Volusia County OK's Half-Cent Sales Tax Project List

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DeLand, FL - The Volusia County Council approves a list of projects that will become effective if and when the public approves a new half-cent sales tax.

And throughout its proposed 20-year lifespan, that sales tax could generate a total of $840 million at an estimated $42 million a year, earmarked for one focus, infrastructure.

Public works staff with the county used current traffic and growth trends as well as forecasts and existing water quality analysis data to create this list of projects to present before the council.

That list contains county projects from both the east and west areas, showing a total cost estimate of over $762 million, which is almost 91% of the estimated $840 million they expect to earn from the proposed half-cent sales tax.

The list however, does not contain city projects, only county.

The number of projects is expected to grow once all 16 cities within Volusia County submit the projects they want covered by that tax.

Some of the projects that are at the top of the priority list for the county include a complete rework of some major roads around the area.

The top focus when it comes to east Volusia road projects, according to Public Works, are Williamson Boulevard and LPGA Boulevard.

Williamson is planned to be widened from a two-lane road to a four-lane road between Stickland Range and Hand Avenue. LPGA could see a widening project too, going from two lanes to six between Tymber Creek and the I-95 Interchange.

Howland Boulevard could see treatment similar to Williamson, with the addition of two more lanes between Providence to Courtland.

Water projects and flood mitigation projects are also part of the extensive list.

Voters have a small window when it comes to approving or denying the implementation of the new tax, with mail-in ballots due in just about three months (May 21st).

At their meeting today (February 19th), the Volusia County Council also agreed to give the city of DeLand $500,000 to cover the rest of the expenses related to their emergency shelter project.

The DeLand City Commission agreed to make that request around the beginning of this month (February 4th).