- January 22, 2025
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More nature trails, an indoor recreation for the west side of town and new neighborhood parks were among the recommendations presented at the second public meeting for the city's parks and recreation master plan update, held at the South Ormond Neighborhood Center on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
About 15 people attended the meeting, led by Carlos Perez, parks planner with Perez Planning and Design. The master plan update process, which is being conducted by Barth Associates, will lay out the future of the city's parks for the next 10 years. The process is in its third phase of visioning, and the consultant presented survey findings and outlined the guiding principles for the recommendations, one of which is that all neighborhoods should be within a 10-minute walk of a park, a campaign that is promoted by the Trust for Public Land, in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association and the Urban Land Institute.
Perez said that the project's goals were to position the city to build on its unique parks and recreation assets, identify new opportunities and prioritize future improvements to outline the future of Leisure Services for the next decade.
“As we all know, there isn’t an endless pot of money so based on the resources that we have, we want to prioritize those improvements and implement them in a phased fashion," Perez said. "We want to make sure that prioritization aligns with the needs and priorities of residents.”
Based on the over 1,100 participants who participated in Barth Associates' surveys, public meetings, focus groups, as well as input gathered from the Leisure Services and Quality of Life advisory boards, the number one need in the city is the provision of safe bicycle and pedestrian facilities in the city. And the highest rank facility need? Walking and hiking nature trails.
The visioning survey conducted by the consultant showed that 64.2% of participants envisioned paved nature trails as the response.
"Our vision is to look for opportunities in the city where we can provide that natural experience," Perez said.
Such opportunities include expanding nature trails around the Environmental Discovery Center, and creating new ones at the former Riverbend golf course property. Barth Associates is also recommending the city develop a conservation lands acquisition and management plan, to be overseen by either a new or existing advisory board, and that it work with a nonprofit park land acquisition organization to acquire sites deemed to be of top priority.
The consultant is also recommending the city update its 2016 bicycle master plan, which proposed 15.5 miles of multi-use paths that connect multiple destinations; a project estimated to cost $4.3 million to $5.7 million.
Since the plan was adopted, the city has completed the Forest Hills connector trail, and placed the Thompson Creek multi-use path and a
The Forest Hills connector trail has been completed. The Thompson Creek multi-use path, a 6,500-foot path that parallels the creek from Wilmette Avenue to Division Street, and the U.S. 1 shared-use path, to span from Wilmette Avenue to Pine Tree Drive, are both included in the city's Capital Improvement Plan.
With more growth coming to the west side of Ormond Beach from Flagler County and the city of Daytona Beach, Perez recommended the city build a west Ormond indoor recreation center.
"Where that begins is developing a conceptual master plan for that center," he said. "And part of that is understanding what the spacial program of that indoor center — what are the specific needs of the community in that area?"
A gym, fitness center or senior center could be possibilities. Perez suggested the city discuss partnership opportunities with Flagler County, potentially for a regional park.
Another recommendation is that the city explore the creation of new neighborhood parks.
"That can be a public space or it can be a private space," Perez said. "There's a lot of communities that have their own private amenities for residents and that counts as that too."
Barth Associates is proposing that the city fill the gaps regarding the neighborhoods that don't have a park within a half-mile, which could translate to nine new neighborhood parks, Perez said. The city could consider partnering with homeowners associations to improve underutilized parks through grants, leases and joint-use agreements.
