Anderson, had expressed concern about DeLand allowing industrial development on its corner of State Road 472 and I-4 when neighboring cities were planning the very same thing, but Cobb Cole attorney Nika Hosseini said this project is in line with what DeLand has planned for the area.
“This is supposed to go here,” she said.
Not only does it fit with the city’s comprehensive plan, she said, but it is in line with what was proposed at this location in the 1990s.
Mayor Apgar also confirmed that, despite fears that developments in neighboring municipalities were underway without DeLand being aware, city staff was aware of the projects.
While previously imagined as a Heathrow-style destination area at the intersection of multiple cities, DeLand Tech Park aims to bring more industrial development to the area.
City Commissioner Chris Cloudman said he was OK giving up the prospect of a DeLand-Deltona-Orange City Heathrow, because DeLand already has a destination: its historic Downtown. Industrial warehouses on the city’s outskirts, he said, would keep heavy trucks from rattling down Woodland Boulevard Downtown.
As with CTC DeLand, the City Commission had a few changes to make with DeLand Tech Park, like putting language in the development agreement that caps the square footage of commercial development to ensure there is a diversity of commercial and industrial development, as well as smaller changes to what is allowed in each section of the project.
Rezoning for DeLand Tech Park was approved by the City Commission on a unanimous vote.
The next step for both projects is to bring more defined construction plans to the City Commission.
