VOLUSIA

Complete in Port Orange, where does Williamson Boulevard go next?

Casmira Harrison
casmira.harrison@news-jrnl.com
The southern end of Williamson Boulevard, where these cars are turning left onto Pioneer Trail, has been envisioned to be constructed further south to State Road 44 in New Smyrna Beach. A developer is planning new homes and the city's Utilities Commission has designs to tap that land for a major expansion. [News-Journal/Mark Harper]

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Williamson Boulevard has wound its way from Ormond Beach through Daytona Beach and, over a course of decades, south through Port Orange.

Next up: New Smyrna Beach. But precisely where the road snakes south — and which property owners will set aside land for it — is becoming a more pressing matter as thousands of homes are planned to be built nearby.

Volusia County is ultimately responsible for Williamson, but the road is not on the county's five-year plan, and where the money comes for its estimated cost, at least $15 million, is hazy at best. The road's design will be shaped with input from landowners and developers as they make their plans, and one of the biggest players is the New Smyrna Beach Utilities Commission.

In the latest turn, the Utilities Commission is giving the road's alignment some serious thought as it plots the future of 952 acres it controls just south of Pioneer Trail. Tentative plans for the property include a proposal to spend more than $60 million over the next decade to provide water and electricity for all those new homes.

Why now?

Another key player is developer BG Agency, which wants to build Shell Pointe Colony in proximity with a future Williamson, where a decades-old sod farm could soon be replanted with 745 houses, two shopping villages, a community park and public bike trails. The New Smyrna Beach Planning & Zoning Board recently nudged forward a request by BG Agency to rezone 543 acres of prime agriculture and conservation area to planned unit development where Pioneer Trail brushes against Interstate 95.

The planning commission’s nod came with stipulations, however, including a demand to set aside land for the continuation of Williamson Boulevard. That means BG Agency’s proposal is on hold until the company can show plans for its own slice of the county corridor.

According to BG Agency’s attorney Glenn Storch, the company isn’t yet sure where to direct the county road, since all the available development area connects with Utilities Commission-owned land.

“The problem is,” Storch told utility commissioners at a recent meeting, “no one has asked the (Utilities Commission) to participate in planning for where this alignment should be.”

Utilities commissioners largely agreed it would be a good idea to play an active part in the discussions about the extension, since their acreage begins at Pioneer Trail — where Williamson Boulevard currently ends — and spans to State Road 44, where all county map projections show Williamson is slated to wind up.

“We have heard rumors of meetings between the county and the city talking about this,” said Utilities Commission General Manager William Mitchum, adding that though commissioners weren't invited to them, they invited themselves to a talk last year. “At that meeting it was stated that nobody had money. There was no plan. They hadn’t done a traffic study or anything else,” and it seemed like nothing would be done until 10 or 15 years down the road.

Conditions changed quickly after that meeting, with new catalysts on the horizon that might get progress on the road moving more quickly.

Thousands of homes

The biggest push for a Williamson extension? Plans for thousands of new homes in the area.

A section of Williamson Boulevard through ICI Homes’ 762-acre Woodhaven development was completed in January, and clearing work has begun. Geosam Capital has moved forward on its 1,400-home Coastal Woods project just east of I-95 and more recently BG Agency has inched ahead plans for another 745 homes. While Pioneer Trail connects all three developments to Williamson's southern tip, the traffic triangle is putting pressure on officials to think ahead.

“To leave us out (at this point) would be reckless,” Utilities Commissioner Jack Holcomb said.

Utilities Commissioner Bernadette Britz-Parker agreed, suggesting that utilities staff should be present at any future meetings regarding the corridor.

Britz-Parker also suggested the commission consider hiring an independent contractor to evaluate the utilities staff’s conceptual master plan for the property. The plans seem to have evolved over the past year. A 2016 conceptual map includes plans for the road, but the utilities commission's latest documents exclude Williamson and rearrange other elements.

Those other elements include water and electric operations campuses; a water treatment plant; fleet maintenance hub; wellfield and substation expansions with bigger water storage ponds and tanks planned over the next two years. By 2027, plans include the second half of a reclaimed storm water expansion; installation of solar arrays and power storage units with an undefined price tag; a roughly $17.21 million wastewater treatment expansion; and a $12.4 million reverse osmosis/deep well water plant.

While the elements of the design are largely set, Utilities Commission Director of Engineering Derek Wainscott said the timeline and location where each element will go on the property is more loose.

“This is probably going to be the largest investment the utilities commission is going to make — if we are to go out and execute this plan — in a long time, maybe ever,” Holcomb said. “I think it would be irresponsible of us to take something this big and not properly invest in it. There are a lot of moving pieces here that require us to slow down, make sure we’re asking the right questions, look and vet this thing properly."

'The time has come'

Though development plans are moving forward, Volusia County is not actively looking to revise the Williamson Boulevard alignment study, assistant county engineer Tadd Kasbeer said — at least not until some type of funding is earmarked for it.

Estimates of around $15 million to build the section could fluctuate depending on where the road goes because there are so many wetlands in the area, Kasbeer said.

“Not only do you have to mitigate for the wetland, but then you have to build through that wetland,” Kasbeer said. “If the soils aren’t any good, then you have to pull that soil out, you have to replace it with other soils. There’s just a lot of variables at this point."

Kasbeer said the county really doesn't care where the road meanders so long as it "starts where it is and ends where it’s supposed to. How it gets there through your property, we’ll work with you.”

There are a few places the road won’t be going, however.

Citing a cost of around $1.5 million to move a single transmission line, Wainscott said wherever the road goes, it will have to be west of the Florida Power & Light transmission corridor. That eliminates the possibility of Williamson emerging at the fire station and the Wal-Mart entrance on State Road 44.

And Michael Lopez, a local realtor working with developer Vincent Snowden on Ocean Gate Properties just south of State Road 44 across from Wal-Mart, said under no circumstances will Ocean Gate allow Williamson to travel through Snowden’s land.

“We will never plan it for Williamson Boulevard,” Lopez said to commissioners. “Williamson Boulevard will not be coming through our 180 acres.”

Even with so much up in the air, Storch said talks about what goes into the ground south of Williamson's current terminus need to start happening.

“The bottom line is, the county and the region needs that road,” Storch said. “The time has come to start looking at this and start planning together.”