New county beach park? Construction on Bay Drive Park may start next year

The park will have beach access with restrooms and a nature trail.


It may not look like much now, but a 13-acre area of land at the end of Bay Drive will become a new county park. (Photo by Jonathan Simmons)
It may not look like much now, but a 13-acre area of land at the end of Bay Drive will become a new county park. (Photo by Jonathan Simmons)
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The dead end on Bay Drive doesn't look like much now — saw palmettos, some oaks, a few Bud Light cans tossed in a clearing at the edge of the woods — but it may be site of the county's next beachfront park, complete with pavilions, parking and a nature trail.

Flagler County got a $2.3 million Florida Communities Trust Program grant to create the park, and is also using money from the Salamander resort project for it, County Administrator Craig Coffey told county commissioners at a commission meeting the morning of May 2.

"It will be something that has at least a pavilion or some kind of water feature; you can go out and look at water," he said. "We’re just now at the very start of that project."

Bay Drive itself is a dirt road running east from Oceanshore Boulevard about a mile north of Bings Landing, lined with houses. It dead-ends about two tenths of a mile west of the beach. 

The management plan for the site requires a nature trail at least half a mile long with benches and a water fountain, plus at least four "recreational facilities" for the public, like picnic pavilions or wildlife observations decks, according to a Flagler County staff report.

It must also have a paddling trail sign, restrooms, access to the shoreline using a dune walkover, and interpretive kiosks. The natural communities at the site "shall be preserved and appropriately managed to ensure the long-term viability of these communities," according to the report.

The project is in the design phase now, Coffey said, and construction will likely start sometime late next year. 

 

 

 

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