The Essentials
UPDATE: Ralph “Tony” Miller hired as NSB ‘s first natural resources manager.
New position pays $73,000 annually.
Role will bring in-house environmental expertise to reviews of Deering Park, other development plans, and land acquisitions.
Land acquisitions will be Miller’s “program to manage.”
The Story
The City of New Smyrna Beach is poised to hire a natural resource manager who will bring additional environmental knowledge to consideration of proposed land acquisitions and commercial, governmental and residential developments.
City Manager Kevin Cowper raised the idea of creating the position during a strategic planning discussion in March. “This was something that jumped out to me as a need,” he says. The city commission agreed, and it voted to include the $73,000-per-year position in the 2026 budget.
“Our economy depends a lot on the quality of our environment, and our quality of life depends a lot on the quality of our environment,” Cowper says. “Given the importance of the environment in our community, I really think this is expertise that we need to have in house.”
The city plans to announce the new hire next week.
New Smyrna Beach’s remaining agricultural land and horse country on its western fringe and its oaks adorned with Spanish moss have attracted developers eager to construct residential communities in bucolic settings within easy reach of the beach. Existing homeowners and some local leaders blame the resulting style of development – clear cutting the land, elevating it with fill and catching runoff in stormwater ponds – for flooding surrounding properties and ruining what makes the city special.
A tributary in the Turnbull Creek watershed. Managing acquisition of land in the watershed for conservation and to reduce flooding will be among the roles for the city’s inaugural natural resource manager. Photo by Ben Iannotta
The city’s planning and engineering staffs already assess development proposals, but the new position will bring “input from an environmental perspective,” Cowper says.
For example, the natural resource manager could have fresh ideas about how to apply natural solutions to reduce flooding risks. Local environmentalists have struggled to get developers to adopt the Mother Nature strategy, but city leaders have expressed renewed enthusiasm for it following multiple severe flooding events and a torrent of complaints from residents.
At a Dec. 4 panel discussion with conservation groups, Mayor Fred Cleveland asked the panelists to offer environmental advice. Kelli McGee, executive director of the Riverside Conservancy, a non-profit based in Edgewater, recommended “low impact development that actually works with nature to reduce stormwater.” She suggested creating “living shorelines” along stormwater ponds and perhaps connecting those ponds. Preservation is also important, she said. Wetlands are “nature’s sponge” and can hold some 100,000 gallons of water per acre. Trees can absorb 100 gallons of water a day, she said.
The natural resource manager will be expected to coordinate with local environmental groups, the goal being “to make sure that we're all working in the same direction,” Cowper says. The manager will also look for grant opportunities to fund land preservation.
New Smyrna Beach voters took a significant step in that direction in 2018 when they approved a $15 million bond to fund the purchase of private properties in the Turnbull Creek watershed, the flood-prone land that comprises a large swath of the city. The watershed is punctuated by natural tributaries and canals made by indentured laborers in the 18th Century to drain land for Andrew Turnbull’s short-lived agricultural settlement.
This canal was dug in the 18th Century by Andrew Turnbull’s indentured laborers for his short-lived agricultural settlement. Photo by Ben Iannotta
The bond purchases require deciding which properties to pursue and negotiating agreements with the owners. That project and other land acquisition efforts “will be their program to manage,” Cowper says.
Also high on the agenda will be the Deering Park Innovation Center, the planned New Smyrna Beach portion of the development that will run for miles along the west side of Interstate 95. City Commissioners voted in May to rezone the formerly agricultural and forestry property to Planned Unit Development. Still to be drafted is the plan for managing the stormwater runoff from the envisioned 1,618-acre residential and commercial lands of the innovation center. “I expect this person in this job will have a lot of input into the review process for Deering Park,” Cowper says.
Given that construction of the Pioneer Interchange at I95 is a state project and clearing is well underway, Cowper doesn’t expect the natural resource manager to have a role there.
Capital projects by the city, including upgrades to parks and improvements to stormwater drainage, will be another matter. For those, Cowper wants the natural resource manager to help make sure “we're setting the standard and we're doing what we're asking others to do and we can utilize our projects as demonstration projects for others.”
Like the rest of the city’s staff, the natural resource manager will have to work within the bounds of SB-180, the Florida law that prevents municipalities from implementing any new land use regulations that would burden developers until Oct. 1 2027. The law was retroactive to Aug. 2024 and therefore stalled new stormwater regulations that the city had approved. “What we're finding is that the majority -- the vast mass majority -- of our developers are wanting to comply with those regulations voluntarily, just to demonstrate their commitment to the community,” Cowper says.
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