NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — While Central Florida booms with growth and development, one organization in Volusia County is doing the opposite. It’s called un-development, and it’s why the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach just started a new project to transform a concrete parking lot into coastal habitat. 

A few days ago, the Marine Discovery Center (MDC) started construction on a project that will remove 13,000 square feet of a concrete parking lot and create a coastal habitat, which will include a living shoreline. 

“We are enhancing it back into wild habitat rather than it being this hardened shoreline that not a lot of plants and animals can use,” said Tess Sailor-Tynes, the MDC’s conservation science coordinator. 

Sailor-Tynes said the MDC is removing the concrete and transitioning the hardened shoreline into wetland habitat. She’s been working at the Center since 2018 and said the current parking lot setup doesn’t create optimal use for wildlife. 

“We have this kind of area of our property that is not able to be used as optimally by our wildlife and habitats,” she said.

The new shoreline will have a slope at a high elevation to ensure successful vegetation, Sailor-Tynes said. More than 1,000 trees and native plants will be added to the area. 

It’s not the first time the MDC has un-developed the property. For more than a decade, the MDC has been transforming its ground from the old New Smyrna Beach High School site into its natural state.

Before the school was constructed in 1963, the site used to be a salt marsh. Some of the MDC’s restoration projects have included removing all the buildings except one, which the Center operates out of, and transitioning the school’s old track back into a salt marsh.

“We are going to be continuing that habitat enhancement around the corner on the west parking lot shoreline by adding another third of an acre of wetland habitat,” Sailor-Tynes said.

Sailor-Tynes said the new project is a way to continue giving back to nature.

“A lot of what drives our mission is how can we better conserve the spaces around us, whether it’s in the Indian River lagoon or surrounding ecosystems,” she said. “So that interconnectedness can be a flourishing thing and people can use it for future generations.”

The project will go in phases. First, the parking lot will be removed, and then the living shoreline will be created. Sailor-Tynes said construction is expected to be completed by the fall. For more information, visit the MDC’s project webpage.

Reagan Ryan is a 2023 — 2025 Report for America Corps Member, covering the environment and climate across Central Florida for Spectrum News 13. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.