Approximately 20 years of visioning, planning, revising and re-revising have culminated in the Deltona City Commission’s approval of an ambitious mixed-use project that promises to give area residents and consumers the bustling commerce center they have craved.

Despite some misgivings about traffic problems associated with Deltona Village, the commission July 17 passed on second and final reading the latest changes in the 140-acre Business Planned Unit Development (BPUD).

“I’m not here to fight this development,” Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. said.

Key points in the revamped Deltona Village are:
— The maximum number of apartments allowed is 652 — a marked increase from the previous cap of 414.
— The maximum retail-commercial space has been reduced from 900,000 to approximately 700,000 square feet.
— For now at least, a 26.6- acre parcel surrounding the Maschmeyer Concrete plant along the north side of East Graves Avenue is not included in Deltona Village.

Even so, the transformation of largely vacant land into a sort of downtown district has raised questions about the future ability of the roadways to accommodate residents and visitors. That is, will the numbers of vehicles driven by those living, working, shopping, dining or simply passing through Deltona Village make the place more congested than anyone now imagines?

The prospect of failing roads comes from a letter written by Volusia County Engineer Tadd Kasbeer to Deltona Planning and Development Services Director Joe Ruiz. In the letter dated June 28, Kasbeer highlighted the references to a 2009 traffic study that does not take into account the current and possible future transportation conditions in and around the Deltona Village property.

“The Traffic Impact Analysis projected a 2013 Build Out date that has been surpassed and a majority of the site has still not been developed,” the letter reads. “If the Build Out date is revised to 2028 (this date was picked for simplicity of calculation and given the timeframe at which it has taken the amount that has occurred to occur this doesn’t seem unrealistic) then the background growth since 2008 is four (4) times what was calculated in the TIA.”

“Background” traffic refers to the then-latest traffic counts, plus an anticipated — but not specified — annual-growth factor, without taking into account the planned new development, including housing, stores, restaurants, offices and other places where people go and leave. The addition of the apartments, workplaces and commercial amenities normally creates more demand for consumers, and thus more traffic, according to this reasoning.

“The [traffic] study should be updated based on an updated Build Out date and the PFS payment revised accordingly,” Kasbeer wrote.

New traffic figures or projections may mean the developer, Frank DeMarsh and Deltona Retail Holdings LLC, would be responsible for paying a higher “proportionate fair share,” to offset the costs of new road improvements to handle the anticipated increase in traffic resulting from the additional development.

The 2009 study estimated the average daily traffic in and around Deltona Village would be 17,708 trips. The 2010 development agreement between DeMarsh and Deltona set the “proportionate share” of road improvements for which DeMarsh would be billed at $1,912,727. DeMarsh’s attorney, Kim Booker, said her client had already paid more than $8 million in impact fees for developing the land thus far.

“We have an acknowledgment of vested rights,” Booker told the City Commission.

A more recent traffic study commissioned by the City of Deltona put the average daily traffic volume at 24,417 trips.

Ruiz estimated the updated proportionate-fair-share figure for DeMarsh should be approximately $10 million — not the $1.9 million already paid. City Commissioner Dana McCool said the city should be “collecting revenue that is due to us.”

“Those developers are enjoying a pretty sweet ride,” she added.

Booker noted DeMarsh had proposed the additional apartments to reduce the retail-commercial component of Deltona Village, and thus reduce the anticipated traffic volume. In other words, there will less coming to and going from apartments than trips to and from stores, shops, offices and dining places.

City Commissioner Jody Lee Storozuk endorsed the revised project, telling his peers it will yield vital tax dollars for the city and the county.

“It’s time for the commercial base,” he said. “You talk about bringing in more money. There it is.”

Even so, McCool remained critical of not pressing DeMarsh to pay more.

“That $10 million we will never get back,” she said. “This is a sweet deal written on the back of this community.”

Only McCool and Mayor Avila voted against the latest iteration of Deltona Village. Avila said he voted no “because we’re talking about an increase in housing, not restaurants.” The majority in favor of Deltona Village, as presented, included Vice Mayor Anita Bradford and Commissioners Storozuk, Maritza Avila-Vazquez, Tom Burbank and Stephen Colwell.

Portland Industrial Park, which includes the two Amazon super-buildings and two smaller structures that could be warehouses or manufacturing facilities, is adjacent to Deltona Village but is not part of it.