DeLand's future will allow growth while preserving historical resources and natural areas, encouraging both new development and redevelopment in the core city area (Greater DeLand Area), establishing mixed use centers, supporting alternative modes of transportation and providing a diverse and strong economy that will result in a more livable and sustainable community.
Public Participation & Community Input
In 2009, the City of DeLand Planning Board and City Commission jointly held four smart growth workshops, to develop a draft of the 2050 Vision for the DeLand area. During the 2009 workshops, it was decided to use the Smart Growth principles as the foundation of the DeLand 2050 Plan. The principles of Smart Growth were used in combination with the elements of the Smart Growth Initiative of Volusia County, as well as sustainability concepts in the development of the draft DeLand 2050 Vision.
The City Commission asked that the draft of the DeLand 2050 Vision be presented to the community to seek their input. The City visioning process asked what kind of city its citizens would like to see in 2050 and how sustainability can be part of that vision. The Commission wished to include input from residents living in the unincorporated portion of the City water and sewer service area; therefore, the County residents were invited to participate in the public participation process as well.
The public participation program included a schedule of six workshops held throughout the DeLand area over a two month period. A web page was created to allow widespread public review of relevant materials and the completion of an online survey to provide their input if they could not attend one of the workshops. Citizens also sent comments via email directly to staff or through the question and answer program on the City's web page. Any email that was received was incorporated into the final set of comments and included in the presentation of the results of the community input. The results of the public participation program are presented in the "Vision for the City of DeLand, Summary Report for Public Involvement October - November 2010." This report is located on the City's Planning web page.
Five Major Themes
The public presentations and subsequent completed surveys provided the City with valuable insight as to how the community would like to see the City grow in the future. There were five major themes that emerged through the process:
There was a clear endorsement of the smart growth principles used to develop the draft of DeLand 2050 and the City should continue the DeLand 2050 project with the smart growth principles as the foundation.
Growth should be focused in already developed areas and the core portion of the City. Some of these growth areas will be suitable for higher intensity development.
The areas outside the growth areas, for the most part, should be reserved for environmental protection, open space, and recreation; or maintain existing low-density land use patterns, with the exception of a possible transit oriented development near the train station.
There will be a need for other modes of transportation to service the area other than cars, as more people move into the area and to make efficient use of SunRail.
Create and/or preserve a sense-of-place through urban design standards, in particular for City Gateway Corridors.
Having all this in a format using maps, policies and guidelines which can be used to guide future development in and around the City, should prove beneficial to the public in understanding the direction in which the Commission is aiming. The vision is not part of the Comprehensive Plan, but is a stand alone document that was adopted by the Commission, to be used as a tool when reviewing development proposals or capital improvement projects, similar to the Strategic Plan.
The City Commission and Planning Board are the "Vision Coordination Team". The Vision Coordination Team is responsible for the development of the City's Vision for 2050.
DeLand 2050 Report
Because it can take years to successfully implement a plan or vision in order for it to be successful, the City took this opportunity to look ahead to 2050. This report presents this vision.