Deltona Village may bring hustle, bustle to southwest

About a decade ago, elected leaders hatched plans for transforming about 1,800 acres along Interstate 4 in southwest Volusia County into a version of Seminole County's Heathrow.

[Mike - Deltona]

Deltona needs to start with the basics first as outlined with a beatification process and more importantly either hiring its own law enforcement or getting the county to do a better job. In seven years I have only seen a patrol car on my street three times. Maybe more law enforcement will help with the basics like speeding on residential streets, parking in the wrong direction on city streets or maybe even adopting some sort of ordinance pertaining to having to maintain your yard. Currently the only thing the city says regarding your lawn is that your weeds can not be over 12 inch in height or something foolish along those lines.

[Mike - Deltona]

If big business is going to move into the area they will more then likely live in the area, the question therefore is would they want to live in the area? Are they looking at that home for sale with the neighbor yard either with no grass or nothing but weeds? Or how about that car parked the wrong direction, why isn’t there a ticket on the windshield? Did you see that car racing down the road, is this a place we want our kids to play outside? Sadly enough we as residents really don’t know how many times we’ve blown the opportunity in attracting big business. Was someone looking at Deltona last week or last month when they decided this isn’t the place they wanted to live.

[Mike - Deltona]

Deltona is a wonderful city with so much potential, but until someone tames the Wild West attitude and we get sheriff into this town who will lay down some laws and more importantly enforce them, nothing is going to change and more then likely get worse. It certainly would be nice to see more law enforcement presences besides on Howland and Graves when there is usually more then one squad.

[Nicole]

I don't think that the Sheriff's Office is doing such a bad job in Deltona. I'm sure they could use more resources but still, I'm against the idea of Deltona getting it's own police department. I say just put more money into the Sheriff's Office.

I am also against Deltona turning into Lake Mary... all I care about is having basic retail stores and maybe getting a Taco Bell or a Checkers around here. Also the movie theatre would be nice. A scaled down Orange City is fine with me.

[Deltona Resident]

I don't think it has to be like Heathrow (and I don't think it would fit into the culture that is currently in place here), but I do think Deltona needs serious commercial and economic development. It's too late to back down. When 80,000+ people live in an area... it's too late to complain about development. Development already happened.

The city desperately needs to widen roads, especially Doyle/Debary through Enterprise. They are already building more houses on this road and it is already WAY overcrowded. The city also needs to focus on beautification. There are some shameful yards on main roads around here. It needs to be cleaned up.

The park on the waterfront would be a FANTASTIC place to start. Deltona has so much wonderful potential. It's in a very convenient location, it has land available, people around to use the services, a waterfront location, and plenty of people who leave and take the workforce in the area TO Lake Mary, Heathrow, and Orlando. And it is STILL very affordable to buy a nice home here. The schools are not bad (well, I'm not terribly thrilled with the high schools and the middle schools are iffy). But we definitely need to attract a wealthier resident base. Deltona needs some balance.

[Susan]

If Deltona is going to attract wealthier residents we need something to offer besides a handful of grocery stores and gas stations. Then again, drive around the city would you build a million dollar home next door or across the street from someone who doesn’t care about their property? There are still people with blue tarps or bandage jobs on their roofs from three years ago, cars parked in the front yards, plywood on windows (I guess for the next hurricane), trash cans left at the road days after pickup, landscape over grown and yards that at best could be called weed fields. Please understand that this is NOT the majority of the residents, but why should I work hard at keeping my little corner of the world looking nice only to have my hard work and money wasted with one of the above mentioned problem.“One bad apple can destroy the bunch” someone with authority needs to be addressing the bad apples. Deltona unfortunately is like some peoples bedrooms, dirty things on the floor and the bed isn’t made and you have that one wall that still isn’t paint. But that’s not a problem, you just sleep their and you can always close the door. We can’t close the door on a city, little pride people.

[Deltona Resident]

I completely agree Susan. We need stuff to do here. It's really quite ridiculous that there is nothing at all to do here besides go to Walmart or Target. Oh, that's right. Those are in Orange City.... not Deltona. The city really needs to be focusing on building a center for socializing. There is all that land around City Hall and DBCC across from the library. Why isn't any of that developed into a mall or something? We don't need anymore seedy strip malls with pizza places and banks. We need NICE stores and NICE development.

[Mike - Deltona]

Nicole – I agree that the sheriffs department isn’t doing a bad job. But there is always room for improvement and maybe extra funding would help. However hopefully you’ll agree that there is some sense of security and piece of mind seeing a squad car drive past your house more then three times in seven years. Not to mention enforcing the basics of laws like parking, speeding or blocking sidewalks just might show the general public that the laws/rules really do mean something. It’s the basic question, who’s running the zoo, the zoo keeper or the animals?

You don’t know how disappointed I was to see an AMSCOT built on Howland. Any person who travels a great deal knows that once you start seeing check cashing business and pawn shops you’re in a bad part of town, what’s next strip clubs?

