The Palm Coast City Council approved on first reading a rezoning that will lead to 275 town home at Belle Terre Boulevard and Citation Boulevard. The gated development will be called Belle Terre Estates and provide relatively modest-size attached apartments in two-level buildings.
The development itself did not get any pushback from the council. But city land use policy framing the vote did.
The 4-1 vote, with Council member Theresa Pontieri in dissent, led to a discussion–if not a debate–on what has become routine in the city’s ongoing residential development boom: time after time, land zoned for commercial use is being re-zoned for residential uses. In this case, the rezoning is taking place despite going against the city’s own Land Development Code in one regard: the town homes will be smaller than the code calls for.
The city called those departures “minor,” and determined, in city planners’ opinions, that “they’re more than offset by the donation of 1.2 acres of land” for a public dog park, in Senior Planner Bill Hoover’s words. The developer could have instead kept the acreage and extended its own commercial parcel, or sold off the acreage, Hoover said, though that seemed to contradict what he had just said: the developer needed to make the donation in order to have its 275-home development. Had it sold off the land, or kept it for commercial uses, there would have been no justification for the city to depart from its code.
“These townhome communities are meant to be low maintenance and appeal to retirees who want to downsize and who can’t or don’t want to maintain a yard pool or a large home,” Christina Evans, a planner working with the developer, told the council. “This community would also appeal to young professionals and couples. You don’t need a lot of space yet and you have a busy schedule.”
As she had before the city’s planning board last month, Evans described the gated community as “upscale without being unaffordable,” with units selling in the “two hundred thousands.”
The lots will be 19 feet wide and 90 feet deep, or 1,710 square feet in area. The land development code’s multi-family district requires lots to be 25 feet wide, and 2,500 square feet in area. Only the development’s end lot units are closer to meeting that requirement. “So this departure from the land development code standards is the reason they’re applying for a Master Planned Development rather than a straight rezoning” to multi-family residential,” Senior Planner Bill Hoover said.
A master-planned development has requirements of its own: public benefit. In this case, the developer is citing the public dog park as the public benefit. “It would be the city’s dog park,” Ray Tyner, the city’s planning director, said: the developer will build it with park impact fee credits, the city will maintain it.
“So if the public benefit for the smaller townhomes in the smaller yard sizes is a dog park, what is the public benefit for converting from commercial to residential?” Pontieri asked.
Pontieri has been concerned about the conversion of commercial land to residential land, and the concurrent further shift of the property tax base from commercial or industrial to residential. Pontieri wants the shift to go the other way. She’s not alone on that count in local government. But local officials rarely resist or object to rezonings that only add to the residential base. And having land designated for commercial uses doesn’t mean it’ll attract users: the 40-acre parcel in play is an example.
In fact, Publix made it clear to the land owner: it’s not interested in that area. Nor are other commercial entities. “The value in commercials greater than townhomes. So, initially, we did try to check and see if we can do something commercial there,” Mark Goldschmidt, the property owner, said. “But I reached out to different commercial players and the traffic counts, especially when you’re so close to highway 100, is not going to get to the numbers that they want.” The residential expansions to the east and north made no difference, not with State Road 100 right up the road.
Another parcel near Belle Terre Estates is developing 200 single family homes. Pontieri pressed the point: commercial is not developing, the reasoning goes, for lack of residents to support it. “So are we jumping the gun on converting this from commercial to residential when we know we’re going to have over 200 new rooftops within a year?”
Hoover said residents would not want “a 40-acre commercial project with big box stores.” The concept is to provide a “node” of neighborhood commercial facilities, a walkable area that would allow residents not to have to take their car to the more dense part of town for their shopping. But for now, that node is not there.
But 15.6 acres across the street from Belle Terre Estates are zoned for commercial (and designated mixed use). Nothing would stop that land owner from requesting a rezoning to residential area. That concerns Pontieri. “They can come back and do the same thing that this applicant is doing,” she said. “And so I continue to see more rooftops and rooftop and rooftops getting rid of commercial. We appear to talk about diversifying our revenues and lessening tax base on residential households. Yet, there’s nothing to say that the lot across the street will in fact, be commercial. I like this plan. I think that the concept of this plan is excellent. My fear is: are we saying one thing and doing another?”
“The final decision on that future issue that you’re addressing would be right up here at city council,” Mayor David Alfin said. “So we can caution ourselves on that.” But so far, the council as a whole has shown little interest in signaling caution.
The 40-acre site had been platted as a general commercial subdivision for years, but sat vacant due to a lack of demand for commercial development. Belle Terre Holdings acquired the site in December 2021.
The rezoning from commercial to Master Planned Development would reserve a 1.75-acre parcel for later development as retail or other commercial uses. There’s no commitment in that regard. City planners say two factors may lead to that point: the addition of housing (and therefore residents with wallets), and the ongoing extension of Citation Boulevard to Seminole Woods Boulevard, providing both a shortcut to I-95 and a likely increase in traffic in the area. That extension is expected to be completed in the summer or fall of 2024.
