VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Volusia County, along with individual cities, are working to find a solution to major flooding issues that have developed over the past few years. 

Many cities and areas within the county experienced unprecedented flooding after hurricanes Ian, Nicole and Milton. 

Milton hit Florida almost a month ago, and some areas are still dealing with flooding and stormwater drainage. 

The owners of the Common Ground Farms in DeLand, John and Pat Joslin, are still pumping out water from their property. 

“I’m constantly watching the weather and they keep saying, well, we’re going in the dry season. I wish it would. But every third day we get a little bit of rain. So far, it hasn’t been enough to make any difference,” John said.

The Joslins are concerned about what this could mean for their farm, now in its 12th season. 

“We’ve had flooding the last three years. First with Ian and Nicole (…) With Ian, it came in from the subdivision to the north, came across the street, down and they pumped it out after the storm. And then with Nicole, it came in from over there, when the low area of there got so full,” John said.

Last year they built a four-foot berm to protect their property from flooding again — but then Hurricane Milton hit. “And this time with the flooding, it came over the top of that four-foot berm. It washed out a section of it. We’ve already had it repaired,” he said.

The Joslins said they’ve spent over $200,000 in repairs due to ongoing flooding.

John also said there is still standing water in all the neighboring properties. “No, that’s not a pond or a lake. Although it’s been that way, he was pretty dry prior to this,” John said.

He said the water is not going down very fast, despite having pumps working constantly. 

“And we were trying to figure out where is all this water coming from? They keep saying, well, it’s not the developments. It had to come out of the developments,” he said.

Reelected Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower said a key goal he wants to accomplish is to put a countywide moratorium on new developments to address flooding.

He plans to bring it forward at the next county council meeting on Nov. 19

“We have to make some changes. I think we have an opportunity to do it. I think the council will respond. I know the public is responding, so I’m optimistic,” Brower said.

While the county can only implement a moratorium on county areas of unincorporated Volusia, cities will need to individually pass separate moratoriums that will apply to each of their cities, separate from a county ruling. 

The city of Edgewater is hosting a city council workshop on Thursday, Nov. 7, with plans to discuss a moratorium on development. 

Many residents are still recovering from Hurricane Milton, along with other storms that had flooded their properties. They are worried another storm could bring water into their homes. 

“I feel like the infrastructure is pretty well shot,” Edgewater resident Donna McDavid said. “I feel like there’s been a lot of things to let go. Have not been maintained over the years. Now we have all this extra development that’s coming in and I think it’s really putting a hardship on what little bit of an infrastructure that we still have left.”

City leaders said a pause on development may be necessary to allow time to address stormwater issues and chronic flooding within certain neighborhoods.  

"The moratorium is going to need to accomplish two things. I think we need to clean up the mess that we have, number one. And number two, we need to safeguard protections for the future, so new developments never put us in this position again," said Edgewater councilwoman Charlotte Gills. 

The city council workshop will take place at 4 p.m.