July 2024 Existing Conditions Workshops
On July 22nd and 23rd, 2024, Housing Daytona Beach (HDB) and the City of Daytona Beach (CODB) convened a series of workshops for residents from Palmetto Park, Caroline Village, and Walnut Oak (PP/CV/WO) and stakeholders in the surrounding Historic Midtown planning area to review the Existing Conditions data for the neighborhood. Existing Conditions data was gathered from a broad range of sources and included findings from the PP/CV/WO Resident Survey. Four meetings were held, all at the John H. Dickerson Community Center: 1) a Young Planners workshop on the morning of July 22, 2024, 2) two PP/CV/WO resident workshops on the afternoon and evening of July 22, 2024, and 3) a public community workshop on the evening of July 23, 2024. The agenda, meeting content, and activities were identical for all resident and community workshop sessions. During the Young Planners workshop, youth from the Boys and Girls Club of Volusia/Flagler County, including residents of PP/CV/WO, learned about neighborhood planning. The children participated in a walk of their community and a visioning session to brainstorm the features they want to see in the redeveloped site. The young planners then drew or wrote the different features and elements that they would like to preserve, remove, or add to their transformed neighborhood. At all Resident and Community Workshop sessions, participants were welcomed and given a summary of the planning process to-date. Participants then conducted a data stroll around the room to review the Existing Conditions data boards. The boards were organized in several related categories, including Who Lives Here: Families and Demographics, Youth and Education, Employment and Transportation, Neighborhood Assets, Neighborhood: Past and Future, Health and Wellness, Environmental Features, and Public Safety. Participants were able to discuss the data at each station and what stood out to them with members of the Planning team, including HDB and CODB staff, Community Ambassadors, and the planning consultants. As part of the workshops, HDB and CODB issued a call for ideas to use $100,000 in Early Action Activity grant funds for small physical improvements in the neighborhood. Early Action Activities are meant to provide innovative solutions to neighborhood challenges, help further the transformation of the neighborhood, and must be complete within 12 months. The call for Early Action Activities was also available on the project website (www.midtowndaytonabeach.org) and closed on August 16. The top project ideas for Early Action Activities will be presented and ranked at the CNI Visioning Workshop in September. Finally, the workshops were used to recruit interested residents and stakeholders to participate in a future series of task force meetings to discuss strategies to improve outcomes for housing, neighborhood, and people in the Historic Midtown planning area.