Barely 24 hours after the Palm Coast City Council approved the rezoning and special exception for a self-storage facility on Old Kings Road, across from the Hidden Lakes subdivision, the Palm Coast Planning Board Wednesday evening recommended approval of a special exception for a separate self-storage facility just two parcels to the north, nearer the Toscana subdivision.
The 23-acre facility approved Tuesday, called Secure Space, drew significant public opposition, almost all from Hidden Lakes residents. The latest facility, a proposed 13-acre plan for “mini-warehouses, office warehouses and self-storage,” as it is described in a city analysis, drew an almost empty chamber and not a single voice in opposition. It will be located on the east side of Old Kings Road just north of the entrance to the Toscana subdivision, and parallel with the weigh station on I-95, to the west.
The Planning Board approved the special exception 6-0 in a brief hearing.
Like Secure Space, RF2 Storage, as it’s been identified so far, would accommodate RVs and boats, neither of which may be parked in Palm Coast residential neighborhoods. Six self-storage buildings numbering 698 storage units would total 87,000 square feet, with an additional 68,600 square feet of 127 covered spaces for boats and RVs. (The number of units and spaces is still fluid.) Heavy-duty trucks, semi tractor trailers and dump trucks will not be allowed as storage. Nor will buses, shipping containers or large construction equipment.
“The site is bound by conservation area on the east which provides an excellent buffer between the subject property and the residential development to the east,” Planner Estelle Lens told the planning board. That buffer is about 650 feet wide, with additional buffers of 25 to 120 feet around the property itself. The parcel is zoned general commercial, a designation that does not allow self-storage facility except through special exception. That’s what developer Walker Douglas was seeking before the board.
Irvine, Calif.-based Jeffrey and Robert Friedman have owned the property since 2003, when they bought it for $1.36 million. “Our company, Douglas Property and Development, was approached last year by that landowner to sort of determine how best to monetize a property–do we sell it today for its current use under Comm-2,” the commercial zoning designation, “or do we determine what the highest and best use is, developed that ourselves.”
A traffic analysis found that as a self-storage business, the facility would generate an additional 359 average daily trips, including 40 trips at peak hours. Walker, addressing the concerns of added traffic, said it was doubtful that a single commercial enterprise would build a 200,000 square foot facility at the site, though that would have produced its own significantly higher level of vehicle traffic. On the other had, had the site been used for, say, even a 6,000 square foot gas station and convenience store, it would have generated 358 peak-hour vehicle trips
“Regarding public participation,” Lens said, “the applicant met the 14-day requirement of sending certified mail to abutting properties for tonight’s planning and land development regulation board public hearing. And staff has not received any phone calls nor emails objecting to this request.” The request will not appear before the City Council, since it is only a special exception–not a rezoning, as was the case with Secure Space. The next step would be a technical site plan, which the developer would again submit to the planning board for approval. “Obviously we’ve got a lot of buildable land left after that,” he said.
“The reason we’re going forward with self storage and RV and boat storage is, we saw the writing on the wall last year. And I know you all are familiar at this point with the figure that Palm Coasters pay about 50 percent more on average for storage than folks in Daytona or St. Augustine or Jacksonville, ” Douglas said. “So pair that with the fact that we’re not putting our RVs or boats in our yards or in our driveways in Palm Coast. We have sort of like a captive market with this built-in demand and a pretty severe shortage, hence the 50 percent premium. So it was sort of a no brainer for us. It’s a great use. It’s really low impact for that piece of property.” He described the expected traffic “about as light as of a trip generation as you’re going to get.”
Palm Coast currently has nine self-storage facilities with current business-tax receipts. The facilities approved or recommended this week would bring the total to 11. But self-storage as a business is booming nationally, as well as in Palm Coast and Flagler. (See: “Here, There, Everywhere: Why Self-Storage Facilities Are Booming All Over Flagler, and Will Keep Booming.”)
Fredrick says
OMG… would you people who are moving here to escape from northern blue states just leave your crap up there and not bring it here….. You are not going to need it and it is not going to fit into your new Florida home. That includes any liberal politics…
Thank you.
Gina Weiss says
Fredrick: and it’s cheaper to buy furniture down here than to haul or to hire movers!
Jr says
Agreeded fred, This is causing Palm Coast to destroy our forest roads uptick in crime ridiculous !
J.N. says
Agree! Palm Coast’s beautiful natural land and resources is being chewed up slowly but surely by the City’s push to increase business and commerce without the approval of it’s citizens.
The dude says
Most of the crime I’m seeing here in PC seems to be perpetrated by “locals”.
In case you hadn’t noticed, this are has an unusually high concentration of depraved individuals and most of the ones popping up the local news look to be natives.
“Florida Man” is not a myth, he’s real and he calls Central Florida “home”…
The Truth says
Only a Republican could turn an approval for a storage unit into a political soapbox.
HayRide says
There is nothing you could store that’s worth it, for what you’ll pay over time. Get rid of your junk, since it will be sold off after you don’t pay for storage when you get bored with the payments. There is a history of it check around.
So is the building designed to be useful after the storage Phrase is pass-say?
Shark says
Why doesn’t Palm Coast build a storage facility for us to store our boats and RV’s. We are getting ripped off by the ones that are here now. These places are gold mines.
Tina says
Why doesn’t Palm coast allow RVs, boats, campers etc? Just moved here and am realizing how many RULES there are here 😕
Grandma says
I agree with Fred. This is ridiculous
Trump/Covid 2020 says
Build more I say…American free market capitalism at it’s finest.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Our county is being raped of God’s intentions to provide us and all living creatures and plants a right to a clean healthy environment. There are no words strong enough to describe the unacceptable greed which they try to spray paint with their repulsive lies.
