- January 20, 2025
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A meeting with staff from Volusia County’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Division to discuss the tennis courts at Michael Crotty Bicentennial Park, located at 1850 Ocean Shore Blvd., is scheduled to take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 14.
In addition to the tennis courts, the meeting at the park’s community center will also address the option of adding pickleball courts.
Volusia County Parks, Recreation and Culture Director Tim Baylie said that the meeting came about after some local pickleball players approached the county and asked if the park’s tennis courts could also be lined for pickleball.
“However, there’s a significant, organized group of tennis players that are very active at that site throughout the day,” Baylie said. “They’re outspoken and they’re protective of those courts.”
Baylie hopes the meeting will help the two groups find common ground to come up with a compromise, perhaps involving set times for each sport, since using the tennis courts for pickleball would be his first option. The courts are already built and the costs to line two of the four courts would be inexpensive.
Otherwise, the county is looking at other options.
One was lining a court next to the racquetball court, though that would displace some basketball players and result in a “substandard pickleball court,” Baylie said.
The county could also look to build a pickleball court in the existing greenspace, but that would need to be budgetted for and the county would have to make sure the ball field isn’t impacted as well.
“Probably not as many ballplayers out there as there are tennis players out there, but it would be impacting potentially another user group,” Baylie said. “... So there’s no easy solutions if we can’t find a compromise.”
There are no pickleball courts in Ormond-by-the-Sea. The nearest courts are in the city of Ormond Beach or in the city of Holly Hill, which is home to Pictona, a 24-court pickleball complex.
“The folks up there in Bicentennial Park, they like that park,” Baylie said. “They would really like to be able to play pickleball there.”
The public will have an opportunity to speak on both sides at the meeting.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:15 p.m. Thursday to correct the time of the meeting. The Planning Board will meet at 6 p.m.
A major amendment to the Plantation Oaks development order will come before the Ormond Beach Planning Board for review at its meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 14, in the City Commission Chambers.
If later approved by the City Commission, the development could be allowed to add 291 more homes to the subdivision. Plantation Oaks is currently allowed to build 1,577 homes.
This is the second time developer Parker Mynchenberg, manager of Plantation Oaks of Ormond Beach LLC has asked for an amendment to the Planned Residential Development since the development was annexed into the city in 2019.
The city of Ormond Beach is celebrating Earth Day on Thursday, April 21, with a tree giveaway from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
According to a Facebook post on the city’s page, each family in Ormond Beach can swing by City Hall, 22 S. Beach St., for a free tree.
Limited to one 3-gallon-sized tree per person. Trees range from Bald Cypress, Winged Elm, Live Oak and Dahoon Holly.
