Planning panel says yes to sawmill in rural area

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Planning panel says yes to sawmill in rural area
PHOTO COURTESY VOLUSIA COUNTY<br> COMING SOON? — Pictured is the area along State Road 40 near DeLeon Springs where DBK Ranches Inc. wants to build a sawmill.

A plan to set up a sawmill in DeLeon Springs has won tentative approval from a county board.

The Volusia County Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission has endorsed a request for a special exception for an undeveloped 51-acre parcel along State Road 40 near the intersection with Lake Winona Road. The land, located on the south side of S.R. 40 and across from Volusia Speedway Park, is zoned A-1 (Prime Agriculture). Owned by DBK Ranches Inc., the tract is also bounded on its south and west sides by the Heart Island Conservation Area.

The site of the proposed sawmill is heavily wooded.

“There is a substantial amount of buffering,” Nika Hosseini, an attorney of the law firm of Cobb Cole, told the PLDRC at its Sept. 21 meeting.

If approved by the County Council, the sawmill will cut felled pine trees into boards for pallets. The harvested trees will be delivered to the sawmill site by tractor-trailers entering from S.R. 40. The sawmill will operate 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday.

“The proposed sawmill will not be opposed to the public,” the county planning staff’s report on the project reads. “The applicant stated the plan is to have logging companies bring the trees to the site and then provide pallet boards to local pallet shops. They are trying to keep a percentage of local logging harvests in Central Florida and provide local jobs.”

The property will have some extra environmental safeguards, according to the staff report.

“The subject parcel is heavily treed throughout the property. There are approximately 24.27 acres of wetlands along the east side of the property. The property is located within the Natural Resource Management Area (NRMA); therefore, a 50-foot wetland buffer will be required around the wetlands. The east side of the property is within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 100-year floodplain. … All sawmill activities are proposed to be located outside of the floodplain and the wetlands.”

A drainage swale will be along the driveway, and there will be two stormwater ponds on the property.

The planning report further notes the site is “also located within the Florida Wildlife Corridor (FWC).”

As for development, there are two structures planned on the property at the outset. One is an office, and the other is a pole barn. There may be additional buildings if the sawmill’s business expands. The sawmill will create about seven jobs at its beginning, and that may increase to 15, according to a statement included in the planning report.

Amy Munizzi, president of the DeLeon Springs Community Association, asked the PLDRC to support the proposed sawmill and the request for the special exception.

“We’re in favor of this project because it does provide a number of good jobs. There’s already logging going on,” she said. “There’s agriculture around it. It does fit into the area.”

The PLDRC voted 6-0 for the special exception and forwarded its recommendation to the County Council. Commissioner Jeff Bender was absent.

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Born in Virginia, Al spent his youth in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, and first moved to DeLand in 1969. He graduated from Stetson University in 1971, and returned to West Volusia in 1985. Al began working for The Beacon as a stringer in 1999, contributing articles on county and municipal government and, when he left his job as the one-man news department at Radio Station WXVQ, began working at The Beacon full time.

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