Vote on annexation may be coming up
Editor’s note: This is Part I of a two-part series examining annexation of Spring Hill into DeLand. The second part will run in the Jan. 4-10 edition of The West Volusia Beacon.
Would Spring Hill thrive in the City of DeLand? Would another vote for annexation succeed?
Tentative first steps to address those questions have been taken, employing the first thing any political measure in modern times must have: a poll.
Stetson University’s Center for Public Opinion Research, in operation since October 2022, recently released the results of a poll about annexation of Spring Hill into DeLand. A total of 352 residents of both DeLand and Spring Hill participated in the survey.
While more people supported annexation than opposed it, at 40 percent and 31 percent, respectively, there’s another big takeaway, Dr. Steven Smallpage, director of the center, said.
“There’s not a lot of entrenched yeses or nos in any of the categories, like we would typically see in a more polarizing issue,” Smallpage said. “There seems to be a lot of people that are truly in the middle that are waiting for more information or truly are unsure.”
That represents an opportunity, Stetson’s Director of Community Engagement Kevin Winchell said. Winchell worked closely with the polling researchers, Smallpage and Liam Leider.
“There’s a need for more specific relevant information about very specific topics,” Winchell said. “There are a lot of persuadables.”
In 2002, a vote on annexation of Spring Hill became very political and quite contentious, according to residents and news reports at the time. But, right now, what the data shows is that attitudes toward annexation have yet to crystalize for many people, Smallpage said.
“I’m not saying that the data shows that people are conflicted,” Smallpage said. “They literally just do not know one way or the other.”
The next step is probably a feasibility study by the City of DeLand, Winchell said. What would it look like for the city to take on the area, and how will it impact residents?
“We need to be able to say, this is how much you can expect your rent, mortgage or tax bill to increase. This is how much you should expect your sewer, water, or trash rates to change,” Winchell said. “We need to help them make an informed decision about whether the juice is worth the squeeze.”
Winchell’s hope is that the required feasibility study and other necessary steps can be taken in time to get an annexation vote on the November 2024 ballot along with the presidential election, when high percentages of residents will be voting.
By the numbers
352
Residents of DeLand and Spring Hill who participated in the poll
40
Percent who supported annexation
31
Percent who did not support annexation
28
Percent who were unsure
30
Percent of respondents who reported not knowing where Spring Hill was located
Understanding the history
Spring Hill is a predominantly African American neighborhood in southwest DeLand that is historically neglected and underserved. Residents of Spring Hill experience much higher rates of poverty than that of DeLand as a whole. According to the latest census data, 41.8 percent of the population of around 1,000 are considered to be living in poverty, and the median household income, at $39,000, is nearly half that of DeLand.
In 2018, a four-part Beacon series examined in-depth the history of the area and the more recent governmental attempts to help the community overcome years of neglect.
Among those mechanisms was annexation.
Although considered part of DeLand since its inception, Spring Hill is mostly in unincorporated Volusia County. Patches of the area are served by the City of DeLand, and others by the county government.
Although the different agencies work together, the effect can be disjointed — one side of the street could call 911 and have the DeLand Police Department respond, while their neighbors across the street will be served by the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
Annexation would mean essential infrastructure improvements, including roads and sewer connections, streamlined governmental services, and perhaps most importantly, representation. Spring Hill residents could vote in city elections, and run for office in city government.
An attempt was made in 2002. But, to make annexation of Spring Hill financially viable for the city, a larger area was targeted. Businesses along Woodland Boulevard, as well as large chunks of southeast DeLand were included. The residents there, primarily white and middle-class, balked at the idea, arguing that annexation would raise their taxes.
A political-action committee, the Coalition Against Annexation, went door-to-door telling Spring Hill residents to vote against the measure. They warned that taxes would go up, and residents would be forced to pay for expensive connections to a municipal sewage system. The City of DeLand then attempted to combat that campaign with its own informational sessions and flyers.
At the Spring Hill voting precinct, residents did narrowly vote yes to annex into the city. At the southeast precinct outside of the community, however, the measure was overwhelmingly voted down.
It was a massive blow to some Spring Hill residents, including Bo Davenport, a former City of DeLand employee who was a community leader in the annexation attempt. In the many different meetings over the years, Davenport repeats a familiar refrain: “When I die, I want my tombstone to read ‘DeLand resident.’”
Kevin Winchell, of Stetson’s Center for Community Engagement, is among those who work closely with Spring Hill leaders.
“One common sentiment expressed by many of the partners with whom we work, especially in greater Spring Hill community, is that annexation would be one way to take a big swing at the systems that perpetuate the cycles of inequity in economic, financial, health, education, to some extent education, transportation, infrastructure, and so many other issues,” Winchell said.
— Read more about the required steps, the timing, and area residents’ views in Part 2 of this story, in The Beacon’s Jan. 4-10 edition.
