Eminent Domain in Volusia County: Which Projects Are Buying Land, and When
Reading Time: 10 minutes
Eminent domain in Volusia County is a line item with a fiscal year attached. FDOT’s work program adopted July 1, 2026, funds sixteen Volusia projects to buy private land, totaling $67,210,085, and on one of them, FDOT says acquisition is scheduled to start this summer.
The clock that decides your outcome is not FDOT’s construction schedule, it is the 30 days that begin when the notice reaches you. Under section 73.015(1)(b), Florida Statutes, you get at least 30 days after receiving the notice before the authority can file suit. Read subsection (1)(c) too, because the clock can start even if the letter never reaches you: the notice goes by certified mail to your last known address on the county ad valorem tax roll, or by personal delivery, and a return as undeliverable “constitutes compliance.” If you own from out of state, confirm what the tax roll shows.
Our Florida eminent domain attorneys represent landowners against FDOT, counties, cities, and utilities.
Which Volusia Projects Have Money to Buy Land?
Sixteen carry a funded right-of-way phase. These five hold 87 percent of the money.
| FDOT item | Project | Right-of-way funded, FY2027-2031 |
|---|---|---|
| 419772-3 | I-95 Interchange at U.S. 1 (S.R. 5), Ormond Beach | $27,871,581 |
| 428947-1 | S.R. 40 from Breakaway Trail to Williamson Blvd | $16,218,494 |
| 408464-2 | I-4 east of U.S. 17/92 to east of S.R. 472 | $6,250,000 |
| 448456-1 | LPGA Blvd from U.S. 92 to Williamson Blvd | $4,577,432 |
| 440787-1 | S.R. 15A at S.R. 44 southbound right turn lane | $3,795,786 |
Figures come from the Detail sheet of the Five-Year Work Program adopted July 1, 2026, searchable by the item numbers above. Two of the five, the I-95 interchange at U.S. 1 and S.R. 15A at S.R. 44, also fund a relocation phase in addition to land purchase.
Ask which fiscal year the right-of-way money sits in. A project can be announced, studied, and even built without a private parcel changing hands.
S.R. 40 at Breakaway Trail, Where FDOT Says Buying Starts This Summer
FDOT states that “right of way acquisition will be needed for this project and is tentatively scheduled to begin in summer 2026,” and that the project “is not yet funded for construction” (FDOT, Project 428947-1).
The project covers 2.46 miles of S.R. 40, Granada Boulevard, between Breakaway Trail and Williamson Boulevard in Ormond Beach. FDOT’s concept calls for widening from four lanes to six, and the page notes the 2014 study recommendations are still being evaluated during design.
Funded acquisition without funded construction is the strongest position a Florida landowner can occupy, because nothing forces you toward a quick number. The $48.8 million construction cost on the same page is an estimate, not an appropriation, so the two statements agree. That advantage disappears the moment you respond to a first offer without an independent valuation.
This is commercial frontage, so the fight is less about dirt than about access, parking, and other business-critical features.
I-95 at U.S. 1, the County’s Largest Acquisition
Item 419772-3 carries $27,871,581, more than any other project in the county, and it includes a relocation phase alongside land purchase.
Across a 6.39-mile project, FDOT’s work includes three new bridges and redesigned loop ramps on I-95, widening one mile of U.S. 1 from four to six lanes, and a shared-use path, delivered through what FDOT calls a Modified Phased Design-Build (FDOT, Project 419772-3).
FDOT’s public project page says nothing at all about right of way. The acquisition money is visible only in the work program, so the page you would naturally check will not tell you the state has $27.9 million budgeted to buy land there.
LPGA Boulevard, Where You Still Have About a Year
FDOT states plainly that “right of way acquisition will be needed for this project” and that “the right of way phase is tentatively planned to start in summer 2027” (FDOT, Project 448456-1).
FDOT’s proposed improvements cover 6.2 miles of LPGA Boulevard from U.S. 92 to Williamson Boulevard and include modifying the I-95 interchange at Exit 265, replacing and widening the Tomoka River bridge, redesigning major intersections, and adding shared-use paths and stormwater ponds. The project is in design.
A year of notice is the most valuable thing an owner gets in a condemnation. Appraisals, business records, and lease positions are far easier to assemble before an acquisition agent knocks.
Note the stormwater ponds in that scope. Pond sites are often located late in design, and each can require land the state does not yet own, which is how owners who assumed they were outside a footprint end up inside one.
Why “Under Construction” Does Not Mean “Done Buying”
Item 436292-1, the I-95 interchange at Pioneer Trail, carries $1,829,373 of right-of-way money in fiscal 2027 while its work program status reads under construction. That combination misleads owners: orange barrels do not mean your parcel is past the acquisition window.
If construction has started near you, that is not evidence the acquisition is finished. Ask which project number carries the right-of-way phase for your parcel.
What Does Florida Require a Condemnor to Pay?
Under section 73.071(3)(a) and (b), Florida Statutes, a jury awards the value of the property taken plus, where less than the whole parcel is taken, damages to the remainder: lost frontage, a shallow remainder, changed grade, blocked visibility, rerouted drainage. See severance damages and just compensation for homeowners.
Highest and best use, not current use, sets the value of the land taken. On a coastal corridor absorbing new rooftops, a commercial pad is not worth what it was several years ago, and a first appraisal will not always reflect that.
