By Julie Murphy, Staff Writer, Dayona Beach News Journal
Shimmering pinks, oranges and purples glisten on a field of diamonds as the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a view that regularly unfolds out car windows along State Road A1A in Flagler County.
It’s also one of Florida’s last remaining stretches where coastal highway still lives and breathes with nature, sherbet-colored roadside motels and ocean breezes.
Some people who have fought to preserve that nostalgic feel — and government officials who want to save the highway from erosion — call it the best section of the 325-mile line of asphalt that stretches from the Georgia border to the Keys.
“You can still do what people have always done: frenzy yourself in the sheer beauty,” said Herbert Hiller, a DeLand resident and author. “You can drive right to it, get out of your car and throw yourself into the waves.”
Much of the roadway’s eastern edge in Flagler County kisses the beach. A thick canopy of trees shade areas that meander inland.
John Egan, a retiree who lives in Ormond-by-the-Sea, prefers the road — and the beach — less traveled.
“It’s quiet. Delightful,” he said on a recent sunny afternoon as he prepared to hike from High Bridge Road north past the Flagler County line. “It’s good for the soul. I want it to remain this way: unspoiled and beautiful.”
Efforts to preserve the road haven’t come without a lot of hard work.
Friends of A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal Byway has spent years raising money and awareness to preserve and enhance resources along the byway. Last month the group was awarded a $560,000 federal grant, which triggered a local match from the county of $140,000, for improvements at Varn Park and the River-to-Sea Preserve West.
“You have a wonderful opportunity to hug nature along A1A,” said Friends of A1A chairwoman Anne Wilson. “You have Old Florida, wildlife — birds, manatees, dolphins — and history, like the plantation at Bings Landing archaeological dig.”
PROTECTING THE ROAD
While many, like Wilson, want to preserve the beauty of the corridor, it’s the job of the Department of Transportation to protect the road. In areas closest to the beach this is done by “armoring” the roadway with either slope rock or vertical sheet iron, like in Flagler Beach, said Gene Varano, a project manager for the DOT.
Historically, it’s common to have a roadway along the coastline because it was necessary for commerce, food transport and military strategy, Varano said. Equally historical has been the need to go to some extreme measures to protect the road from the wrath of Mother Nature.
“The conditions — geology, elevation and proximity of the roadway — dictate what you do,” Varano said. “We have to provide a prudent level of protection for the roadway. We don’t get to experiment.”
Some areas of the state road that ran beside the ocean have been “swapped out” with interior roadways or rerouted over the past 30 or 40 years, Varano said, so the DOT can meet its mission of “getting people from point A to point B.” This has happened in St. Johns County to the north, as well as in Volusia, St. Lucie, Indian River and Martin counties.
A proposal for an additional span of sea wall to protect the roadway from erosion in Flagler Beach from 250 feet north of South 13th Street to 140 feet south of South 14th Street, which has been a trouble spot for years, has been put on hold. This was done in part because of the public’s negative reaction to it.
Officials wouldn’t say whether rerouting S.R. A1A through the oceanside city is an option.
“In the past when we’ve had damage on S.R. A1A (in Flagler Beach), we’ve gone in and fixed it,” said DOT spokesman Steve Olson.
Varano said that could change, if like in southeastern Volusia County on either side of the Bethune Beach Park and sea wall, “measures to protect the road were becoming excessive.”
“There are standards we have to keep,” he said.
DOT officials said in April when the decision was made to put the project on hold that they recognize cities and counties also have standards that carry significant weight: tourism and recreation — a way of life.
OPEN AND FREE
“It still has the feeling of Old Florida,” Wilson said. “Its two lanes are lined with oaks and magnolias and dotted with mom-and-pop businesses.”
Ice cream parlors, eateries, art galleries, a “treasure company,” and a ukulele shop among them.
“It’s as much the way Florida used to be as any place on the East Coast until you hit the Keys,” said Hiller, whose books include “Highway A1A: Florida at the Edge.”
“Everyone is enchanted by the fact that we have a road that runs along the coast.”
Richard and Tracey Whittaker’s private resort — officially Villa Tracey but referred to by many as “Romance of the Sea” because of a sign that hangs on the front porch — has two long-term rental units. They’ve been renovating the cottages, which were built in 1953, probably as a motel, for the past 15 years.
“This (Flagler County) is one of the only places where there aren’t big resorts blocking the views of the beach from the residents,” Richard Whittaker said. “There are a lot of places where the only ones who get to see the ocean are the tourists.”
Patsy Kidwell, manager of the Barracuda Bay Motel, which was built the same year as Villa Tracey, said having the ocean for a front yard is majestic.
“It’s open and free,” she said. “Visitors always tell me they love the color and that visiting here is like stepping back in time.”
Company: Flagler County Chamber of Commerce Visitor’s Center
Contact : : Karen Edmonson
[email protected]
Tel No: 866.736.9291
Fax No: 386.437.5700
Address: 20 Airport Road, Suite C, Palm Coast, Florida -32164
http://www.visitflagler.org/