[Mike - Deltona]

Deltona unfortunately matured so quickly that it never had a chance to decide what it wanted to be when it grew up nor did it ever learn any morals or values. So now we have this grown adult who can’t help what he has become who has no education, no manners and has decided one day that it wants to change his image and move to the other side of tracks and become somebody. Let’s take the next few years and go back to the basics, if you build the proper foundation they will come

[No Police]

You don't want your own Police Department trust me. Down here in south Florida, Police Departments are constantly merging with the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office does a much better job than our PD did. Not to mention our city has about 65,000 people and we paid about 30 million dollars a year to have our own Police Department. Our PD was going out with 12 Officers a night. After the Sheriff took over, we now pay 12 million a year and go out with 25 officers a night. It's a been a big difference. If Deltona started up their own PD your looking at million for start-up cost. Take it from us down here, you want to keep the Sheriff contract. Good luck.

[No Police]

Is getting their own PD something the city has talked about. I was just up there and spoke to numerous city leaders and Sheriff's Deputies and they said that was never going to happen.

[average joe]

How they are calling it Deltona Village?Wasn't it called the activity center before? glad I read it in the paper because I didn't hear about it anywhere in the city.

No wonder residents can't keep track of what happens in the city, no one tells us.

[sarah 75]

Mike - Deltona wrote:

Nicole – I agree that the sheriffs department isn’t doing a bad job. But there is always room for improvement and maybe extra funding would help. However hopefully you’ll agree that there is some sense of security and piece of mind seeing a squad car drive past your house more then three times in seven years. Not to mention enforcing the basics of laws like parking, speeding or blocking sidewalks just might show the general public that the laws/rules really do mean something. It’s the basic question, who’s running the zoo, the zoo keeper or the animals?

You don’t know how disappointed I was to see an AMSCOT built on Howland. Any person who travels a great deal knows that once you start seeing check cashing business and pawn shops you’re in a bad part of town, what’s next strip clubs?

I agree with you on the Amscot thing, my husband and I watched that building go up hoping it would be something awesome, and were SO disappointed that it was a cash checking place! You might as well put up a sign that says "YOU ARE IN THE HOOD." My husband and I have a few ideas for Howland. Too bad we don't have capital. This is my idea for Howland near the high school...a Chuck E Cheese, a family restaurant (maybe a Dennys?), a local dentist (I'm sick of driving to Orlando to go to the dentist!) more pediatricians, a coffee shop that has real chairs, not just a drive thru. What we don't need: more gas stations, more McDonalds, more cash checking places, more pizza places.

[DeltonaVoter]

I have lived here since 1974. I graduated from DeLand High School in 1984 which was less overcrowded then then Deltona High is now.
Believe it or not every resident who has lived here has managed to find a grocery store or mall whenever we needed them. What we need now is better jobs then retail and a new energy policy that encourages more people to go solar and promote alternative energy. The mayor is even researching PV for city hall. That is like having an energy coupon on your roof, and will save you more money every month then Rubio's tax scheme.
A world class science/center in the showcase would be great for our kids and bring in tourist dollars. How about having the world's largest solar farm on S.R. 415 or would you rather have a pizza joint and more sprawl??
Think, it's patriotic
www.deltonavotes.org

[dtona res]

stop the insanity,it's time for a moratorium on any more building,be it commercial or residential.hasn't anybody noticed all the for sale signs on nearly every street.i say no more clearing lots until these for sale signs on nearly new homes are gone.

[Sarah 75]

DeltonaVoter wrote:

I have lived here since 1974. I graduated from DeLand High School in 1984 which was less overcrowded then then Deltona High is now.
Believe it or not every resident who has lived here has managed to find a grocery store or mall whenever we needed them. What we need now is better jobs then retail and a new energy policy that encourages more people to go solar and promote alternative energy. The mayor is even researching PV for city hall. That is like having an energy coupon on your roof, and will save you more money every month then Rubio's tax scheme.
A world class science/center in the showcase would be great for our kids and bring in tourist dollars. How about having the world's largest solar farm on S.R. 415 or would you rather have a pizza joint and more sprawl??
Think, it's patriotic
www.deltonavotes.org

You are absolutely right, better jobs besides service is key. I remember in the past one of the council members was talking about a Florida Hospital in Deltona. What ever happened to that?

[average joe]

Sarah 75 wrote:

<quoted text>

You are absolutely right, better jobs besides service is key. I remember in the past one of the council members was talking about a Florida Hospital in Deltona. What ever happened to that?

Like other things brought up at commission meetings we never heard another word about it. I hear that Florida Hospital may put a small clinic of some sort out on Howland Blvd but that was from a friend who works at OC hospital.

[Jon]

Well MIKE! You have no idea about law enforcement in the area, until you become that person who puts a bullet proof vest on each day! How can the Sheriff's Office put a deputy on every street, when they only have six patroling the city at any given time. MONEY!!!!! Which the city of Deltona has none! Until the city is willing to pay for more law enforcment nothing can be done! People voted for this and now they have it! I hope its all worth saving a few hundred dollars on your house each year! GET A CLUE BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH!