Will Jeff Brower's anti-growth crusade sway voters enough to keep him in office?

On a warm June evening just before sunset, cheers and applause arose from a crowd gathered around a gazebo in a field thick with trees adorned with Spanish moss in DeLeon Springs .

Most of the cheers were for Volusia County Council Chairman Jeff Brower, 69, who had just finished one of his turns at the mic at a candidate forum on his home turf . The topic of his speech? Development and how it's the cause of flooding and other woes in the county.

"I don't think I have ever taken credit for being able to stop overdevelopment in Volusia County," he said. "Honestly, I wish I could. I'm one vote out of seven on a County Council."

Brower and three other candidates will face off in the Aug. 20 primary. If no one wins a majority, the top two vote-getters will face each other in the general election on Nov. 5.

More: Busy county council reporter weighs in on this year's most important local election

More: How to know who to vote for in the Volusia County Council race: Just follow the money.

In some ways, there is a bit of deja vu going on in this year's contest. Brower won in 2020 despite being outspent by his opponent, Deb Denys, who was backed by developers and other business interests. Denys is running again , but this time big businesses and builders are backing Randy Dye, a businessman with no government experience. Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette is the fourth candidate in the race.

Growth is a big issue in this year's election, but there are other things candidates are concerned about. We spent some time with each of them to get a sense of what their top priorities are and what they would focus on if they were chairperson.

Focusing on affordable housing, ambulance services

Burnette, 57, supports "smart growth." He also wants to keep property taxes low and address traffic woes. He is in favor of empowering local businesses and keeping the quality of life high in Volusia County.

Burnette also wants to work on the county's ambulance services, which have faced staffing issues. It has become such a problem that some municipalities have added ambulance services and answer calls outside of their boundaries he said. He's seen it happen in Port Orange.

"That's been a consistent problem for years now," he said.

Burnette is also a big proponent of affordable housing. He was the only candidate to raise the topic as a top priority in an interview with the News-Journal.

"I don't think that we talk about it enough," he said.

He said he wants to see more efforts to help people with home ownership as opposed to renting. That will help people build wealth, he said. He is familiar with housing issues in his work as a senior loan officer.

He's also deeply familiar with the county being a lifelong resident. He graduated from Spruce Creek High School, and he and his wife, Anita, chose to raise their family here. His two sons are in college.

He first won election to the Port Orange City Council in 2010 and was elected mayor in 2016.

It's not uncommon for Burnette to run into someone he knows or talk to a stranger, only to find out they have a mutual friend or acquaintance.

"This is a big small town," he told the News-Journal while he was out canvassing one day.

Burnette has had the help of volunteers who knock on doors for the campaign.

Burnette said as Port Orange mayor, he has forged working relationships with nearly every other mayor in the county. Among his points of pride about Port Orange is its water management system.

"We have the largest reclaimed system in the county," Burnette said. "We treat 6-8 million gallons of water a day and the fact that none of that goes into the Halifax River, that it all goes into our reclaimed system or reclaimed storage, I'm very proud of that."

Deb Denys says the county needs a strong leader

Denys, 70, also seeks to leverage relationships ― not only in matters of managing growth but also in other areas.

She lists job creation, economic growth, the budget and leading with integrity among her top priorities. A Realtor from New Smyrna Beach, she was elected to the County Council in 2012 and served until 2020, and on the Volusia County school board for about four years in the 1990s.

This would be her first time in the chairperson's seat. She would also be the only woman on the Council, but she avoids bringing that up as part of her campaign.

She has said Brower's rhetoric is divisive and he hasn't made much headway on the issues he is vocal about. She said she wants to strengthen the chairperson's position and wants the person who holds it to be welcomed and respected by county partners.

Denys is focusing on fiduciary responsibility in her campaign and wants the Council to host workshops on the budget.

She wants to bring jobs to the county with help from the Commercial Space Industry Opportunity Overlay zone. The county created the district during Denys' time on the council, and it received unanimous support. It allows faster permitting for projects in those industries.

Denys said existing businesses need to expand as the county attracts new ones, including from the Space Coast.

"We know Brevard is coming north with the supply chain. They're out of room, so when those businesses are looking to expand they're coming north," she said, and Volusia County is an easy commute.

The key is leadership, she says. Businesses want to relocate to an area that is politically stable and not where the government "says no to everything."

Denys emphasized her ability to lead and her already-established connections. She is a board member of the Florida Communities Trust, a state-funded program that, among other things, helps communities acquire and protect land.

Denys said she would like to see the county better leverage tax dollars through Volusia Forever and Volusia ECHO by getting more funding from Florida Forever for projects.

Randy Dye brings business acumen, he says

Dye, 64, seeks to bring his experience as a business leader to the Council. His top priorities include effective leadership, sensible growth management, jobs, quality of life, public protection and fiscal conservatism.

Dye is the only one without elected experience, but he has served on the Daytona State College Board of Trustees since Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him in 2019. He views his background as a strength.

Racing and cars have steered much of Dye's life. His father was a car dealership owner, and Dye sold his first car at age 12.

