Troy Kent: 'This has gone beyond what I thought we were going to do here'

Ormond Beach Observer
News

The Beachside Redevelopment Committee established a six-month timeline to create a list of recommendations for the county to improve the beachside from Daytona Beach Shores up to Ormond Beach. Five months, six official committee meetings and one subcommittee meeting later, and there is no end in sight.

The committee met on Monday, Dec. 18, at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, to review and discuss the final recommendations with the intent to meet for one last time in January for a final review, before presenting its suggestions to the County Council. However, due to disagreements over the list's broad overview and committee members calling for specific projects to be outlined for the county, the committee will be extending its deadline until it is able to present recommendations with "substance" to the County Council.

"I don't this is a very good document to send to these people," Daytona Beach Shores Mayor Harry Jennings said. "I think it has to have more meat. I think we need to restructure it. I would never present this to my council in this shape or form."

It was an opinion shared by committee member Maryam Ghyabi, CEO of Ghyabi & Associates. She said she understood the reason for the January deadline, but she said the committee members needed more time to create a list of solid suggestions.

"We want the council and Volusia County and Daytona Beach to be successful, and this is not going to do it," Ghyabi said.

The document presented to the committee included 10 recommendations based on the assumptions the group had discussed to date. The committee was derailed from the document. Instead, members discussed County Council Chair Ed Kelley's recent proposal of a half-cent sales tax for transportation and infrastructure. They discussed how the half-cent would impact recommendations made by the Beachside Redevelopment Committee.

Ormond Beach City Commissioner Troy Kent's frustration was present in his voice when he said he had hopes the committee would be able to zero in one project to improve the beachside, but that he didn't see it happening. He proposed tackling the residential blight between Seabreeze Boulevard and Main Street as that major project and said that while he'd like to continue hearing from the public, he didn't want to hear another presenter. The committee's sixth meeting that night included a presentation on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfields program by Michael Sznapstajler of Cobb Cole.

He said he believed the six-month timeline was sufficient to present a list of recommendations to the County Council to decide and that he personally did not need County Manager Jim Dinneen to give a presentation, which was briefly discussed as an option in the meeting, about the proposed half-cent sales tax.

"This has gone beyond what I thought we were going to do here," Kent said.

The committee only reached the second of the 10 listed would-be final recommendations, which stated the coordinated effort needed between the cities and the county in their pursuit of state or federal funds for any redevelopment project. Committee member Charles Lichtigman said it was "too general" to include in their document.

"I think this whole item is a waste of our ability to recommend tangible pragmatic start-and-finish projects, and if you say there can be coordination, well yes," Lichtigman said. "There can also be peace in the Middle East, but it hasn't happened."

Soon thereafter, City Commissioner Aaron Delgado made a motion to continue the discussion at the next meeting. The motion was seconded instantly by multiple board members.