06 Oct 2026 3 min read

SLOW THE GROWTH: WE'VE BEEN ASKING FOR YEARS.

To be perfectly clear, New(s) Smyrna supports the Slow the Growth movement. I want the woods, waterways and character of this place to survive whatever comes next, and I’m tired of residents being expected to adjust every time somebody sells us another enormous development. People organizing against sprawl deserve our support.

Bryon White is making that argument in his run for Volusia County Council District 3. His platform calls for a rural boundary, stronger stormwater rules and making growth pay its own way. Those are proposals I want taken seriously. Before another project gets waved through, we should be asking why it belongs there and who will cover the cost of living with it.

White faces incumbent Danny Robins in the November 3, 2026 election. Only eligible District 3 residents vote in that race. Early voting runs October 19 through October 31, with the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library among the available locations.

There are other people putting this argument in front of voters. A January Slow Growth Volusia forum brought together White and fellow council candidates Wendy Anderson and Mike Poniatowski. The local Sierra Club also scheduled a September event with White and Lisa Martin, the New Smyrna commissioner who voted against the Deering Park Innovation Center rezoning.

Between elections, the New Smyrna Beach Residents’ Coalition works to protect the town’s character, while Dream Green Volusia advocates for connected wildlife habitat and stopping sprawl in the wildlife corridor. White also serves on the board of 1000 Friends of Florida, a statewide growth management organization. These groups have their own missions, but they’re part of a wider push to have some say in what Florida is becoming.

This has been going on for years

Look back through the earlier Farmton plans and the later Deering Park hearings and the concerns start sounding familiar. These were different proceedings, but people kept asking about building outside existing cities, protecting water and how much land we were willing to give up.

2010: County Council members Andy Kelly and Carl Persis voted against the Farmton amendment. Persis argued for revitalizing existing cities instead of creating a new one. The state’s Department of Community Affairs initially found the plan out of compliance, and the Edgewater Citizens Alliance for Responsible Development challenged it.
2011 and 2012: Sierra Club challenged the amended Farmton plan. In January 2012, an administrative law judge recommended finding the amendments in compliance.
2014 through 2018: Sierra Club sued the Army Corps of Engineers and St. Johns River Water Management District over changes to the Farmton Mitigation Bank. A 2016 order allowed further federal environmental review; the 2018 decision went in favor of the defendants. The Army Corps was a defendant, not an organization opposing Deering Park.
2022: Dream Green Volusia pushed for wildlife corridor protection, higher impact fees and development practices with less environmental impact. This was broader county conservation advocacy, rather than a formal Deering Park challenge, but protecting connected habitat was still very much on the agenda.
2024: Residents, including White, raised concerns at Deering Park hearings about the project’s scale and infrastructure. The objections were already being made before the final rezoning vote.
May 2025: Protesters gathered outside New Smyrna City Hall. Commissioners approved the Innovation Center rezoning by four votes to one, with Lisa Martin opposed.

Put those pieces together and it gets harder to dismiss the opposition as people suddenly getting upset about one project. Organizations pursued challenges, elected officials voted no and residents kept showing up. The approvals moved forward anyway, and many of the concerns are still being raised.

That’s why I want Slow the Growth to keep building support beyond this election. I like living here. I want the people making decisions about its future to give the place we already have as much attention as the next development being pitched.

NSB Local (@NSBinlet) interview of Bryon White

This has been going on for years

Sources