Daytona Beach neighborhood builds park to keep out Sex Offenders

Children enjoy their new park in Daytona Beach’s Bayberry Lakes neighborhood. Homeowners association leaders put in the park so the law that prohibits sex offenders from living near parks can be invoked. Florida Department of Law Enforcement records showed Monday that 52 sex offenders were living in the neighborhood’s ZIP code.

News-Journal/STEVEN NOTARAS

The playground was strategically placed to cover an open zone where sex offenders could have moved into the community off LPGA Boulevard.

The playground appears to be the first in either Volusia or Flagler counties built to block sex offenders from moving in to a community. A spokeswoman with the state Department of Corrections said she did not know of any other community in the state that had taken such an initiative. Sheriff’s Offices in Volusia and Flagler counties said they had not heard of a community doing such a thing. Sunrise Park Holly Hill and Sexual Predators.

It was the idea of J. Ryan Will, a Bayberry Lakes resident who also happens to be a prosecutor for the local State Attorney’s Office.

“I just started looking for ways to keep sex offenders out of the neighborhood and I knew from my job that there were residency requirements with respect to parks and playgrounds,” Will said.

The community of 328 homes is nearly built out and already had Champion Elementary School in the north end and a park in its community center at the other end, each one creating zones where sex offenders could not live.

State law bars sex offenders whose victims were younger than 16 from living within 1,000 feet of a school, child care facility, park or playground. A similar Daytona Beach city ordinance is stricter, excluding sex offenders and sex predators from living within 2,500 feet of such facilities. Continue reading →