NEWS

Homeless safe zone on commission agenda

Daytona commissioners will also discuss apartment project

Eileen Zaffiro-Kean
eileen.zaffiro-kean@news-jrnl.com
In early January 2018, when a cold snap gripped Daytona Beach, a few dozen homeless people set up camp in the city's safe zone. The city lot on Clyde Morris Boulevard near Beville Road is only intended to be a legal place for the unsheltered to spend the night, and tents are usually not allowed. But city officials relaxed the rules until the cold weather passed. Pictured is Michael Collins heading back to his tent at the safe zone after a freezing night in early January 2018. [News-Journal/Jim Tiller]

DAYTONA BEACH — When city commissioners hold their meeting Wednesday night, one of their more in-depth conversations will be about the city's homeless safe zone strategy.

There has been a safe zone, a legal place for homeless people to spend the night before moving on in the morning, on city land along Clyde Morris Boulevard near Beville Road for the past few years. Commissioners could discuss whether they want to maintain that safe zone that consists of an open piece of land, water spigots and portable restrooms.

Commissioners are also likely to discuss whether they want a safe zone at the new homeless shelter on the city's western boundary that's hoped to open in December. The new First Step Shelter building and site are owned by the city, and the building is being leased to the nonprofit First Step Shelter, Inc.

Both city commissioners and First Step Shelter Board members need to decide if they want a safe zone at the shelter, where it would be on the property, how large it would be and what it would include.

Also at Wednesday's 6 p.m. meeting at City Hall, commissioners are slated to consider the following items.

A proposed low-income apartment project on Martin Luther King Boulevard is seeking a six-month $425,625 loan with 3% interest from the city's Midtown Community Redevelopment Trust Fund. The loan would improve the developer's odds of getting $15.2 million of tax credits for the project. Commissioners will vote on both that loan and development rights for the four-story, 82-unit affordable housing project in the Midtown neighborhood.

Commissioners are also being asked to approve a $113,175 change order for the Martin Luther King Boulevard road and pedestrian improvement project. If the changes are approved the total adjusted contract price will be $2.79 million and the adjusted contract time will be 321 days. The extra days were requested to compensate the contractor for the delay caused by the redesign of the sanitary sewer system and the expanded scope of work to install a new reuse system.

With the state legislative session about to begin, city commissioners have been asked to decide if they support the following legislative priorities.

— Funding to assist the city match cost of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood mitigation study.

— Local government regulation authority of short-term property rentals.

— Maintaining local government home rule authority.

— Release of state-owned rights and restrictions on riverfront-area property to the city at no cost to the city.

— Funding for infrastructure projects that improve water quality and assist in aquifer recharge.

— Agency programs that provide assistance to local governments for projects such as historic preservation, master planning, improvement to public areas, environmental enhancement activity, beautification, trail development and transportation infrastructure.

— Funding assistance in the amount of $10 million for expansion of utilities to the city’s western service area.