Planning Board approves special-use permit for Our Lady of Lords Academy gym amid neighbor safety concerns and diocesan assurances

The Daytona Beach Planning Board voted to approve a special-use permit that would bring an existing church into compliance and allow construction of a 13,061-square-foot gymnasium for Our Lady of Lords Academy.

Danley Peddick, senior planner, said the request (DEV2024-721) applies to a 9.84-acre parcel at 1014 Halifax Ave and 201 University Blvd, currently zoned single-family residential-5. The church and school have operated for decades as a legal nonconforming use; the special-use permit would regularize the place-of-worship use and authorize a gym accessory to the school. Peddick told the board staff finds the request meets special-use review standards and recommended forwarding it to the City Commission for final consideration, which staff tentatively scheduled for Feb. 4, 2026.

Steve Buswell, the project’s engineer, said the gym is proposed where an existing outdoor basketball court sits, and that the project adds 46 parking spaces to support accessory use. He said the design does not increase student enrollment and that ingress/egress would largely remain the same; he added traffic-calming or enforcement measures such as extended school zones are a City Public Works matter.

Neighbors raised pedestrian-safety and circulation concerns. Emily Nies, Seabreeze Neighborhood Watch chair, urged moving vehicle entrances onto Halifax and warned that children sometimes “go right near the road, University Boulevard, to get into their cars.” Lorna Angelotti, who lives across University Boulevard, said parallel parking and driveway locations make visibility for children hazardous and asked the board to prioritize safety for the schoolchildren.

Debbie Whelan, representing the property owner, the Diocese of Orlando, told the board the gym was intended only for students: “The gym is a gym. It is for students only,” and said diocesan policy would not allow the gym to be used as a homeless shelter. The board discussed whether to add an explicit condition excluding shelter use; legal counsel and staff noted homeless sheltering is not a permitted use under the current zoning and that an application for sheltering would require a separate process.

A motion to approve the special-use permit was made and seconded; the board approved the request with a recorded result described in the hearing as “Motion passes 4 to 1,” and an abstention was noted in the roll-call discussion. The Planning Board’s action forwards the special-use permit to the City Commission for final action on Feb. 4, 2026.