Written by friend-of-the-blog Devon Morris, this article marks the first guest piece on the site. A momentous occasion, to be sure! I will take this opportunity to note that my hosting of this essay does not necessarily constitute my endorsement of the claims therein — but, it is exceedingly unlikely that I would post something that I strongly disagree with. So do with that what you may.
– August Becoming Whatever

A recent WKMG Orlando news report on the growing number of vacant storefronts, and
its accompanying response in the West Volusia Beacon (and the following WKMG piece…), have created quite the stir about whether Downtown DeLand is dying or completely fine. It’s neither.

Downtowns are living, breathing things. Like any organism, they are always dying and
being reborn. Change is inevitable, and usually positive. It’s the role of the community
and city to create conditions in which it can thrive. But that does not happen by
accident, and success is not guaranteed. Downtowns do fail, and they fail for very
specific reasons. My organization, Walkable Volusia, waded into this debate on social
media and got more engagement from the community than we ever have. People care
about downtown, and there are key ingredients for keeping it humming.

Most critically, Downtown DeLand cannot rely on the seasonality and boom-and-bust cycle of
tourism to sustain itself. We can reduce that reliance by expanding affordable housing
options in the greater Downtown area, something the city has been doing a good job of
as of late. As a resident of the much-maligned DeLand Commons, I can speak for
myself: I spend an ungodly amount of money on Downtown businesses. Functioning
downtowns need year-round customers, and those people need somewhere to live.
More can be done to eliminate burdensome zoning restrictions and absurd parking
mandates that hinder low-impact infill housing.

Relatedly, we need to redevelop our vacant and underutilized parking lots, of which there are
many. Despite what you may have heard, Downtown has too much parking. We have
nine three-hour lots that sit half-full at peak times, and even more available during
business hours, including an almost-always empty parking garage with hundreds of
spots. It is time to repurpose some of these asphalt space-wasters into mixed-use retail
and housing, which will drive down commercial rents, give new businesses an
opportunity to open, and afford residents more and cheaper places to live.

Finally, the city and county need to do more on transit. Our brand-new SunRail station
isn’t being leveraged to the benefit of Downtown because visitors cannot get to Downtown. Initial, short-run usage numbers have been used to justify ending a free set-route circulator, but it was never given a chance to succeed. Leaders need to get comfortable with eschewing instant gratification for long-term success. Getting a circulator running again would not only bring people to our neck of the woods every week; Downtown DeLand residents would also have a feasible commuting option outside the monstrosity that is I-4.

In the same vein, start making our overdue investments in urban trails and bike infrastructure so people have more ways to get around and traffic congestion on Woodland becomes a thing of the past.

All these solutions could be easily implemented and would cost taxpayers next to
nothing. They require only small modifications to our existing zoning and land use
regulations that are already accepted as industry-standard by planners worldwide and
modest investments in multimodal transit that might cost us each a penny or two a day.

They would represent a generational shift in how we incubate our most critical
neighborhood. They might even keep your kid from moving away, encourage Stetson
students to stay, or give someone an opportunity to open the next great local staple.

The alternative could be very bad. The death of Downtown DeLand may have been
exaggerated, but it isn’t as remote a possibility as some would have you believe. It will
require work, and political will, and the collaboration of everyone who loves our
community – but it’s possible, and it must happen.