Growth management through the ballot box is rarely a good idea. And a recent proposal to write beachside building-height limits into Daytona Beach’s charter runs the risk of putting the brakes on the redevelopment and revival of the city’s core tourist area.
Few people would argue that the central beachside area is OK as it is. Main Street is a ghost town for most of the year, coming alive only when itinerant vendors show up for special events such as Bike Week. The city’s hotel stock is aging — the last full-service hotel built on the beachside is 20 years old — and signs of decrepitude mar many of the properties in the city’s so-called “e-zone.” But there are real, and promising, signs of revival.
The world-famous Hard Rock brand will adorn a new hotel expected to open in late 2016 or early 2017. In the coming months, a 300-foot-tall condo-hotel planned by the Russian-owned Protogroup hopefully will be taking shape, and the notorious Desert Inn will arise from the ashes of scorching Internet reviews as a rebranded, luxury Westin property. The White Pearl, a 13-story condominium, is planned for the east bank of the Halifax River near the Silver Beach bridge.