BY WENDY ANDERSON AND TRACEY VONDRA

If you missed the Feb. 11 Volusia County Council meeting, here’s a quick rundown:

The meeting kicked off with a grueling two-hour-and-10-minute PowerPoint presentation by the county engineer and staff. The presentation covered the basics of stormwater management — again. County Council members and the public in attendance have already sat through this exact same presentation multiple times in the past few months. It’s repetitive, boring, and frankly, unnecessary. Meanwhile, citizens whose lives have been devastated by flooding sat in waiting, hoping to have their three minutes to plead with the council to act.

The most frustrating part was watching council members ask questions like, “Will this make all the water go away?” all while pretending that they care and are eager to help.

The agenda included three items, two of which focused on using ordinance language to make low-impact development either voluntary, hybrid (part voluntary, part mandatory), or mandatory.

Low-impact development incorporates green infrastructure like drought-resistant landscaping, permeable pavement, and bioswales into development plans. Let’s set the record straight: It’s not more expensive for developers. In fact, some of us have pored through many cost-benefit analyses, and the data proves otherwise.

The issue is that developers may have to rethink their usual practices and acknowledge the reality of climate change — especially if it means embracing “green” initiatives. The irony is that many homeowners, whose properties are flooded, don’t care about the political implications of low-impact development — they just want solutions. The benefits of LID go beyond water management; green spaces enhance the beauty of any area, making it an obvious choice.

During the meeting, the Volusia County Environment and Natural Resources Advisory Committee did a lot of legwork in crafting these ordinances, but Chair Ginger Adair missed an opportunity to call out a council member who claimed that his research on the EPA website showed LID only worsens flooding. That’s simply false. Instead of providing data to counter this claim, Adair offered a vague response about the uniqueness of each project without directly contradicting him.

The flooding we’re seeing today is the result of both increased rainfall and the county’s failure to take action years ago. The council seems to think that if enforcing LID on future developments won’t magically solve the flooding caused by years of bad practices, then it’s not worth doing.

That’s absurd. If we’d required developers to use water infiltration practices a decade ago, it’s likely we wouldn’t be facing these flooding issues today. That’s a fact.

As for County Council Member Don Dempsey’s claim that developers will just go elsewhere if forced to comply with LID, good riddance. If they don’t see Volusia County as a treasure worth protecting, let them leave. This county is a gem, and it will grow — but we need to grow thoughtfully, with a longterm perspective. The time to act is now.

The meeting ended with all but County Chair Jeff Brower voting to make these ordinances voluntary. The term “voluntary ordinance” is an oxymoron, and this decision and that entire meeting were a waste of time and resources. Hopefully, people will pay attention to these issues when they go to the polls. Protect Volusia County!

— Wendy Anderson is a professor of environmental science at Stetson University. Tracey Vondra is a Stetson University environmental sciences student.