Volusia County Council Chairman Jeff Brower hopes to reach consensus on a temporary countywide moratorium on housing construction at Tuesday’s County Council meeting, but he may face resistance from fellow council members.
The meeting begins Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the Council Chambers on W. Indiana Ave. 123 in DeLand. The agenda is packed, so it could be a very long night.
Brower spoke about his support for a moratorium at a news conference he hosted outside the Steven C. Henderson Judicial Center in Daytona Beach in October. At the same news conference, District 3 Councilman Danny Robins accused Brower of “political theater.”
Now that the election is over and Brower begins a new term on council, he said he wants to halt new development and implement new restrictions to help address the county’s flooding problems.
“I don’t think we can wait any longer,” Brower said. “We need to take this opportunity to know where the damage was, knowing where the flooding is happening.”
Volusia County Chairman and candidate Jeff Brower will hold a press conference on the steps of the Steven C. Henderson Judicial Center in Daytona Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, to address flooding issues.
If he gets enough support from the podium Tuesday, county staff will write an ordinance to bring back to the County Council for two separate readings, Brower said.
“There will be a lot of negotiations with other council members. I have invited their ideas. We need their ideas. What I don’t want is just a point: ‘No,’ that we are not going to do anything,” Broer said.
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Brower said he has contacted elected officials in the county about the idea. He said he has the support of some Edgewater officials.
There are also several key items on the agenda, including a vote on more than $121 million in infrastructure and mitigation projects related to Hurricane Ian by the county, municipalities and nonprofits, agenda materials show.
More than $67 million comes from grants from the county’s share of Hurricane Ian disaster recovery funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The entities applying for the grants are responsible for the remaining costs.
This article originally appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Brower to implement Volusia development moratorium on Tuesday
