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Sunday, May 30, 2004 Beach Development: Building up for a letdown?News-Journal Editorial Eyes have been focused on what to do with the core area of Daytona Beach’s peninsula area, but perhaps it’s time to look at the bigger picture: How can the city create a cohesive whole from its north to south borders?
Toward that end, the city’s Planning Board is in the process of examining the effects of potential new development with the help of graduate-level architecture students at the University of Florida. On Thursday, the Planning Board will hold a second workshop – 6:30 p.m. at City Hall – that will project what could happen if the city is fully built up. The intellectual exercise is instructive. It demonstrates how changes in land-use code can affect sunlight on the beach and air flow throughout the beachside residential areas. The study also projects views of sky and ocean that would be available to residents and tourists along the beachfront. The point is to provide a visual perspective on how land-use regulations affect quality of life. This could be looked at as just another beachside study, which has been done before (see below) and which could end up on a shelf. Or it could be used as a model that the board can adapt for all areas of Daytona Beach. The Planning Board, whose members volunteer their time, is the first hurdle that developers must pass after presenting their projects to city staff. Daytona Beach’s board is particularly astute and when its reviewed works are passed along to the City Commission, commissioners can be certain that scrutiny has been applied before any project is stamped with approval. For that reason, and because the board oversees the city as a whole, the Planning Board is the logical place to begin a visioning process. The University of Florida study could be the tool used to spark that discussion. In the study, students project outcomes of four options of land-use regulations regarding building height, space between buildings and setbacks from beach and streets. One scenario, for example, shows the beach area from Harvey Street north to Ocean Walk fully built out. In the afternoon, when the sun is setting, buildings cast long, dark shadows over the bulk of the beach, and they block ocean breezes from flowing to the residential areas. There is no view of the beach area, little view of the sky and no sense of place. No one is proposing that should happen. The question is what the city can do to prevent it from happening. And to get to the answer, the city has to know where it is going and how it can get there. The “where” must be determined before the “how” — how to pay for improvements, how to set incentives that attract good development, how to stick to the plan. This is the right time to begin that examination. Clearly developers are more interested in Daytona Beach. Two new high-quality residential complexes have been approved in recent months along the beachside and serious inquiries have been made about four other large properties. The Planning Board, because of its objectivity, could be the engine that starts the process, beginning with the university study. On the net: |
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