![BJ's Wholesale Club in Palm Coast will be the company's 38th store. Its walls went up in March, its pavement was just put down, and the store itself is preparing to open in a matter of weeks. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/bj-walls-march.jpg?resize=1000%2C665&ssl=1)
BJ’s Wholesale Club on State Road 100 will open in a matter of weeks, its parking lot paved on Monday and its certificate of occupancy soon to be issued, Flagler County’s planning director said, while Palm Coast government today took the first step toward annexing the property. But county officials raised concerns about traffic lights and traffic patterns ahead.
The 32-acre property, part of the Cornerstone strip-mall development, will consist mostly of BJ’s and its gas station, along with Miller’s Ale House, opening around Aug. 1, and Longhorn Steakhouse. “The timing on BJ’s will be shortly after Miller’s,” Mengel said, and Longhorn will be after that. There will also be a Chase Bank. Two additional stores along State Road 100, called “outparcels” in development lingo, remain unleased. The lawyer for the developer said BJ’s would open in “late August.”
The Flagler County Commission approved the development’s final plat Monday evening. The recording of the plat triggers annexation into the city–the acreage was on county land, part of the extension of the county airport to the south–but actual annexation is tied to BJ’s getting is certificate occupancy.
With what’s expected to be a surge in traffic in and out of the BJ’s complex, traffic concerns remain. Commissioner Greg Hansen wanted to know whether a cut-through access road passing south of the RaceTrac from the complex’s paring lot, to Seminole Woods, was dead. “Because that was a good idea,” Hansen said. It would have alleviated a great deal of traffic pouring in and out of the already congested State Road 100.
“There’s still a dispute,” Mengel said. “Everyone is pointing at it and saying it’s in the common best interest, and I think ultimately cooler heads may prevail, there may be some movement there, but right now with the two gas operations proposed, it’s a conflict with the RaceTrac.” Instead, there will be barricades at the eastern edge of the property even though right now during construction, there’s been some limited use of an existing access road.
Commissioner Dave Sullivan called potentially “dangerous” an unsignalized lefthand turn, going west, from State Road 100 onto the complex. “I think hopefully it will be cautiously used. You’re always worried about that. We’ve got such volume on 100 Right now, my hope will be that when that signal is at red, and there’s folks coming out making the right turn, there will be an opportunity for enough spacing there with the traffic to be able make that left turn safely.”
The turn was not the county’s doing, but approved by the state Department of Transportation, Mengel said.
A new signal has been built at the main entrance to the BJ’s complex. It will continue flashing yellow, alerting drivers to its existence, for another week or so before it goes live.
Commission Chair Andy Dance, who also chairs the Community Traffic Safety Team, a group of local public safety, school and other agencies that seek out traffic safety improvements, raised questions about that bane of Palm Coast drivers: poorly timed traffic signals.
“We talked about this at the Community Traffic Safety Team, right now the contractor is controlling the timing. They took it from the city of Palm Coast,” Dance said, “but I’m worried about this interim process where we’re still under construction and now we’ve opened up BJs and this parcel, and it’s not efficiently operating under the current contractor. Whatever system he’s using is not as efficient as it was before. I’m just worried about the the traffic when this opens. I don’t know if we’ve got any influence on how this is going to work moving forward.”
Dance is worried that the signal timing will be controlled by the developer of the complex, but Mengel said the signal will be coordinated by the city once it is fully operational. Jay Livingston, the developer’s Palm Coast-based attorney, confirmed it: Once BJ gets its certificate of occupancy, “at that stage the traffic light will go active and will be integrated into the city system.” Everything leftover will be internal matters to the development.
“I think you’re missing the point,” Dance told Livingston. “The entire 100 is under construction. So all the lights, Seminole Woods light is under construction. So the contractor is controlling all the lights.” The synchronicity in use right now is not in sync with city lights, Dance said.
That’s true, but it will change once the system is integrated, Livingston said. “I don;t think anybody has any interest, including BJs, to have difficulty reaching the site,” Livingston said.
BJ’s applied for “voluntary” annexation into Palm Coast in February 2024. The development had little choice: it is receiving water and sewer utilities from the city, which in most circumstances compels annexation, based on a local agreement signed between the county and the city in the mid-2000s. “Because of the utility settlement agreement or the water settlement agreement, we are mandated to annex in, in order to get water from the city,” Livingston said.
Notably, however, the city’s annexation today did not include the planned 240-unit apartment complex on a separate property near BJ’s Wholesale Club’s. But it will, once that plan advances. “We don’t have any other requests for any additional annexations at this point,” Brittany Kershaw, the city’s communications director, said. but if there are future projects, “there would be an annexation agreement needed for utilities.”
Today’s annexation, which drew an unsurprising unanimous vote, was on first reading. Second and final reading is in two weeks.
Bobbi says
I think they should have planned the road parts, before even thinking about wether to build. It’s going to be a nightmare!
FSU business college grad says
So the county is just NOW raising concerns about traffic at the new BJs?
1. One entry/exit only.
2. The one entry/exit is on 100 . . . Where traffic regularly gets backed up at the light NOW.
And the county is JUST becoming concerned about traffic once BJs and the other retail and restaurants once everything opens?
That area is about to become a bottlenecked parking lot of traffic that will never move.
I remember learning about real estate development and planning at Florida State University years ago. Maybe the powers that be should contact me in the future before making such catastrophic decisions.
And, yes, I am fully aware there was a problem with Racetrack not allowing ingress and egress onto Seminole Woods. Reason why the BJs project should never have been allowed in that location.
But the whole project was political from the beginning as well as a huge money maker for the well-known county official who sold that property as well as the realtors and developers who were involved.
Old Rumrunner says
NOW they worry about the traffic after it’s built. Typical…..
JimboXYZ says
“Commissioner Dave Sullivan called potentially “dangerous” an unsignalized lefthand turn, going west, from State Road 100 onto the complex. “I think hopefully it will be cautiously used. You’re always worried about that. We’ve got such volume on 100 Right now, my hope will be that when that signal is at red, and there’s folks coming out making the right turn, there will be an opportunity for enough spacing there with the traffic to be able make that left turn safely.””
When that traffic light on SR-100 goes live, that whole are is going to have to be rezoned for a speed limit. Adding an apartment complex nearby really makes that a reality to slow the game of commuting down for the dumbest ones among us. It’s 50 mph there, +/-35 mph is more realistic for highest volumes of traffic & the light at Costco & the Seminole Woods Parkway light being that close to one another. This is Palm Coast’s version of SR-40 to Dunlawton in Port Orange for speed limits East of I-95 there and it might as well be changed all the way to I-95 & further East. There are going to be peak hours when Costco is open, off peak in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping. The growth culture knows what kind of motorists Flagler County has always had, there will be a learning curve, they created this mess. The quality of life just gets better doesn’t it ?
Shark says
Finally some cheaper food and gas. Tired of getting ripped off.
SMD says
Disaster
Atwp says
Why didn’t they at least try to iron out the traffic woes? Are they just figuring out we will have a traffic mess on 100? When school opens it will be a big city nightmare during opening school hours and closing hours.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Traffic,s already a nightmare there now! This will be another P/C klusterfuck!
Cherie Lohnes says
I would say that the City of Palm Coast put its cart before the horse. WHY WASN’T THIS SUBJECT ADDRESSED BEFORE THE PROJECT WAS EVEN STARTED!!
Eric says
Hope this place fails, its terrible what all the construction has down to this town