- April 19, 2024
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About 100 residents came out to Temple Beth-El at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 31, to talk about their problems with the Ormond Central development. Photo by Jarleene Almenas.
A map of the Ormond Central Development.
Ormond Central will be located on the corner lot of S. Old Kings Road and Granada Boulevard. The current building will be demolished. Photo by Jarleene Almenas.
Paul Holub and Lewis Heaster discuss the plans for Ormond Central during the neighborhood meeting held at Temple Beth-El on Wednesday, Aug. 31. Photo by Jarleene Almenas.
About 100 concerned residents attended a neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 31, regarding a new development proposed for Granada Boulevard.
The project, named Ormond Central, is planned to be located across the street from the Reflections Village community on the corner of South Old Kings Road and Granada Boulevard.
Currently, the site is zoned for Boulevard Zoning District, which is meant to preserve wooded areas near main roads.
The plans for the development include a mid-size retail space, two restaurants and a gas station — but the gas station would be contingent on the city changing the zoning to Planned Business Development.
Ormond Central will be developed by Lewis Heaster and Paul Holub, both longtime investors in the area, who plan to demolish the old gym building on the lot.
The purpose of the neighborhood meeting, held at Temple Beth-El, was to get feedback from the residents living nearby. This was a preliminary step before presenting the development to the city’s Planning Board.
“A lot of the things they typically would have a concern with, we’ve put in place,” Holub said, referring to the plans to build privacy walls and build on only 55,000 square feet of the land instead of the 77,000 square feet that could be possible if the zoning is changed.
Still, the majority of the residents were troubled over how the development will affect traffic in their neighborhoods and the possibility of large trucks on Old Kings Road.
“Keep all your traffic within your development,” said Joe Jaynes, president of the Reflections Village Homeowners Association.
He presented Heaster and Holub with a list of recommendations the association had come up — compromises on the development’s impact on their community, which included eliminating the gas station from the plans.
This was something many of the residents in attendance favored. But Holub said getting rid of the gas station in the plans wouldn’t settle the residents’ concerns.
“I don’t think that’s the cure for the neighborhood,” Holub said. “They’d really like to see nothing. [That] would be their first choice. And then from there, you know there’s several levels before you get to something that might be acceptable.”
Werner Kruck, one of the residents in attendance, stood up during the meeting and said the developers were not making concessions, and that instead, the citizens were being asked to.
“I don’t think you’ve done a really good job persuading people that you’ve understood the intent of the original zoning and the concerns of the people in Ormond Beach,” Kruck said. “I don’t think you’re going to get a whole lot of support the way you’re going.”
Toward the end of the meeting, residents slowly started leaving, some saying their concerns weren’t being understood and that they felt they needed to go straight to the City Commission.
The plans for Ormond Central will be discussed at the Planning Board meeting on Oct. 12. If approved, the plans could arrive to the City Commission as early as November. Holub and Heaster hope to break ground in 2018.
The project has been in the works for a year, but this was the first time it was formally presented to the public.
“I’m glad that we finally got here and were able to have a chance to talk to a lot of different people and hear their concerns — a lot of concerns we didn’t know about,” Heaster said.
As for whether the gas station will remain in the plans, Heaster said it’s something to discuss with city staff and the rest of the professionals on the project.
“I think it’s good because we can work with them, they can work with us, and we can hopefully come to a good conclusion,” he said.