Pontieri, stressing that she had no issue with the project as a whole, was not convinced that the public benefit of the dog park was sufficient to allow the deviation from the city’s Land Development code. She proposed that 40 or 50 percent of the town homes be allowed to deviate from the code, but not the entire development, which she described as “shoving in a bunch more units” in through the deviation. “I’m just asking for a little bit of movement on this because, ” Pontieri said, addressing the developer, “at the end of the day, it’s dollars for you guys, I get that. But we still have to keep within the spirit of what Palm Coast code calls for.”
There is room for the developer and the city planners to tweak the project before the ordinance’s second reading. “I think those are great concerns, and I look forward to the adjustments that come back,” Council member Nick Klufas said. But too much tweaking is unlikely, given the council’s solid vote in favor of the applicant.
She asked the developer if some of the townhouses could be designated as “workforce units,” for affordability.
“The difficulty is that that word sometimes has a negative connotation depending on who you talk to,” Joey Posey, the land owner’s attorney, said.
“When you’re talking about our first responders, our firefighters, I don’t see where there’s a negative connotation,” Heighter said. “These are people that keep our community safe and up and running. So they need housing also.” The attorney said the town homes could be starter homes for some buyers.
Belle Terre Estates, Tyner said, does provide a fee-simple town house that will be smaller units with one-car garages. “So there isn’t a product out there that I know of like what is being proposed here to have some smaller units,” he said. “That in itself could bring the price down and also providing an availability of different housing types [that] can help bring that affordability level down as well.”
Alfin urged Heighter to take on the affordable housing message into the city’s rewriting of its comprehensive plan, the blueprint for long-term planning and development in the city.
But the mayor then made a startling proposal. He imagined zoning by class. He described what would essentially defeat the original intent of Palm Coast when ITT planned it–a mid-range community where classes mixed, without older cities’ sharply delineated neighborhoods by wealth, or lack of it.
Alfin said certain areas could be zoned or designated for affordable housing: “You might want to step forward and suggest that perhaps areas be zoned for or dedicated to whichever kind of housing you’re trying to define,” he said, “so that there is no pushback from the community, and that we already have set the expectation that we are going to provide housing product that is affordable to those that are working as first responders, teachers and city staff and on and on and on. But we will actually line out areas where that’s going to be the zoning requirement for them.”
The council’s second reading of the Belle Terre Estates ordinance will take place in two weeks.
jim lang says
Shocker!
Doug says
Palm Coast is already a small metropolitan cesspool that has no leadership; What’s the big deal?
JimboXYZ says
As usual, the concept of 20 gallons of poop in a 5 gallon bucket is fitting ?
DONNA MCGEVNA says
One out of Five isn’t bad for finally realizing that this City cannot continually rezone Commercial to Residential. Simply by virtual nature of our tax base continually absorbing the fees to run the City and secondly a Great City runs by 67% Residential an 33% Commercial. Last statistics I heard was this City was 96% Residential. This number was long before the Colbert Lane, Roberts Road, Seminole Woods and now these developments, just to name a few.
Common sense added to the fact of the full disclosure of our Leader being of a Real Estate background, Kathy H is a realtor, The Vice Chairs Wife is a Realtor as well as the Mayors Wife is a Realtor – seems that a lot of decisions are a “conflict of interest” to me in the development approval of ALL developers appearing before this City Council. The time has come to go back to basics…back to the Master Plan…not revisit it and use an Etch A Sketch mentality and turn it over and wipe it clean because you want to increase the housing lose our logo and slogan of “TREE CITY USA”. Because thats the only claim to fame that is being accomplished – — thank you for your comment is passive – aggressively saying – Im ignoring you – Next Speaker!!
Marti says
Since when has Palm Coast, Flagler County, allowed so much devastating clear cutting of beautiful land? When I moved here 19 years ago, there were strict regulations. What has happened to the elected guardians of our precious community……GREED!
The Sour Kraut says
Nobody wants this land for commercial use? Just change the designation to something else. How else are we supposed to develop every square inch of Flagler county? God I can’t wait for the opportunity to vote some of these people out of office!
Greg says
Why even have zoning and building requirements? You don’t really care. You are always changing zoning, now even building to city code. It’s disgusting that our city leaders don’t care. Haven’t you approved enough housing? Thousands of homes approved. Palm Coast will soon be unlivable, traffic will be insane, and seems like you could care less. We are planning on leaving area for someplace more laid back and less busy.
Laurel says
Greg: They do not care if their constituents move away. It will all be developed, it will be filled with strangers who do not know any better, and the realtors, developers and all who are involved will take the money and run. Meanwhile, they will wave you goodbye.
Terrance B Bryant says
It might be hard to leave the “Z” section as Belle Terre, a 2 lane road is the only way in or out.
Flatsflyer says
Any development with 2 bedrooms should be required to have a 2 car garage. Based on the simple fact that all sales price will dictate that at least residents will have to have paychecks. Without adequate parking, narrow streets, etc. the city is creating future problems usually called slums. Forget about teenagers getting vehicles and adding to the problem. The driveways only support on vehicle and many residents will attempt to use the single car garage for storage rather than vehicle parking. Congratulations once again to Planners and Council members for creating more problems than they solve.
