NEWS

Port Orange's plans for Yorktowne extension in legal limbo

Casmira Harrison
casmira.harrison@news-jrnl.com
Yorktowne Boulevard's northern end stops here at Hidden Lake Drive, a residential road where Horizon Elementary School children walk to school. The city wants to extend the road around the Hidden Lake subdivision to Willow Run Boulevard, but a group of residents filed a legal challenge against the project's permit. [News-Journal/Casmira Harrison]

PORT ORANGE — An administrative law judge is weighing whether the city will be allowed to extend Yorktowne Boulevard north to Willow Run Boulevard.

Judge Francine Ffolks heard from Port Orange and residents at a recent hearing to determine whether the St. Johns River Water Management District erred in issuing a permit to the city to build the estimated $2.5 million, 1,500-foot road. A ruling isn't expected for another month.

The city has been planning the segment of the extension for more than a year, but larger plans to connect Yorktowne directly to Willow Run have been in the works since at least 2006.

Right now, Yorktowne Boulevard wraps around the Altamira Shopping Village from Taylor Road, crosses Dunlawton heading north to a dead-end at Hidden Lake Drive, where Canadian-based developer Geosam Capital is developing 64 duplexes in Cornerstone Grove. The city believes a full extension of Yorktowne would eventually help redirect some traffic away from the congested Dunlawton Avenue/Interstate 95 interchange.

But nearby residents are fighting the road extension, claiming the roadway, which leads partially through wetlands, would cause more flooding, adversely impacting their quality of life. They argue it will further stress the Spruce Creek water basin and, since it is only a segment of the full extension, would still only end in front of Cornerstone Grove, with no guarantee a full extension would ever be built.

"The city is footing the bill for their driveway," said Derek LaMontagne, a Port Orange Environmental Advisory Board member.

He, along with the Sweetwater Coalition of Volusia County, a group of more than 100 residents — most from nearby neighborhoods, but some from other areas of the county — filed a legal challenge with the state to stop the project.

"I think we have a decent chance," LaMontagne said.

But some city officials criticized the legal challenge, with one saying it's a "form of harassing the taxpayers and the municipality." They say engineers have already addressed the potential flooding concerns and other issues.

A 'dangerous' outlet

City Manager Jake Johansson said a fully built-out Yorktowne Boulevard could lure Dunlawton Avenue drivers away from the congested interchange, but he mainly wants it to get drivers off a local residential street.

"There's a lot of people who use that Hidden Lake Drive as an outlet and it's dangerous," Johansson said recently. "There's kids there, there's kids walking to school. It scares me, so I really want the Yorktowne extension to come to fruition so I can get people off that residential street."

Nearby landholders are part of a fair-share agreement to fund the current segment under challenge, city officials said.

In an agreement with Port Orange, Geosam dedicated land for the extension of Yorktowne. That agreement was a holdover from previous plans for their 13-acre Cornerstone Grove property from an earlier planned development that never got completed. Geosam bought the land and tweaked the plans, and kept the agreement to dedicate the right-of-way for the city's Yorktowne project.

The city hopes to finish up the Yorktowne extension with a second segment to the north that has yet to be funded. It's on the former Nautica Lakes development site, which sits just northeast of where Williamson crosses over the interstate. That 40-acre parcel owned by NLA Holdings LLC, of New Jersey, has recently been rezoned to mixed-use center, but no specific plans have been submitted to the city.

'Spurious' action?

In January, the Sweetwater Coalition filed a petition against the storm water permit issued by the St. Johns district.

At a recent City Council meeting, City Attorney Margaret Roberts called the legal challenge a frivolous waste of time and resources.

Roberts said the coalition submitted more than 100 exhibits requiring a response from city attorneys, even though she said the petitioners don't have a "relevant basis" for challenge.

"It appears the petitioner is seeking to delay the Yorktowne project," Roberts said. "We clearly believe it's an abuse of the process."

At the June 19 meeting, the council approved Roberts' request for $20,000, part of which she said would go toward hiring Jacksonville law firm Lewis, Longman & Walker, PA, to help with the city's defense.

"This is the most spurious action I've ever seen in the history of my work," Roberts said.

Councilman Scott Stiltner said the city should seek reimbursement for its legal costs, while Mayor Don Burnette also joined in the criticism.

"It's easy to do things when you think you're playing with other people's money," Burnette said.

Robert Elton, the Ormond Beach attorney representing the coalition, said he thinks the Yorktowne extension is unneeded, which is why the filed the challenge in the first place. He said just because the city disagrees with the legal complaint does not make the action spurious.

LaMontagne said he believes the city attorney "misrepresented what we are doing." He said he finds the comments offensive and said if the item had been more prominently placed on the agenda, he would have been there to defend the action.

"She's totally wrong," LaMontagne said on Friday. "It's just a smear tactic."