- May 19, 2024
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Will Ormond Beach residents and tourists get a sidewalk at the Seminole Beach approach?
The Ormond Beach City Commission tabled a request on Tuesday, May 7, by the developers of the new hotel being constructed at 251 S. Atlantic Ave., Ormond Beach Holdings LLC, to amend their development order to remove a proposed sidewalk and beach walkover access at their property. The developers are seeking to remove it after Volusia County staff refused to maintain the new access or provide liability insurance.
According to a Oct. 16, 2023, email from county staff to the city, the county stated it already provided public access to the beach with the Seminole Avenue beach approach, and, that the hotel developers could deed the sidewalk or provide an easement to the county if they wanted to.
Mayor Bill Partington said he understood why the county would not want to accept liability on a dune walkover, but he disagreed on their stance regarding the sidewalk.
“The safety aspect of it makes no sense either because the county, I would think, would want a sidewalk for safety rather than having people back and forth in the kill zone all day long, waiting for a car to back into them, run over a small child, whatever the situation is,” Partington said.
Currently, the Seminole Avenue beach approach ramp is closed to vehicular traffic, but it may not remain that way in the future, the mayor added.
A big component of his approval of the project last January, Partington said, was the provision of public access to the beach.
The commission agreed.
“Beach approaches, especially during summer, the time that we have so many tourists here going back and forth in and out of the beach around those hotels, it’s very, very dangerous,” Commissioner Susan Persis said. “We really need to add that sidewalk.”
County Councilman Troy Kent, who was present at the meeting, said he never saw the rendering showing what the proposed sidewalk access would look like. He agreed that adding a sidewalk made sense from a safety standpoint.
“I think we can work this issue out with liability,” Kent said.
He said he would talk to County Manager George Recktenwald to add the item onto the County Council agenda, but later sent a text message to at least City Commissioner Travis Sargent and City Manager Joyce Shanahan by the end the meeting stating he had spoken to Recktenwald and that the issue may not need to go before the County Council after all.
“[Recktenwald’s] going to personally drive over to the Seminole approach tomorrow and see what can be done,” Sargent said, reading the text by Kent. “He is confident we can work something out and negotiate a win.”
Rob Merrell, the attorney representing the developers, said Ormond Beach Holdings LLC was still willing to construct a sidewalk. It’s all about whether the county wants it.
“They (the county) said they did, and they said they didn’t — in writing,” Merrell said.
The city of Ormond Beach is continuing to support S.R. Perrott’s challenge of the air pollution permit issued to Belvedere Terminals last year by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the construction of a fuel terminal at 874 Hull Road.
City Attorney Randy Hayes informed the commission at its Tuesday meeting that S.R. Perrott will be appealing a recent decision by a judge to dismiss its challenge of the permit. The city has been splitting legal fees with S.R. Perrott — whose headquarters abut the proposed fuel farm property — in the challenge process and will continue to do so.
The commission approved a motion to continue to oppose the fuel farm at its meeting, which also included a request for the project to be relocated.
“We had committed to fight this at every available opportunity,” Mayor Bill Partington said. “This continues to be in line with that, with our residents, and we’ll just continue the fight for fairness, reasonable public notice and hopefully going to the Court of Appeals we can get a reasonable and fair hearing on that.”
Citing road concerns on Pineland Trail, the Ormond Beach City Commission tabled a site design project for a new road that would connect it to the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport.
The commission was set to approve a grant agreement between the city and the Florida Department of Transportation — as well as a work authorization for Zev Cohen and Associates — for the new road via its meeting consent agenda Tuesday, but some commissioners felt the current road conditions on Pineland Trail were not favorable.
“I’m not really in favor of putting more traffic on a roadway that’s ... old, it’s tired,” said City Commissioner Harold Briley, who pulled the related items from the consent agenda. “It’s not necessarily safe in its current condition.”
Commissioner Travis Sargent also had budgetary concerns. Though the FDOT grant would cover 50% of the $211,570 project, the city would have to fund the remaining $105,785 — and it would come from the Airport Fund, which has a negative balance and require a loan from the general fund.
“I’m just having a hard time adding additional debt to an Airport Fund that’s $1.5 million in the negative right now,” Sargent said.
He asked for a pause on the project to give the city time to explore options to pay the Airport Fund debt.
City Manager Joyce Shanahan said the debt was partly caused due to the closure of Riverbend Golf Course, which used to generate $125,000 annually.
She asked the commission table the item to give staff time to address concerns.
