Beach bone-anza: Volusia County celebrates new dog beach in Daytona

The 1.7-mile stretch, located between the Williams Avenue and the Seabreeze Boulevard approaches — is the county's second dog beach.

  • Daytona Beach
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Sandy paw prints are about to become a whole lot more common at University Boulevard Beach Park in Daytona Beach.

Volusia County and Daytona Dog Beach Inc. celebrated the opening of a new dog-friendly section of beach in Daytona with a ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, Dec. 3. The 1.7-mile stretch, located between the Williams Avenue and the Seabreeze Boulevard approaches — is the county's second dog beach, with the first being located in Ormond Beach. 

"Today is more than the opening of a new section of dog beach," Daytona Dog Beach President Nanette McKeel Petrella said at the ceremony. "It is a celebration of a community that dreamed, spoke up, worked hard, volunteered, donated and believed that our beautiful coastline could be shared with dogs and their families."

Volusia County established a pilot program in November 2023 for the first dog beach in Ormond. The program was made permanent in April of this year. Expanding the program to include a section of beach in Daytona followed soon thereafter, with the council unanimously approving a location in October.

County Public Protection Director Randa Matusiak said the success of the Ormond dog beach made the county feel confident in expanding access. 

"When we first introduced the dog-friendly beach in Ormond Beach as a pilot program, we approached it with careful planning and a focus on safety for people, pets and for wildlife, and what we saw was a community that stepped up," Matusiak said. "Dog owners followed the rules and demonstrated that this type of program could work extremely well."

Dogs on the beach must be leashed, and owners are required to clean up after their pets. Daytona Dog Beach paid the startup costs for signage, dog bag dispensers and water bowls. The nonprofit will also foot the bill for the $2,500 annual costs and supply dog waste bags and volunteer efforts to keep the beach clean. 

Since opening, volunteers in Ormond have removed 9,512 pounds of trash from the dog beach, a 0.6-mile stretch located between Milsap Road and Rockefeller Drive. 

Petrella thanked her volunteers and board members for their work with Daytona Dog Beach. 

"You showed up again and again, and this beach stands today because of your dedication," she said. "You are the heart of Daytona Dog Beach."

Petrella repeated that this was about "more than a dog-friendly beach."

"It's a place where children will laugh as their dogs touch the ocean for the first time," she said. "Where someone healing from loss will find comfort in a walk with their best friend. Where families will make memories they'll carry for a lifetime. The beach represents teamwork, compromise, persistence, positivity and the belief that we can create something wonderful when we work together."

Volusia County Councilman Troy Kent, who has spearheaded the dog beach efforts, also thanked Nancy Lohman and her late husband, Lowell, for their support of the Ormond dog beach. The proposal was about to "die a slow death" when it first came up at the County Council in 2023. But then the Lohmans pledged $100,000 on the spot to get it started.

"The reason that we have this new dog-friendly section of the beach today is because the first one in Ormond Beach was wildly successful," he said. "And I will challenge anybody that the cleanest section of beach in all of the 47 miles of Volusia County are in Ormond Beach, that .6-mile section, because Daytona Dog Beach is walking it three times a day." 

Dogs on the beach — which had been previously largely banned on Volusia beaches since 1987 — was one of Kent's campaign promises when he ran for County Council in 2022. That's how he met Petrella, he said. She had seen one of his mailers. 

"I looked at her — and I wasn't even elected yet — and I said, 'I'm telling you right now, put it in the bank: When I get elected, we are getting a dog-friendly section of the beach,'" Kent said. "I don't know if she thought I was crazy or what, but here we are with number two."

 

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