Daytona Beach, FL - Sounds like the city might forego their plans to tear down the nearly 80-year-old City Island Recreation Center and instead move forward with plans to renovate it. At least for now.
In the past, there have been calls to demolish the building, which received the majority vote of the city commission. The most recent vote happened in February, where Commissioners Ruth Trager and Ken Strickland both voted against demolishing the building.
While Trager and Strickland made pleas to renovate the building instead, the other commissioners said it wouldn’t be worth the almost $2 million it reportedly would cost to refresh the building. After Wednesday’s meeting (April 6), the tune seems to have changed.
Many impassioned residents showed up in favor of saving the almost 80-year-old City Island Recreation Center. It was a part of the commission’s agenda that night as city leaders discussed what should be done about the building. Multiple residents, which included a number of army veterans, came to speak up about the historical significance the building has in the Daytona Beach area.
“(It’s) the legacy of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt,” said local history teacher and professor Joseph Vetter, stressing the connection the building has to the area’s history. “I'm here as a citizen begging you to preserve this building.”
"This is definitely part of our history," said Trager.
One way to save the building would be to designate it as a historical place, which is an option discussed at the meeting. In order to do that, the city will have to give the site a historical zoning overlay, which means the city will have to submit an application to the city's Historic Preservation Board to request the designation.
While that sounds easy, it could be a process that takes several months because of the steps the application will have to go through. After it goes through the HRB, it will then need to go through the Downtown Redevelopment Board and the Planning Board before the matter is returned to the city commission for a final vote.
But in that time, the city wants to establish a citizen committee by May that will generate ideas on what to do with the building. The most common recommendation so far from residents is turning the building into some sort of museum related to Daytona’s history with WWII. Once the city has an idea, they can move on to hunting for grants.
Having a specific role for the building will help guide the city with what grants to apply for. According to City Manager Deric Feacher, the city can seek out grants from numerous different avenues, including Volusia County’s ECHO program, or other state and federal grant programs.
In speaking about grants, Mayor Derrick Henry mentioned that he will not support saving the building if the city cannot secure funding. Still, he’s considering saving the center for it’s connection to the city’s history.
So far, renovations have been estimated to cost around $1-2 million.
The building’s connection to the city’s history goes back to World War II. In 1942, Daytona Beach became the training site for the Women’s Army Corps, seeing over 20,000 women come to train in the city. The rec center was soon established as a place for WACs and soldiers to relax as they trained in-town—some at the Halifax Air Naval Station. According to an article from the Daytona Times, the women who trained and worked in Daytona Beach generated a $5 million economic impact at the time.
