DeBary, FL – The push to allow gambling in a Volusia County city is stalled again by city council members.
By a 3-2 vote during a special meeting Tuesday night, the DeBary City Council said “no” to a city code change for a landowner who wanted to explore the possibility of creating a race track and gambling room on a 68-acre property near US 17/92 and Dirksen Drive.
DeBary Mayor Clint Johnson – an avid backer of the plan – called the special meeting, arguing that DeBary needs a business that could serve as the base to develop other businesses around the town center as well as the city’s SunRail station.
City council members also voted against a similar proposal in May, but that was before talk of a card room opening up in Orange City that would be right at DeBary’s border.
Other than Councilman Chris Carson, everyone else on the DeBary City Council voted against the plan nearly 2 and a half hours after the meeting started.
The vote came after many in the packed city council chamber came to the public microphone to urge the City Council to reject the plan for various reasons, most related to quality of life.
DeBary’s city council outlawed horse tracks and card rooms following another contentious debate in 2008.
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