DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With less than two weeks before Daytona Bike Week, the public got a chance to sound off on proposed changes for motorcycle events.
On Monday, the city of Daytona Beach held a meeting on guidelines for the Bike Week/Biketoberfest Master Plan.
During the gathering, officials heard feedback from residents, vendors, and business owners.
“Probably the biggest (proposal) that we have received some comment about is the discussion about having parking on the beachside and some of the residential areas,” said Jeffrey Brown, Daytona Beach’s economic and strategic opportunities director.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
The city considered an idea to allow parking in neighborhoods within a certain distance from Main Street.
“One of the things we’re looking at, we’ll be asking during the meeting, is a one-mile radius, a half-mile radius,” Brown added.
In addition to the proposal for parking in neighborhoods, another change involves what is typically seen in empty lots off of Main Street, specifically concerning how much vendors would be paying for bike events.
The city is considering increasing vendor fees to align more closely with other bike events in Florida and out-of-state that charge higher rates.
“If people were not paying the same rate to be here as what they are in Leesburg, and our event dwarfs Leesburg’s, how are they making money?” Brown asked.
The proposed changes outlined during the meeting were met, at times, with shouts and jeers. Many people in the crowd objected to expanding parking into neighborhoods, and to the expansion of itinerant vending.
“It’s a slap in the face to everybody building our community day in and day out,” said Bobby Ellis, who owns Victory Tattoo.
Ellis was one of several tattoo artists who spoke Monday night. He and his cohorts argued that expanding itinerant vending to outside tattoo artists would undercut local tattoo artists and put customers at risk.
“(Itinerant vendors) are not held to the same level of standards and accountability of people who have a brick-and-mortar business,” Ellis said. “Even the health codes alone cannot be upheld to the same standards who is in a normal business every day.”
After receiving feedback from the meeting, the information was brought to commissioners, who may vote on the issue later this year.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below:
