- May 19, 2026
As construction continues on Hand Avenue in Ormond Beach, Prince of Peace Catholic Church parishioners continue to ask the county to remove a median that blocks access to the church.
Parishioners attended District 4 Volusia County Councilman Troy Kent's open community dialogue meeting on Monday, May 18, at the Ormond Beach Regional Library, to discuss the $5.1 million road project. The project impacts the section between Clyde Morris Boulevard and Nova Road. On the eastern end, the road will be widened from two to four lanes; on the western side, it will be reduced from five to four lanes with dedicated turn lanes for safety.
The county has also added a median, which is now preventing Prince of Peace parishioners and visitors to its Like New Shop thrift store from making a left turn onto the grounds from the eastbound lanes.
"I don't think any of us would dispute that safety is important," said Deputy Mayor and parishioner Lori Tolland, who attended Kent's meeting.
She and the parishioners in attendance asked for the county to meet with the church onsite to discuss the median issue, and perhaps come up with a solution for access.
Kent, who holds these meetings on a quarterly basis, brought County Engineer Tadd Kasbeer to speak about the project.
Kasbeer said that making that corridor safer was the priority when designing the road project. Within a five-year period, the section of Hand Avenue between Clyde Morris and Nova had 31 crashes, one of which was a fatality.
The majority of the crashes, Kasbeer said, were caused by people trying to make left turns.
"Obviously, when we take a look at medians, I'd love to give everybody a full opening — that's just the way I would like for it to be," he said. "Unfortunately, we don't always have the space or the ability to do so. In this case, we were limited by the amount of space we have, and so we had to make choices."
County policy dictates that left turn access — and when possible, a full median opening — be prioritized for residential areas, Kasbeer explained.
In the case of Prince of Peace, access to the nearby Shady Oaks, Coquina Cove and Pinewood Estates mobile home communities, as well as Wellington Station condominiums, was prioritized. These communities only have access from Hand Avenue.
The church, on the other hand, has an additional entrance at Nova and Division Ave., with a traffic light.
"So when we looked at the different options for getting into and out of the sites, the church had the best opportunities to use the existing access points safely, such that we could give the access points to the other residential areas without negatively impacting as much as it would for those residential areas," Kasbeer said.
But parishioners in attendance said that most people aren't using the entrance on Nova Road, and because of the new median, are making unsafe U-turns on Hand Avenue.
Kent received a petition at the meeting signed by about 1,000 of Prince of Peace parishioners asking the county to restore access. Parishioners plan to submit a copy to the Volusia County Council at its meeting on Tuesday, May 19, as well.
Worried about making a recommendation that goes against the county engineer's design to improve safety, Kent said he wasn't keen on asking the council to restore the left-hand turn onto the church campus from Hand Avenue.
"I don't want it on my conscience if there are more crashes there," he said.
Kent said it would take some time to get used to a new traffic pattern, but that he didn't understand why people were so opposed to using the entrance on Nova.
"I've really been trying to wrap my head around — you all are good, hardworking people," Kent said. "You got 1,000 people to sign a petition, and I'm like, 'Is this all because people don't want to drive 100 extra feet at a light and turn left?'"
"They're really mad," a parishioner responded.
According to data shared to the council in late April, Prince of Peace serves 2,000 registered families. Its food pantry saw over 10,081 visits last year. The church expects to see 11,600 visits by the end of 2026.
Construction on Hand Avenue is slated to be complete by February 2027.
