- February 24, 2025
Officials will negotiate costs on beach parking lot.
Wayne Grant
News Editor
Comments made by County Council members about the city of Ormond Beach needing to pick up the tab for maintaining a new beach parking lot drew a lot of consternation at the April 21 City Commission meeting.
The County Council approved spending $1.8 million to purchase a lot at the corner of Cardinal Drive and State Road A1A. The lot now contains an operating gas station, a defunct nightclub and a strip mall with closed offices.
Before the vote, council members said Ormond Beach would need to pay for maintenance, which apparently caught Ormond Beach officials by surprise.
“I wasn’t called by any county representative and asked my thoughts on them purchasing property for parking,” said Commissioner Troy Kent. “I read about it in the paper, like most of you.”
Mayor Ed Kelley said no commissioners were notified.
Kent said he applauded the purchase of land for beach parking, but didn’t like hearing that the city would pay for upkeep.
“Don’t put me in a corner and tell me what I have to do,” he said. “That doesn’t feel right.”
Kelley said that his understanding, after talking to representatives, is that an agreement will be negotiated.
“I told two members of the County Council that we need to discuss it,” he said. “We don’t want to have it imposed on us.”
While Kent said he applauds adding any beach parking, Commissioner James Stowers said he is not in favor of west-side parking.
“In Ponce Inlet, you have two lanes. You park on the west side, and jump over 24 feet of pavement,” he said. “This is five lanes.”
Also, he said he was disappointed that the county is making plans on their own, because the city and the county had partnered in a positive way to build Andy Romano Beachfront Park. He would like to work with the county on building another lot on the east side of the highway.
“I’m begging and pleading to go back to the successful partnerships we’ve had,” he said. “The welcome mat is out.”
Commissioner Bill Partington said he didn’t see a problem with west-side parking, but there should be a walkover and drop-off area on the east side of A1A. To be successful, he said there should be a playground.
City Manager Joyce Shanahan said she wanted to clarify that she had met with county officials about beach parking. Last year, County Councilman Doug Daniels and Deputy County Attorney Jamie Seaman showed her a list of properties along State Road A1A that the county was looking at purchasing.
“What is disturbing to me, is that when we met with them, they had no plans to develop property,” she said. “We have no budget for development of a park. Had we known that, we could have been working with them on that particular property.”
After the meeting, Caleb Barnaby, who lives near the new lot, told a reporter that he is glad to hear about the plans, because the current closed businesses are a haven for “delinquents.”
He pointed out that a west-side beach parking lot down the street at Rockefeller Drive is not used very much, but believes the new one at Cardinal may be used more because it should be more visible from State Road A1A.