Here is the counterweight most owners are never told about. Under section 73.071(4), where the action is by FDOT, a county, a municipality, a board, a district, or another public body for a road, canal, levee, or water control facility right of way, any enhancement in the value of your remaining adjoining land caused by the improvement is offset against your remainder damages. The offset applies only to remainder damages, never against the value of the land actually taken, and the condemnor cannot collect from you if enhancement exceeds damages. On projects that add interchange capacity, expect the state’s appraiser to argue enhancement.
Cost-to-cure items belong in the claim too, including replacement parking, restriping, signage, and drainage. See common deficiencies in eminent domain appraisals and temporary construction easements, which are common on interchange work and routinely undervalued.
Under section 73.071(5), a change in value occurring after the project’s scope becomes known in the market, resulting solely from knowledge of the project location, is excluded in arriving at the value of the property acquired. The statute presumes the scope is known once the condemnor executes a resolution depicting the project location.
Do Volusia Businesses Get Paid for Lost Income?
Yes. Florida is one of the few states that compensates business losses at all, and section 73.071(3)(b) requires all four of these:
- The taking is partial, not the whole parcel.
- The condemnor is FDOT, a county, a municipality, a board, a district, or another public body, acquiring a right of way.
- The business has more than five years’ standing for takings on or after January 1, 2005.
- The business is owned by the party whose land is taken and sits on adjoining land that party owns or holds.
The deadline is what actually kills these claims. Under section 73.015(2)(c), a qualifying business must submit a good faith written business damage offer, supported by business records and prepared by the owner, a CPA, or a business damage expert familiar with the operations of the business, by certified mail within 180 days after receiving the statutory notice or after the notice is returned undeliverable, or by a later date the parties agree to. Absent a showing of good faith justification, the court must strike the claim. If you do make that showing, the court must grant up to 180 more days.
Our series covers the mechanics: an introduction, calculating and proving, and resolving business damage claims.
Who Pays Your Attorney?
The condemning authority does, and it does not require a lawsuit. Under section 73.091(1) the petitioner pays your attorney’s fees as provided in section 73.092. Under section 73.015(4), an owner who settles presuit in lieu of condemnation also recovers fees, calculated under section 73.092(1) unless the parties agree otherwise, and recovers costs after submitting the appraisals, business damage reports, and other work product claimed and upon closing, payment, or final judgment.
Under section 73.092(1)(c), and except as otherwise provided in that section and in section 73.015, fees are awarded on the benefit achieved: 33 percent of any benefit up to $250,000, plus 25 percent between $250,000 and $1 million, plus 20 percent above $1 million. Section 73.092(1)(a) defines that benefit as the difference, exclusive of interest, between the final judgment or settlement and the last written offer made before you hired an attorney.
Two qualifications matter, and both turn on details owners rarely track.
Business damages are measured differently, and only if you produced records. Under section 73.092(1)(a)1., where ordinary-course business records were provided to substantiate the section 73.015(2)(c) offer, the benefit on business damages runs from the authority’s written counteroffer under section 73.015(2)(d), and under that subsection a rejection or non-response is deemed a counteroffer of zero. Where those records were not provided and are later deemed material, section 73.092(1)(a)2. measures the benefit from the first counteroffer made within 90 days after the authority receives them.
The percentage schedule does not govern everything. Section 73.092(2) applies a different multi-factor test to fees for defeating an order of taking, for apportionment, or for other supplemental proceedings, when not otherwise provided for.
Because the baseline is the last written offer made before you retain counsel, every additional offer you field alone raises that baseline, shrinking the statutory benefit your fee award is calculated from. See attorney fee recovery and how early legal action can limit a taking.
Volusia condemnation actions are filed in the Seventh Judicial Circuit, which also covers Flagler, Putnam, and St. Johns counties and, in Volusia, sits in DeLand and Daytona Beach. If the government damages your property without filing anything, see inverse condemnation.
What Should Volusia Owners Do Now?
- Ask which project number carries the right-of-way phase for your parcel, not what the construction project is doing.
- Do not sign anything. Not a right-of-way agreement, not an easement, not a survey permission form.
- Request the appraisal and the plans. Under section 73.015(1)(a)3., the authority must produce the appraisal within 15 business days of your request, plus right-of-way maps and construction plans to the extent prepared.
- Calendar the 180-day business damage deadline the day a notice arrives. Nothing else here can extinguish a claim outright.
- Photograph access, parking counts, signage, and drainage before construction changes them.
- Check your lease, since condemnation clauses allocate proceeds between landlord and tenant. See our commercial leasing practice.
- Get an independent valuation before you respond. See what landowners need to know before accepting an offer.
Quick take compresses all of it, since FDOT can seek possession before valuation is resolved. See the quick-take process and reading an order of taking.
Why Volusia Owners Choose Jimerson Birr
Jimerson Birr is the Florida firm business owners call when the state, a county, a city, or a utility wants their land. We have built Florida’s deepest project-level eminent domain library, corridor by corridor, so a landowner walks into the first meeting knowing more about the project than the agent across the table. We handle eminent domain and condemnation issues, easement disputes, boundary lines, and the transportation and logistics side of corridor work, alongside real estate development. See also the eminent domain process for commercial owners.
FDOT says S.R. 40 acquisition is scheduled to begin this summer, with LPGA Boulevard a year behind. Owners who understand the program before the letter arrives do better than owners who react to it.
Contact Jimerson Birr for a case assessment, or start with our Florida eminent domain attorneys page.