Jimmy says
Y’all are really funny! Junk, junk, junk! Like you’re out there looking at what people are unloading into these units! Hahhaha! My recently purchased unit is a nice 5×5 at a great rate. IT STORES MY BUSINESS DOCUMENTS! Your perception of what’s happening behind the storage facility gates is WAY off! There are at least 10 $500k RVs at my new place. Just sayin’… Whole businesses are being stored at these places now…why waste $$$ renting an office when you work remote anyway?
I commend the Planning Board and City Council for being forward thinking. It’s likely more than 20k people move here by 2030. The traffic counts won’t matter much because they are 4-lane-ing all of that anyway.
The whole NIMBY movement going on about every new thing happening around here is getting old and gives the city a bad image. Sue everybody for every decision we don’t like…gimme a break!
There’s a higher and better use of your time and money, folks. Instead of funding lawyers, Go feed the homeless or help kids read! Help a Veteran…but whining about storage places and threatening lawsuits shows your true colors. Few people want to have anything to do with that nonsense.
Darlene L Shelley says
It is not a threat, it’s a promise. 1049 people signed that they are opposed to this Urban Sprawl. These locations are zoned for OFC-2, located next to an Assisted Living Facility! Put a Veteran’s Home, pastry shop, florist, Dr. Office, Medical Facility, something the local residents could actually use. The residents of Hidden Lakes and Toscana bought their homes with the expectation of possible office uses across the street from our homes, not non-conforming storage facility #29 and #30 in the Palm Coast area. Truly sad, unnecessary here, inconstant, and incompatible in this location. If you would like to help the fight against the City’s neglect of our protected rights, please check this us out on GoFundMe.
Dennis says
Way too many eye sores being built. Palm Coast just keeps building and building. Money money money is all the city wants. Could care less about what the citizens want. Getting close to the time we move on.
The dude says
MAGAT’s profess to love freedom… until they actually see others enjoying it as well.
Flatsflyer says
No residents of Toscana or Hidden Lakes bother to show up because the corrupt City Staffers and Council Members ram rodded the other one through earlier the same week. Now these same Aholes want us to take a phoney survey so they can lie about the responses and use their “boiled” results to justify raises and bonuses for these same Clowns. This city needs to be investigated for many criminal offenses.
Darlene L Shelley says
The City did not notify any of the residents about the second Special Exception application # 4965. No sign, no letters to homeowners, no notification on the PC website Development Map. Completely hidden from every resident. This is unacceptable, devious, and a threat to the welfare, safety, and property values of every Toscana and Hidden Lakes resident!
Pissed in my pants says
Darlene: Spot on! And that’s just the way hidden agendas are passed here in this county, no public notice, no public address or public invite, hidden under a bunch of other secretive ridiculous agendas because the officials who are voted in to protect we the people do not do so. They need to be voted out, not to mention the 3 ring circus of the FCBOCC.
MrsTRosebud says
Residents of Hidden Lakes were not notified! If we were we would have been there! Old Kings Road has become a major through fare and when there is an accident on I95 the road becomes blocked.
The intersection of Town Center Blvd. and Old Kings Road is in need of improvements for all who walk and ride bikes who cross the narrow bridge to access the Lehigh Trail. We could use a pedestrian bridge there instead of route 100 which will lead to nowhere.
MikeC says
The voters were warned during the last election: vote a Real Estate broker as Mayor and quality of life will take a back seat to unbridled commercial development. It will be a nightmare! I am no fan of Alan Lowe and the perpetually angry Trumpers taking over the city. That would be worse in my view. But when the City Council ignores a petition signed by 1049 VOTING residents we need to pay attention to who we are voting for.
You can make all the arguments you want about the need for two 100,000 sq ft. storage facilities within FEET of each other across from two of the nicest residential communities in PC, but lets get real: These developers and Politicians are of a singular class. They break bread together, they share investment information that you and I are not privy to (ever meet a politician who leaves office poorer than when they entered?). You can NEVER trust that they truly represent the people who voted them in.
And here’s a couple facts: I did my due diligence when I moved to Hidden Lakes and knew there would be commercial development on OKR. According to the FLUM and the Zoning map, it would be development that benefitted homeowners in need of services. Now I am at the mercy of these changes and rezonings, with no voice. The commercial land owners knew exactly what they were buying in these parcels. But they also know that, with the right people in power, the Flum and the Zoning Map mean nothing. A few backdoor meetings, some underhanded notice processes, and voila here we are! Too expensive and not lucrative enough to build Com-2 right now? Hey, this is ‘Merica….we gotta get them a nice return on their investment even tho they screwed up and bought crappy little parcels unprofitable to develop. Lets allow them to build the absolute cheapest kind of development and construction there is, Self Storage: corrugated building’s with minimal infrastructure and parking lots with covers on them. Profit above quality of life. “Business friendly” is not a benign concept, it’s a way of life for these people.
The development vultures are descending on our beautiful city now that it is guided by a Real Estate Broker and that Ambitious Techie whose district these abominations will be built in. We wanted Alfin. Welcome to the nightmare!
Underdog says
Wow! You got yours in your gated compound and to hell with everyone else’s rights. Worse, you defame others in pursuit of your denying someone else the same rights you purchased with your home that once stood on a virgin oak grove.
The facts are: this is needed or it wouldn’t happen and has far less impact in noise and traffic than your private landscape crews and personal obnoxious Harley’s but facts don’t matter.