C’mon man says
I don’t care about apartments. I’ve accepted the fact that we’re going to just pack this city to the max. I’m the meantime, How about we also add a friggin right turn lane on 100 to turn south on Seminole Woods.
PC Dave says
Zoning by class? My head just exploded. “ we aren’t gonna address affordable housing right now, but, when we do, let’s make sure we put those who need it where we want them. Far away from the rest of us” Un freakin believable.
uptohere says
Vote them ALL out! Get people that work for the people & not for their own interests. Time & time again PC ignores the public outcry’s to stop development. PC does not care about you, or care what you have to say.
Christopher says
OH, just as long as they make a dog park it’s ok. Lets keep building houses’ and townhomes/apartments. It will be alright as long as a dog park is built too. Remember to vote them all out next election!!!!!!!
MAT Talley says
Why is anyone citing the need to create some sort of special housing, to house people who’s income averages: (Firefighter: 47k? Police : 42k? School Teacher 52k?)? Because they think hiding behind these professions will get us to swallow their violations of City regs. Well, what do you expect when you allow a Realtor to be Mayor. So the Mayor wants to follow the “Obama” plan of mixing low income family homes in middle to upper neighborhoods? Perhaps he could begin in his own neighborhood, and show the rest of the City how wonderfully successful his plan is. No? I have remarked in the past: Multiply times 2 each new home, and that’s the average number of additional vehicles you are adding to the Palm Coast traffic. With the “buildingplazooza” this Council has created, and the money such building supposedly generates, Palm Coast should have clean canals, functioning swales, appropriate Police, Fire, and Rescue and Teaching manpower. Can someone/anyone smarter than me, create a Palm Coast First third party, to run candidates who will be much more thoughful and caring for the future of our City?
confused says
You forgot to add, a 24/7 helicopter to be able to go up at anytime and be of multi use ! Fire and rescue seems to be needed and we have to have Volusia step up to the plate !!!
Fritz Bertoch says
Commercial space next to this townhome complex would be ideal space for a Family Dollar or Dollar General or Dollar Tree. Affordable prices for high cost townhomes.
MFS says
What is being done to attract higher paying jobs to the area in order to afford the new construction? Don’t think I’ve seen anyone say a thing about that.
Randy Jones says
The concept rendering for the dog park does not show an “accessible route” (paved walkway) from the parking area to the shade structure at the “small dog” side of the park. I guess people in wheel chairs have only large dogs?
Terrance B Bryant says
We voted for them. Vote them out!
palmcoaster says
Where are the grants or sufficient impact fees to be used in the needed more roads to be built or the widening of the existing ones to hold of the thousands of additional vehicles of this growth? No, they ask for 25 millions to build a bypass Palm Harbor Parkway out west miles west of Rte 1, to benefit developers and vacant land owners on our hard earned taxes while neglecting the needed paved roads and speed calming items in the existing communities! Their mind set is, if you do not like it move!
Confused says
Vote them out is becoming a mantra !! Let’s do something about it !!
Look at your neighbors, Retired ? Bored ? Have some smarts ? Level Headed ? Common Sense ? What about you, who’s reading this?
What I’m getting at , there has to be someone new, to step up to the plate and run, to get these these deaf, blind and greedy folks voted out !! I don’t know what it takes, money or what to run for office How hard can it be ? To vote them out, we need to have some new blood, to vote in !! I always see the same names on the billboards that litter our city when it’s time to vote. Those are the people we need to look into before voting them in. I think most of us know what we want and what we don’t, and if there’s even an ounce of uncertainty don’t vote their name till you get your answer.
There has to be someone with a little experience or knowledge on how to run a city , as they run their own homes, and keep within a manageable budget. While saving what green areas we have left. And ,more importantly , quit building anything, unless it’s a business that employees more than 50 people. No more gas stations, storage units, etc. until our streets have sidewalks, lights, and that the streets and roads we have, are big enough to handle the traffic we have.
Yeah, I’m confused !! ( I’d love to be a little mouse and listen in to some of these council members when having private city business meetings, to see who does or says what )
One last thing, I see a lot of the same people leaving comments and good feedback here, as long as it’s not politics in general. Why not throw your name into the ring, be it what ever political union you run under. With the great feedback some of you leave, you might make it into office !!!!
celia pugliese says
Issue is that is not less than over $2000 to run for office if candidate does not gather enough signatures to avoid the fee. Then it comes the printed and mailed adds/cards that can be offset by the PAC’s big bucks supporting a potential contender favorite of them. Last an not less important the war of attrition badmouthing, conspiracies our or private life displays of human errors of a candidate or invented against those that are not the party and stake holders favorites!
celia pugliese says
Thank you Councilwoman Theresa C Pointieri for your courage! You are trying to preserve what ITT-Levitt envisioned when founded Palm Coast in spite that they are being blamed for all the wrong doing by planning and engineering in this city! Lets go back and remember the original plan and not the distortions made today and give credit where credit do and not escape goat!: https://palmcoasthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2007-April-June-Issue-17-1.pdfg