Council asks staff to consult delegation, property owners about restoring beach driving on Daytona’s Main Street corridor

The Volusia County Council voted on April 15 to ask county staff to approach the county’s legislative delegation and the property owners along Daytona’s beach corridor about the possibility of restoring public beach driving between International Speedway Boulevard and Auditorium Boulevard.

The motion, made by Councilman Troy Kent and seconded by Councilman David Santiago, directs staff to initiate discussions with elected state officials and affected property owners to determine whether a legislative exception or other legal path could restore driving in the segment the county closed in the 1990s.

County staff described the legal obstacles at the meeting. State law broadly prohibits driving on beaches across Florida unless a specific exception applies. The county previously obtained a limited statutory exception for one-day events, but staff said the statute that authorized earlier driving does not provide an automatic path to restore driving once a local government has removed it.

Staff also flagged three additional hurdles that would need resolution before any lane of beach driving could resume: potential amendments to the county’s Incidental Take Permit and Habitat Conservation Plan for sea turtles, contractual commitments tied to prior redevelopment agreements in the corridor, and the long-standing legal doctrine known locally as "customary use," which allows the public to use shoreline property under narrow historical conditions and can be complicated by a prolonged cessation of use.

Property owners and Main Street merchants who testified supported reopening the approach, saying vehicle access once animated the boardwalk and Main Street retail and that the corridor has not recovered in the decades since the closure. Several business owners and residents said the area remains underutilized outside of large events and asked the council to consider a temporary or trial reopening.

Conservation advocates asked council members to weigh wildlife protections; staff said any change would need consultation with federal wildlife agencies because the stretch lies inside the county’s urban beach management area under the county’s turtle-protection plan.

Council members said the council was not voting to restore driving at the session, only to ask staff to start the formal consultation process so the county can determine what legal, environmental and contractual changes would be required. The motion passed on a roll-call vote.