
In a stunning setback for Sandra Shank, developer of a planned 28-unit affordable housing apartment complex in Bunnell the city conceptually approved in 2020, Bunnell’s planning board rejected the project’s site plan last week, citing flooding concerns by neighbors–among them a member of the planning board.
The 3-2 vote rejecting the site plan for Phoenix Crossings, the name of the development, may be appealed to the Bunnell City Commission, where Shank will make her case again. She will likely face as many or more opponents, many of them from the Pine Forest mobile home community that would be adjacent to the development on its south flank.
The property is at the end of West Howe Street and North 10th Street, which curves into Elins Street, just east of the city’s sewer plant and opposite of Pearson Plumbing.
Flooding may have been the main concern for residents objecting to the project and the three planning board members voting against it. But residents also spoke of concerns for their safety, as is often the case when affordable housing projects are in the works.
Most of the time the objection is the result of unjustified fears, misinformation or outright prejudice. In this case, residents fear living near a 28-unit apartment complex that would have from 70 to 100 residents, most of them young people who have aged out of group homes for foster children and have nowhere else to go. Group home residents in the foster care system tend to be those who could not be placed in families. They are not without issues.
Shank runs one such group home in Palm Coast. She conceived of Phoenix Crossings, the proposed development in Bunnell, as a bridge out of the group homes for people who have run out of housing options. Most of the group home residents in Palm Coast are filled with children from around the state rather than local children. That would also be the case at Phoenix Crossings, which may not be able to fill its 28 apartments with young adults from the community, though it will also be open to other groups. Shank said the tenants will be local.
“I can tell you, the vast majority of these kids are good kids,” Shank told the audience at the planning board meeting. “These are kids that things happened to them that most of us as adults could not bear. And so they have trauma there, and we mitigate that trauma.” But once they turn 18, they can no longer be in those group homes. “That kid is then forced to either go to the street or go back to the abusive environment in which they came from. So now with Phoenix Crossings, they remain connected.”
Shank runs one such group home in Palm Coast. “You have not heard about us in 22 years. We have not been in news in 22 years,” she said. That was accurate about her group home. It’s not accurate about all local group homes, if making the news is the standard. One of the incidents that drew national and international attention was the result then-17-year-old Brendan Depa’s assault of a teacher’s aide at Matanzas High School in February 2023. He was in a group home at the time, and is now in state prison.
Public perception of his case was rarely free of prejudice–racial prejudice especially. Nevertheless it underscores the fact that residents’ fears about living next to young people who by definition have difficulties adjusting to society are not entirely irrational.
“I mean, we’re seniors. You want us all to get guns and take care of ourselves?” one resident of Pine Forest said. Ironically, the same community is within walking distance of the county jail on one side (and a sewer plant on the other). A fellow-resident spoke of individuals just released from the jail walking through their community, asking to use the phone, which makes residents anxious.
Shank introduced herself at the planning board as a local developer and a local resident. (Her homesteaded property is on Woodborn Lane in Palm Coast.) Curiously, she never mentioned that she chairs the Palm Coast Planning board and remains a member of the county’s Affordable Housing Committee, which she has also chaired. Shanks said she did not mention it because she did not want to influence the Bunnell board.
“Just know that we are not going to be a nuisance to you. I am local. I’m not a developer that does not live in the community. I’m a developer that’s committed to my community,” Shank said. “My office is on site, case manager on site, my assistant on site.” (The complex would not cater only to young people.)
That’s all fine and good, opponents replied, but the concerns about flooding remain, as do concerns that she may sell the development to an organization that may not be local–like most of the organizations that, in fact, run group homes in the county.
Jimmy Townsend donated the 8 acres to Shank’s Abundant Life Ministries for the project. The Florida Housing Finance Corporation awarded Phoenix Crossings $6.25 million for construction. Shank secured another $750,000 through a bank in Atlanta. But the $6.25 million was contingent on her securing a so-called “firm loan commitment,” which she has not yet done. The finance corporation gave her one extension. She is seeking another, until late May, which suggests that the project has had its difficulties.
It is also unclear how, aside from the one case manager she mentioned, the residents at the complex will get the intense level of management they require, and with what resources Shank would pay for those services. The planning board did not ask those questions, which go to the management of the facility–and ultimately the safety of neighboring residents.
Susan and Jonathan Pearson, are Ormond Beach residents who own Pearson Plumbing, across the road from the site of Phoenix Crossings. “I have a very strong concern about this,” Jonathan said, “what’s going to come here, what is–the crime, or whatever is going to be involved with this. I mean, we’re back there, and then we’re going to be surrounded by–you know, it’s, a big issue.”
