- October 11, 2024
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What is the future of the Ormond Beach Tennis Center?
As the center’s current operator weighs whether to extend his lease, the Ormond Beach Leisure Services Advisory Board voted unanimously at its meeting Wednesday, June 14, to recommend that the City Commission pursue an ECHO grant to improve the center at 38 E. Granada Blvd. The city could use the money to add LED lighting and build a freestanding pro shop with restrooms.
ECHO is a county Environmental, Cultural, Historic and Outdoor Recreation Projects grant program, funded using taxpayer dollars.
Board member Barbara Bonarrigo asked for the item to be placed on the agenda for discussion because the current operator’s three-year lease will expire at the end of November. The city owns the courts, but has leased out the center’s operations and management since 2008.
“I think we all still want it, because I believe that it’s very important to have a recreation facility,” Bonarrigo said. “It makes a community a whole.”
Jan Buenner, the center’s operator and the sole bidder for the lease three years ago, told the board that while the courts are in great shape, the rest of the facilities — the bathrooms, the pro shop — are not. He said he’s faced major obstacles since taking over operations, first with exterior renovations to the MacDonald House, which contains the pro shop, and then due to hurricane damage last year.
“I didn’t specifically say that I don’t want to do it again, but not in the current set of circumstances,” Buenner said. “So the place has charm. It has potential, but in the current way, I don’t see that now.”
The City Commission has discussed the center’s future several times over the years. Some developers have expressed interest in tearing the courts down to add more parking or redevelop the property for another use, said Leisure Services Director Rob Carolin. Carolin told the board that work hasn’t started on the interior of the MacDonald House because the Ormond Beach Historical Society is planning to turn it into a museum.
“It’s a little bit down the road, but there’s no reason for the city to put another $300,000 into the first floor if it’s all going to be renovated in a relatively short time,” Carolin said.
But if the MacDonald House does become a museum, the museum would need the space occupied by the pro shop, Carolin added. Plans include constructing a small building to house the tennis center’s operations. Those plans are not final and have not been added to the city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan.
Bonarrigo, who regularly plays tennis at the courts, said she was concerned that if nothing is done to improve the center, it will be torn down in favor of another development.
“Once you take away a recreational facility, you cannot build it again,” she said. “I don’t think so.”
Carolin agreed, saying that no one else has expressed an interest in managing the tennis center, and outsourcing its operations saves the city between $150,000 and $200,000 a year.
Since only about 60 people use the courts, board members suggested adding more pickleball courts to increase membership.
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed more than $510 million in state funding for projects from the upcoming fiscal year’s state budget, including $1.45 million for a new building to house the Ormond Beach Police Department and an emergency operations center.
The commission discussed the project at a June 6 workshop. City staff said a $100,000 study was among the projects outlined in the Capital Improvement Program budget for next fiscal year. The city predicts that a new police station and EOC building could cost $51 million, but the project is dependent on legislative funding.
However, the city is slated to receive more than $9.5 million in legislative funding for six other projects:
The city of Ormond Beach, in partnership with the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, will host a “Vulnerability Analysis Community Workshop” from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, in the Ormond Beach City Commission Conference Room 103 at City Hall.
The workshop will include an overview of the grant program, a summary of model results and a review of best practices and policy considerations for resiliency, and will give residents a chance to provide input.
To participate via Zoom, visit bit.ly/3quDIfI.
The developers of the Tomoka Reserve subdivision, proposed for the former Tomoka Oaks golf course property, have resubmitted a new site plan that includes fewer units and a minimum lot size of 110 feet by 50 feet.
Previously, the developers — Carl Velie, Ray Barshay, Sheldon and Emily Rubin — were seeking to build 300 homes on the 147-acre golf course.
Residents from Tomoka Oaks and other neighboring subdivisions opposed the development during neighborhood meetings in February largely due to concerns about density, traffic and lot sizes they felt were incompatible with existing homes.
The new site plan decreases the proposed density from 2.03 units per acre to 1.87 units per acre. The development will go before the Ormond Beach Planning Board on July 13.
