Volusia to challenge S. Putnam Wal-Mart

The Volusia County Council has called for legal action against its counterpart in Putnam County, voting to challenge an industrial planned unit development (PUD) in South Putnam.

Putnam County commissioners approved on Dec. 20 a 235-acre PUD on Clifton Road that would allow construction of an 850,000-square-foot Wal-Mart food warehouse and distribution center on former agricultural land. The $40 million business would employ at least 600 in economically depressed South Putnam, company representatives have said.

But Volusia County officials said they’re upset that they weren’t notified in advance. They fear the facility, to be located about a mile north of the county line, will impact Northwest Volusia as well as South Putnam.

“The development is contiguous to Volusia County,” said Volusia County Councilman Dwight Lewis, who represents Northwest Volusia. “There was no intergovernmental coordination. I don’t think there was an environmental study. There was no transportation study done (on U.S. 17) in Volusia.”

Lewis said that by Wal-Mart officials’ own admission, hundreds of trucks would travel U.S. 17 daily, up to 80 percent of them southbound through Seville, Pierson and Barberville.

“Those trucks will pass through school zones for two or three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school,” he said.

Lewis said he also has environmental concerns. The warehouse site is close to the Haw Creek Conservation Area, which Volusia has made efforts to protect, he said.

“In Volusia, this is a low-intensity-use, rural area,” he said. “It’s the same on the Putnam County side of the line. This development would be a high-intensity industrial use.

“The people at the (Dec. 20) meeting said this doesn’t meet the criteria of a development of regional impact. Well, it does. It does affect the whole region.”

Lewis said that although the Volusia County government supports four-laning of U.S. 17, there is no proposed state funding for widening in the next 20 years. Construction of the Wal-Mart warehouse would do nothing to hasten that, he said.

“If this is built you will change the character of Putnam County,” he said. “I don’t want you to change the character of Volusia County.”

Lewis, who introduced the motion to challenge Putnam’s decision, said he would prefer to see the project moved elsewhere in Putnam.

Putnam County Commission Chairwoman Linda Myers said Monday the commission had not been made formally aware of Volusia’s action. It is unfortunate that Volusia County took this track, she said.

“If anything good comes of this, it may be that we’ll have some means to coordinate transportation and other issues better in the future,” she said. “It’s just that there is no forum for us to keep each other informed.”

She said, for example, a large apartment project for agricultural workers was built in Volusia County on the Putnam County line, but Putnam County government was told nothing about it.

If one governmental body takes another to court, they are generally required by law to take part in a conflict resolution process before the dispute goes before a judge. The Volusia County Council’s request for action is in the hands of its attorney. Attorneys for Volusia and Putnam counties could not be reached for comment late Monday.

Clifton Road resident and PUD opponent Mary Stevens said she and her husband, Tom, were pleased by Volusia County’s action.

“We are delighted that Volusia’s County Council has gone to bat for not only Volusia County’s citizens, but for us, Putnam County citizens,” she said in an e-mail to the Palatka Daily News. “How pathetic that our own commission did not have the foresight to thoroughly investigate and consider the negative impact of such a venture in such an inappropriate place.”

Lake Crescent Citizens for Responsible Growth will continue to oppose the PUD, she said.

akrombach@palatkadailynews.com