The latest announcement of a new development in Daytona is another sign of life coming back to the area. Former Desert Inn Hotel, which once held a dubious distinction of being one of the dirtiest hotels in the nation, has been sold, and the new owners are changing it to high end Weston. But is a twist to this announcement. The developer is asking the county to designate part of the beach in front of the resort as a non-driving beach, taking yet another piece of beach from the use by the people.
The county seemed very receptive to the idea and the positive outcome was nearly guaranteed but when developers of Hard Rock Hotel/Café heard about the news, they started making ripples demanding the same thing for their project and that’s where the outrage started.
People are not willing to give up what Daytona’s famous for. There are not enough garages, nor enough extra parking to compensate for the lost parts of the beach, where tens of thousands of cars come to on weekend.
I am surprised even with the idea, that developers expect Daytona to be willing to lose its heart because of fancy nice projects. Feels like they are not even in the right place, if this is the case. there are plenty of places, where they do not have beach driving. If this is the key, then go there. But if you come to Daytona, deal with daytona, and Daytona is about driving on the beach, and parking on the beach. And even if you decide not to build, someone else would. And, hopefully, they would have more respect for Daytonians with their crazy driving on the beach.
One developer told me that driving on the beach is crazy. Yep, but this is Daytona, and if you can't take it, you do not belong here. This is that simple.
For the rest of the article please follow this link to the full article on my website
Comments(6)