He seemed uncomfortable making the connection between the future potential residents and crime. He was more convincing when he addressed flooding issues. “I’ve been there for a long time, and I’m telling you right now, the property that is across from my shop that I bought from Habitat for Humanity, where all that storm drain runs to is where they’re talking about developing is full water all the time,” Pearson said. “That house that I have down there on the end almost flooded this year. The water was all the way up to the door of my shop, and they’re talking about building this right there. It’ll flood that whole area, it’ll definitely flood that trailer park, the retirement center, for sure. No doubt. That water has nowhere to go.”
It was that sort of concern the planning board seized on to oppose the site plan approval moments after it approved a modification to the site plan on a 3-2 vote.
Shank’s petition to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation for yet another extension on her requirement to secure financing for the project or lose the $6 million loan was more detailed about what had changed in the site plan, and what would be worrisome to neighbors, though they were never told about it at the meeting: “environmental reviews and soil borings identified unanticipated conditions at the subject property, including wetlands requiring public agency delineation and unstable soils inadequate to support the Development,” the petition stated (emphasis added).
The developer, the petition continued, “has undertaken additional environmental and engineering studies, and, as a result, has resolved to expand the retainage pond on the property in order to address these concerns. The concerned parties have preliminarily agreed to this solution, and [the developer] has revised construction drawings and resubmitted [it] for permitting.”
That permit is not forthcoming for now. Its fate is in the hands of the City Commission.
Won’t end well says
Isn’t cruelty the point with the current administration? Your representation was for sell and was purchased by a billionaire so that’s who they are representing. Average people have no place in this nation but as wage slaves working their years away just for shelter and food. Don’t get sick or it’s all over ! I know a guy that works three jobs and can’t purchase any home. The problem will not get better without regulations and now we have a perverted orange moron to make micro economic policy that only benefits his fascist friends . Good luck! Just remember poverty is now a crime in murikkka and so is protesting! Waiting for some more “capital love” like before. Get the Guillotines ready lol!
Bull says
Damn funny flooding isn’t a concern for 8k homes in the middle of the Haw Creek swamp. This is not about flooding.
TRUTH says
I don’t understand how do they plan on building over
8,000 homes and a sports complex in Bunnell if there
are flooding issues for a 28 unit complex?????
Atwp says
We will see what happens next.
Wow says
I laughed out loud when I read the headline. “for flooding worries.” Hahahaha. It’s okay to build a huge hotel on Flagler Beach, put housing on Marineland shores, build million dollar houses in A1A in Flagler Beach, build in West Flagler County near the lakes…. But OH NO we can’t chance any flooded houses in Bunnell. Nothing to do with “low income”. Thanks for the laugh.
Jk says
If low income apartments/housing developments didn’t turn into crime hubs l could see the point. We’re having a tough enough time keeping the pricey apartments and houses in this town now free of people that act like they don’t know any better. Low income doesn’t mean the same as it used to. There are people who hide behind these programs just to do dirt, and keep doing dirt. By all means help those who want to help themselves.
Community in Action says
It’s heartbreaking for me that the county disapproved a housing complex for the poor and people just trying to get back on thier feet. If flooding is a concern maybe the developers should look to the now recently torn down hotel site on Old Dixie Highway. From what I have read in Flaglerlive the property seems to be perfect for a project of this size. It has all the benefits and necessities within walking distance.
I wonder if the planners of the apartment complex have considered this property now that the old building is gone ? I wouldn’t think that there would be resentment for a proposal like this from anyone.
There is an old proverb ‘WHEN ONE DOOR CLOSES ANOTHER DOOR OPENS” hopefully the developers and the owner of the old hotel site will read this and take a look for themselves.
John doe says
Can we stop with this nonsense of pretending like there is an actual logical concern why they wouldn’t want this housing to go through?
We live in a county that wants to criminalize homelessness. They don’t want it to be easier for poor people to get housing, they want it harder so they can arrest them and get them away from “the normal people”
Lifelong Flagler County Resident says
It doesn’t sound like this project is just for people aging out of foster care. It sounds like an affordable housing complex for anyone, with the intention of developing a project that would work for the youth aging out of Shank’s programs.
Residents have assumptions, but seniors and people with disabilities are being left to the street with increased rents–which, although are stabilizing somewhat, are far too high for their incomes. This project could very well serve people living here right now.
The only issue it could have is the flooding, and if they correct it, how can people not let it happen? Address the concerns. Ensure proper guidance. These folks won’t need intense case management. They’ll be adults paying rent. It sounds like there will be services for the few who need it and request it.
Santana Vera Cruz says
I agree with “Community in Action” the Old Dixie Hotel, land would be perfect for a low income apartment complex. It has plenty of space and shopping not to mention access to I-95. Directly across the road is a storage building so they can store their overage belongings.