NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — City leaders in New Smyrna beach are seeking to extend a development moratorium in Venetian Bay due to past flooding issues.

The city first approved the moratorium as an emergency measure in February to stop new building permits in the Portofino Gardens area of the property. Some residents of Venetian Bay reported that the flooding prevented them from leaving their homes for days at a time.

The moratorium prevents commercial development and multifamily residential buildings without affecting single-family homes in approved developments.

Assistant City Manager Ron Neibert said the city purchased an advanced stormwater modeling system and began running a series of tests, but data is still being collected.

Neibert said some of the preliminary findings are giving the city an insight on what the problem might be.

“Preliminary data shows that it might be a problem with what we call a weir system in some of the ponds — and a weir system is basically a notch cut into the dams that hold the ponds that act as an overflow for the pond,” he said.

However, due to how little rain the area has seen so far this year, Neibert said they need more time to collect additional data.  

"The ponds are extremely low," he said. "To get the right elevations of the pond and the groundwater in the area, we'd have to wait to get a little more water to get better readings on what the exact situation is."

At a special meeting last week, city commissioners listened to a presentation with updates on the study that’s being conducted, and approved the first reading of ordinance that would extend the moratorium — which was set to expire on June 25 — for six months.

If the ordinance is passed, the new expiration date of the moratorium would be Jan. 28, 2025.

The second public hearing for the ordinance on the moratorium extension will take place on June 25.