A proposal to build a self-storage center very close to a busy highway crossing on DeLand’s south side awaits advice from the Florida Department of Transportation.
Stor-All DeLand LLC is seeking Volusia County’s permission to construct a climate-controlled mini-warehouse enclosing some 92,000 square feet on three stories at the northeast end of the intersection of U.S. Highway 17-92 and State Road 472.
“My biggest concern is the ingress and egress,” County Council Member Troy Kent said Dec. 5, as the governing body considered allowing the project on almost 4 acres close to the curve where S.R. 472 merges into the northbound lanes of South Woodland Boulevard. “Who in their right mind approved this? And I don’t want it to come back on us.”
The council ended up tabling the proposal to give the applicant, Selby Weeks, and county planners the opportunity to confer with FDOT traffic experts to refine the concept and perhaps submit possible new safety conditions.
The safety element was also on the mind of Council Member David Santiago.
“That area is so dark, as you’re coming off 17-92,” he said, adding he uses the roads frequently.
Perhaps, Santiago suggested, the council could tell the FDOT “if we want that curve to be more lit at night.”
“I’ve driven that night and day,” he said. “People are flying through that intersection.”
As presented, the Stor-All proposal calls for no extra lighting on the site.
“No proposed illumination was submitted with the plans,” a planning summary noted.
“If you all identify that you want additional lighting, … we can make sure,” county Growth and Resource Management Director Clay Ervin said.
“I’m in favor of denying this and sending the applicant to FDOT,” Santiago said.
The state agency will be involved in the progress of the project’s planning.
“We will be working with the DOT staff,” Ervin assured the council.
Both the county’s planning staff and the Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission endorsed the request to build the Stor-All mini-warehouse.
Approval of the project would come in the form of a special exception granted by the County Council. The property is already zoned B-4, meaning Highway Commercial. A self-storage warehouse is not listed as a permitted use, but the council may give a special exception to allow the storage center to be constructed on the site.
The property where Weeks and his firm, Klima Weeks Civil Engineering Inc., intend to build Stor-All fronts on South Woodland Boulevard and would be accessed from that divided highway. As presented, Weeks’ proposal does not include a deceleration or slowdown lane in the ramp curve from 472 onto Woodland. The speed limit in the merge curve is 45 miles per hour, but vehicles using the ramp commonly exceed that limit.
“I would love to see a decel lane,” Council Member Don Dempsey said.
Customers of the proposed Stor-All storage center may come and go as they please, according to a summary attached to the planning staff’s report and given to the County Council.
“Customer access will be available 24 hours a day, and the office will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week,” the document reads.
Among the conditions approved by the PLDRC for Stor-All is a prohibition of outdoor on-premises sales and “servicing or repair of motor vehicles, watercraft, lawn mowers, and other similar equipment.”
County Chair Jeff Brower recommended — and the council agreed — to send a letter to the FDOT asking its traffic-safety experts to review the proposal and determine if any additional measures are needed to prevent accidents or congestion in front of the mini-warehouse.
“It’s not our responsibility to tell FDOT what to do,” he said.
“Let them figure how to address our concerns,” Council Member Jake Johansson said. “We’re concerned with the speed of traffic.”
The council first voted 4-3 against the request for the special exception for Stor-All. Brower, Dempsey, Kent and Santiago formed the majority, while Vice Chair Danny Robins, Johansson and Council Member Matt Reinhart supported the proposal.
“The applicant has done everything the government has asked him to do,” Robins told his colleagues. “I have a hard time thinking they would act in an unsafe manner.”
Robins moved to table the request, and the council voted 6-1 to do so. Robins was the dissenter.
When the proposal to grant a special exception for Stor-All will return to the County Council for more debate or a final decision is yet to be determined.
