Residents Want Amazon Entrance Moved, Jeep Beach Stirs Up Debate At Council Meeting

DeLand, FL – It was a busy Volusia County Council meeting on Wednesday, with council members hearing from residents against Amazon’s proposed traffic pattern and weighing in on matters related to the upcoming Jeep Beach event. Nine separate residents of Pelican Bay—including one Daytona Beach City Commissioner—spoke to the council during Tuesday’s (March 15) council meeting. They’re all worried about the same issue, an influx of semi-trucks from Amazon’s proposed distribution center—sitting adjacent to the Daytona Beach International Airport—that will pour onto Beville Road in front of their neighborhood. As such, they’re asking the council to find a new traffic pattern. Stacey Cantu, a resident of Pelican Bay, said residents of the neighborhood have always been aware of the possibility of a commercial or industrial building being built across the street. “What we weren’t aware of was 600 semis coming out in front of our east gate,” said Cantu. In reality, it could be more than 600 semis coming out of the planned distribution center. According to Jeremy Gildenmeister, another Pelican Bay resident, a representative from Amazon said at a previous council meeting that there would be at minimum 600 trucks, but there could be up to 2,500 trucks with an average between 1,500-2,000 coming out of the center each day.  Despite whatever the true figure will be, the entrance would put hundreds, if not thousands of trucks out onto Beville Road and right in front of Pelican Bay and the surrounding communities. And some said that doesn’t even account for the thousands of employee cars that could use that same entrance.  However, County Manager George Recktenwald says the county already reached an agreement with Amazon to have employees access the site off of Williamson or the Bellevue Avenue Extension. Still, some aren’t happy that the council has been mum about the situation. “It’s a shame that we’re hiding this from the neighbors and residents of Pelican Bay, Pine Lake, Pine Forest, Georgetowne, Regal Village, and Signature Executive Park,” said Pam Jarvis, a Pelican Bay resident. Their proposed solution is to instead have the entrance placed somewhere on Williamson Boulevard or the Bellevue Avenue Extension instead, which doesn’t have any communities near it and doesn’t see as much traffic as Beville.  “We’re already at somewhat of a logjam, and that’s before Amazon starts up,” said Pelican Bay Resident Paula Kaplan. So far about 900 people have signed a petition—made by Gildenmeister—against Amazon’s proposed entrance. Since January, Gildenmeister has orchestrated a number of demonstrations along Beville Road. Jeep Beach Event & Parade At the same meeting council members weighed in on two special event permits for the upcoming Jeep Beach event scheduled for April. Charlene Greer, the chairperson of Jeep Beach, filed one permit for a special event behind the Hard Rock hotel, and one for the Jeep Beach parade.  The former of both permits was a point of contention for the council, especially for Brower. It calls for a static display of around 24 Jeeps—all sponsored vehicles for the event—behind the Hard Rock Hotel on the beach. The problem is, that part of the beach doesn’t allow beach driving. Brower supports the event, but says he doesn’t want to grant any kind of “special privilege.” “This is a public beach, and a public beach should be open to everyone. It’s not just open to people when it’s financially beneficial to a hotel because it’s the public’s beach,” said Brower. “It’s a safety hazard. It’s a problem for people who want to enjoy the beach. Because once you drive north and hit those poles, you got to do a U-turn and people are double parked in the soft sand it’s dangerous for pedestrians on the beach because we’re packing too many cars in too small of a situation.  “I think we’re doing a disservice to the public when we approve it for a Hard Rock event. We’re kind of flipping them off,” added Brower. Post chimed in after Brower and said the council has already approved special exceptions for special events on the beach in the past. She also doesn’t want people to think the council is simply just changing beach driving rules for Jeep Beach, since the organization is centric around vehicles. But she’s ok with moving forward with the permit because it’s for a static display, something the council has approved for special events on the beach before. “It’d be like anybody else we’ve approved for a special event permit that has a static display. Whether that’s a food truck or another vehicle there,” said Post. “But that does lend to people driving by and just seeing the Jeeps there and thinking that they’re just people enjoying the day and not part of the event. It does lead to some confusion.” Despite the possible confusion, Post said she’d vote to approve the permit. Brower later spoke up again and said while he supports Jeep Beach, he can’t support the permit. He says the difference between this event and other events is it’s a celebration centered around vehicles that also includes driving on the beach. And where they want to set up displays is a stretch of beach where driving isn’t allowed. “I was elected to represent the people that voted for me. And the majority of people that voted for me said ‘we feel like we’re getting the finger stuck in our eye,’” said Brower. The council also voted to approve an amendment to the event permit that will allow it to withstand for two years, so they don’t have to keep revisiting the same issue every year. When it came time to vote for the permit itself, Brower was the lone dissenting vote. Council members also weighed in on and unanimously approved the event permit for Jeep Beach’s Jeep parade. That parade will take Jeeps from the beach approach on International Speedway Boulevard, down the coast, and towards Dunlawton Avenue in Port Orange—in total, that affects eight beach ramps. Greer expects 1,500 Jeeps to take part in the parade. Other Matters Also at the same meeting, council members voted unanimously to appoint Stephen Civitelli as the new administrator for the Florida Department of Health in Volusia County. The county also voted unanimously to approve a $90,000 contract for a consulting firm for beach sponsorships and naming rights.