If the Volusia County Council approves the request, more west-side people will gain yet another place to store old furniture, keepsakes, business or personal records, or other items they do not wish to discard — in short, extra stuff. 

“The applicant proposes a 92,016-square-foot, three-floor facility with 720 interior storage unit spaces,” the county planning staff’s report notes.

Despite some misgivings about the flow of traffic into and away from the site, the county Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission has endorsed an Altamonte Springs firm’s request to develop a parcel where State Road 472 connects with South Woodland Boulevard, south of DeLand. Klima Weeks Civil Engineering Inc., of Altamonte Springs, is asking the county to grant a special exception for the property, whose zoning is B-4, or General Commercial.

“Staff did have some concerns … about safe ingress and egress,” Kristen Ray, a county planner, said.

To work out the problems, the commission agreed the applicant must “meet with the Florida Department of Transportation and county Traffic Engineering.”

“As currently designed, Volusia County Traffic Engineering is concerned that the speed differential between slow-moving trucks accessing the development and general traffic will be a safety concern along a curved ramp,” the planning staff’s report reads. “There is an additional safety concern addressing the development due to a short weaving distance. Coordination with the Florida Department of Transportation would be required for a driveway access permit. Access will be addressed by the County Traffic Engineer during the first site plan process to ensure that the project will not generate undue traffic congestion.”

Planners estimate the Stor-All will generate about 133 trips per day.

Confident the possible problems can be resolved, the PLDRC Sept. 21 voted unanimously for the project. The matter will be submitted to the County Council for a final decision.

Selby Weeks, the engineer for the Stor-All, agreed further attention will be given to the access issue.

“We are in the process of getting together with DOT,” he told the PLDRC.

The intended site of the three-story storage structure is a 3.84-acre plot on the east side of the ramp in the west-to-north curve of the intersection of State Road 472 and U.S. Highway 17-92. At the north end of that curve, according to the engineering drawings, will be the access point for Stor-All. The business’s address appears in the planning documents as 2995 S. Woodland Blvd., DeLand.

Commissioner Stony Sixma said traffic safety is his biggest issue.

“I travel that road every day, and people are looking at merging traffic. It can be chaotic,” he added.

The planners’ report on the Stor-All request for the special exception notes the following:

“The project area is within the county’s thoroughfare overlay zone and the City of DeLand’s Redevelopment Gateway District. The city’s gateway district and thoroughfare overlay require additional standards for access, setbacks, parking, landscaping, and signage. The site is bounded by an undeveloped parcel to the east. To the south is the SR-472 off-ramp and an undeveloped parcel. To the west is the extension of the SR-472 off ramp, Woodland Boulevard, and a business that sells landscaping materials. To the north is the city of DeLand’s jurisdiction, a property owned by an electrical utility, a power line easement, and a business that sells sheds.”

Stor-All is to be open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. seven days a week. The office will be open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. every day, the report notes. The storage facility will have at least 12 parking spaces.

Among the conditions for the special exception are prohibitions against servicing such items as vehicles, boats, trailers or lawn mowers, as well as forbidding the storage of watercraft. Garage sales will not be allowed on the site.

Another condition is that the Stor-All property have a 35-foot buffer along U.S. 17-92 and S.R. 472.

The PLDRC voted 6-0 to recommend the County Council approve the request for the special exception for Stor-All. Commissioner Jeff Bender was absent.