Dye, who grew up in northwest Pennsylvania, owns Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram and Maserati Alfa Romeo of Daytona. He also owns Daniel Dye Racing ― Daniel Dye, his son, is a professional race car driver.

Dye, a DeLand resident, keeps his office at the Dodge dealership in Daytona Beach and its decor is a blend of cars and images of his hero Roberto Clemente, a Hall of Fame outfielder who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and died in a plane crash.

A Clemente quote in large letters overlooks his office: "Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth."

It’s a core value that drives Dye, so much so that he has cards made with the quote to hand out here and there, he said.

In a recent interview at his office with the News-Journal, he met with sales managers and talked about the business issues of the day amid stacks of paper on the desk and a copy of "Automotive News" by his feet.

Dye said he grew his business carefully to be financially responsible, an ethic he plans to bring to the Council. And he still sells cars. He got into the business because he loved working with people and, of course, loved cars.

Dye says the No. 1 priority of the county government is public safety.

While Volusia County is in his opinion "pretty safe" overall, it's becoming more challenging to stay that way with population growth. He said he would like to enhance public safety and training for first responders, including law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical personnel and lifeguards.

"It's impossible to overtrain, to make sure they have the best facilities to simulate conditions that they're going to be in so that we don't only keep our residents safe but we keep the first responders and the police ... all of them safe as well," he said.

Brower focuses on development issues, fuel terminal

Brower, 69, was 3 when his family moved to Florida. A former Volusia County lifeguard, he lives in DeLeon Springs and runs a family farm and business that provides lighting and sound services.

Brower said he spends most of his time with constituents hearing what they have to say and encouraging them to speak at Council meetings.

His top priorities, other than overdevelopment, include reducing taxes, protecting water resources and stopping a proposed fuel distribution terminal that is targeted for a location near Ormond Beach. The state recently set aside $10 million to help potentially lure builder Belvedere Terminals to a different location.

Brower said that tax and water issues are also tied to managing development.

Recently, Brower and the rest of the County Council voted to spend over $4.7 million in Volusia Forever dollars to buy 2,508 acres of environmentally sensitive land within the Indian River Lagoon "blueway." The county expects to get back over $3.2 million when the state buys 2,047 acres.

"Indian River Lagoon is under a lot of stress and we are making progress on it, and this will be a big step for making progress in that," Brower said.

Candidates' views on development

While Brower is the most vocal when it comes to development, his opponents have strong views too and have mentioned impact fees, land preservation and issues regarding the county's Comprehensive Plan and zoning codes.

All of the candidates in the chair's race support increasing the amount of land the county buys for conservation.

Brower wants to overhaul how the county addresses flooding concerns and other development woes. He wants developers to follow low-impact development principles.

Denys voiced support for low-impact development and updating development standards.

Brower says the county should follow the Comprehensive Plan and zoning rules and not allow development where it wasn't planned. Dye said that he is not in favor of allowing any changes to the Comprehensive Plan and zoning.

"I think you have to be extraordinarily careful," Dye said. "I'm not willing to say never because I don't know what might be the reason."

As a mayor, Burnette said he focuses on getting what he can from developers who ask for exceptions to the rules and he always looks at reducing density.

One area that the candidates differ on is impact fees, assessments on developers that are used to pay for infrastructure improvements, like roads, emergency medical services, parks and fire services.

The county adopted new impact fees in late 2022. State law says that impact fees can't be increased more than once every four years , but the law allows some flexibility in restrictions based on demonstration of need.

Brower said he hates impact fees. A different County Council voted in December 2022 to raise fees. Brower wasn't at the meeting.

Brower said growth doesn't pay for itself and impact fees don't help enough. To help with the costs of development, Brower said he wants developers to keep the responsibility for new roads instead of dedicating them to the county to maintain.

Burnette said he's never turned down an impact fee increase. He said he knows the cost gets passed on to homebuyers, but incoming residents should pay more instead of that getting passed on to existing residents.

Denys said the cost of impact fee increases is passed on to homeowners. But she's open to reviewing the issue.

Dye said he doesn't believe impact fee increases are a good solution to funding gaps in infrastructure.

"You'll never get there collecting impact fees. I'm going to tell you who ... the impact fee should be paid to: the people who bought the property before we changed the zoning and made it OK for somebody to mess it up," he said.

Event controversy: Denys left out of Port Orange forum for Volusia County chair candidates

Will that one thing be enough for Brower?

The Aug. 20 primary will show whether Brower's intense focus on stopping overdevelopment will connect with voters.

On that humid evening in June on his home turf in DeLeon Springs, it connected with at least some of the crowd gathered around the gazebo. Brower said the county is following the rules and regulations that are in place, but it's still resulting in flooding and other problems.

"We have to change the way that we develop," he said.

Denys said Brower is using the same campaign rhetoric four years later and nothing is changing. She said nobody wants over-development, but Brower's comments can put off planners and local leaders who might have business before the Council.

"Do you think they're going to be open to working with us and getting somewhere?" she asks. "That's what's got to change. Leadership has to change."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Will Jeff Brower's anti-growth crusade sway voters enough to keep him in office?