Deltona mayor shares his vision for a downtown in hopes to spark up development

DELTONA, Fla. — Deltona’s Mayor is trying to bring businesses to the city to help create an established downtown.

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Santiago Avila Jr. shared a video on his social media pages to help attract restaurants and he’s already received some interest.

“I have had two high end restaurants reach out to me, or their parent company. So , I have had a lot of feedback from that,” said Avila Jr.

His vision for the city includes a vibrant downtown with restaurants, shops and even a children’s hospital. He explains right now Deltona residents are spending their money in other cities, which in turn, only hurts them.

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“A lot of taxes that come in are from residents so in order to alleviate them, we need to bring a commercial base to the city so we can help alleviate taxes on those residents,” said Avila Jr.

We asked community members what they would like to see come to town. Lays Bennett wants more restaurants, shops and entertainment.

“The drive that me and my family takes to Orlando, plus traffic and gas and eating out versus having something here in Deltona would be amazing,” said Bennett.

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Avila Jr. hopes to eventually have a 70% residential and 30% commercial split in development in Deltona, compared to the only 3% commerce the city has now.

“I think if we get a developer in here that talks about redevelopment versus development and has community input and buy in from the community, then it’s everybody’s,” said Avila Jr.

The mayor believes two possible locations for a downtown core could be just off Howland Boulevard or Deltona Boulevard. He hopes to have an official downtown development plan in the next two years.

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