Ormond Beach residents oppose fuel tank farm

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. — More than 150 residents gathered at the Ormond Beach City Commission meeting Tuesday night to oppose a proposed fuel tank farm and terminal.

According to project plans, the site will contain 16 storage tanks that will hold up to 20.4 million gallons of fuel. Six of the tanks are set to be 40 feet tall.

A proposed Ormond Beach Terminal site drawing listed in Belvedere Terminals' initial air construction permit application, submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on March 2, 2023

“If something happens, we lose our homes, we lose our lives,” Ormond Beach resident Nancy Bates said at the meeting.

Bates was one of the 27 audience members who spoke in opposition to the Ormond Beach Terminal — a proposed petroleum bulk station set to be located at 874 Hull Road.

On Aug. 1, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued a final air construction permit to the company behind the project, Belvedere Terminals Company, LLC. According to the permit, the Ormond Beach Terminal will “primarily consist of multiple truck loading bays, an aboveground tank farm, an engine-driven generator, and fire protection system.”

The terminal will be used to “load gasoline, diesel, ethanol, and biodiesel into trucks” and achieve maximum truck loading of just over 357 million gallons of fuel per year.

Company officials say they are also planning fuel terminal sites in Jacksonville and Ft. Pierce as part of a multi-site fuel distribution system. They said the system will “offer Floridians safer, lower cost and more reliable delivery of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel" and expected the terminal to be operational in 2025.

Any party is able to appeal the air construction permit within 30 days of it being filed — which is what Ormond Beach residents and leaders said they plan to do.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, more than 150 residents gathered to voice their concerns about the fuel terminal. Speakers noted the site’s proximity to the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport, the Ormond Beach Sports Complex, local businesses and Bear Creek Village, a 55-and-older retirement community.

Bates, a resident of Bear Creek Village, said if something were to go wrong at the fuel terminal, her neighborhood would be in the “direct line of fire.”

“If something tragic happens, we lose everything,” she said. “We do not have the luxury of starting over.”

Some residents also talked about their concerns for youth safety.

David Bell, the owner of Amanda’s Dance Center, said the site’s proximity to his children’s dance studio and the youth sports complex is dangerous.

“I find it scary that as the owner of a business that deals with children, I only found out about the fuel terminal being put into our backyard less than 48 hours ago,” he said. “Big tanker trucks, every nine minutes, barreling down the narrow Hull Road, and our children, is a dangerous and possibly deadly combination.”

The dance studio is located adjacent to the proposed fuel terminal site at 873 Hull Road.

Bell said the dance school serves 150 children every week. He also said that on any given Saturday, thousands of children and family members are at the youth sports center.

Residents also brought up environmental hazards — like tank car train derailments, fuel spills and contamination. Robin Magleora, a retired firefighter and Ormond Beach resident, said she knows the issues that can arise from this kind of facility.

“It’s not a matter if an environmental disaster will happen, it’s when,” Magleora said.

After hearing of the proposed fuel terminal, Magleora said she felt compelled to make a Facebook group to bring concerned residents together. The group — Ormond Beach Citizens against the fuel depot — gained more than 600 members in three days.

Group members say they are starting petitions, emailing and calling lawmakers, and banding together to oppose the fuel terminal.

“There is strength in numbers as long as we are all dedicated to a common cause,” said longtime Ormond Beach resident Renaud Bégin. “This is certainly one of the biggest, if not the biggest challenge, Ormond Beach has faced since its founding in 1875.”

In a statement to Spectrum News 13, Belvedere Terminals COO Mike Benedetto said:

“The safety and wellbeing of Ormond Beach residents is our top concern. We are still in the early stages of planning, and we will work with City and State officials — since they maintain public roads — to make any needed improvements around our proposed facility. Additionally, we are already under contract with one of the top fire safety firms in the country and they are designing this facility to meet or exceed all requirements from the American Petroleum Institute and National Fire Protection Association. We never want there to be any danger to our employees on the facility or anyone outside of it, and in the unlikely event that there is an emergency, we will be fully prepared.”

After nearly 90 minutes of public comment about the proposed fuel terminal, Ormond Beach City Commission members also voiced their opposition to the site.

“I’m in favor of opposing this and doing whatever we can to stop this,” Zone 3 City Commissioner Susan Persis said.

The Commission unanimously passed three motions to send the following letters:

A letter of opposition to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection regarding the air construction permit

A letter of opposition to the Volusia County Council and all Volusia County legislative delegates, including the governor, regarding the development of the facility

A letter to Belvedere Terminals, LLC expressing their concerns regarding the fuel terminal not being at “an appropriate location”

Several Ormond Beach residents also spoke at Tuesday's Volusia County Council Meeting.

In the closing comments of the meeting, Council Member Troy Kent said he opposed the fuel tank farm’s proposed location.

“Literally thousands of families use this location,” he said. “You have an airport a mile away, and someone is talking about storing 20 million gallons of fuel in this location?”

Kent also raised concerns about traffic — noting that there is no light signal where tanker trucks would be leaving the fuel farm to turn onto U.S. 1.

“I’m not OK with this,” he said. “The people in Ormond don’t want this. My constituents don’t want this.”

Other council members also weighed in on the issue, including County Chair Jeff Brower.

“I hope that this council, if we have an opportunity to have any input on it, that we will stop it in its tracks,” he said.

While the addresses of nearby homes and businesses are in Ormond Beach, the fuel terminal’s proposed site is in unincorporated Volusia County.

Clay Ervin, the director of Growth and Natural Resource Management, said the property has split zoning, with the majority of the site falling under heavy industrial zoning.

“We’re looking into it because we have not seen any final documentation,” Ervin said at the meeting. “If it is a use that is allowed by right, it is a final site plan process that would be reviewed and approved by the development review committee.”

County Attorney Michael Dyer said that because the land “is a principal permitted use, it doesn’t require action by the Council to exist.”

“They might have a right to it, but I also have to consider all the neighbors around there that also have a right to be safe in their homes,” Brower said. “I want to know how it got here and where it’s going. We all need more information.”

The Council agreed to hold a special meeting about the fuel terminal on Aug. 23, at 5:30 pm. The meeting will be held in the County Council Chambers located on the second floor of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center, located at 123 W. Indiana Ave. in DeLand.

Officials said the public is welcome to attend and the meeting will be livestreamed.

Some Ormond Beach residents say the momentum from both city and county meetings has brought them hope.

“I’m thankful that so many attended the meeting, thankful that the commissioners agreed to hear us, and thankful that they decided unanimously to do what they can to stop the fuel terminal,” said Ormond Beach resident Bonnie Gibert.

“That’s just round one,” she said. “Round two is next.”

AC Final Permit_signed by Phillip Stucky on Scribd