Flagler County on Monday—the day of the deadline—filed a grant application with Florida Forever in an effort to secure money to buy and conserve 153 acres of floodplain land around the headwaters of Bulow Creek. The area is near the planned Summertown/Veranda Bay development of some 2,400 homes, and near the 1,160-acre Bulow Creek county preserve.
County Administrator Heidi Petito informed commissioners of the application’s filing Monday evening. “This milestone reflects our community’s strong commitment to protecting the headwaters of Bulow Creek and ensuring that future generations can enjoy its natural beauty,” she wrote.
The application, expected to be ratified at the Dec. 15 meeting of the Flagler County Commission, resulted from a burst of negotiations that followed Veranda Bay representative Ken Belshe’s announcement that he was willing to sell some of the Summertown/Veranda Bay land for conservation. He and his attorney met with county officials last week and agreed on a sale in principle, but not on a sale price.
Belshe has been working with Flagler Beach for over a year to annex the development into the city, scaling a series of obstacles along the way. The 2,700-home development was scaled down to 2,400 homes. It was initially known as The Gardens, then Veranda Bay.
Late this year it split off as Veranda Bay on the east side of John Anderson Highway, where more than 160 houses have been built and many are occupied, and Summertown, on the west side of John Anderson. Summertown is to have a commercial center of more than 600,000 square feet.
The city commission is scheduled to consider the second and final reading of the annexation of the Summertown portion at a meeting in January. It approved the annexation on first reading in a 4-1 vote last month but asked for a workshop to discuss further details. At that workshop last week, Belshe and County Commissioner Andy Dance revealed the outcome of their meeting the day before. The race was then on for the county to beat the Dec. 8 Florida Forever deadline.
Securing the money is not a guarantee. The 553 acres of Veranda Bay are today valued at $16 million, based on the county’s property appraiser numbers. The county is seeking to buy a little over a quarter of the land. Some 142 of the 153 acres sought are in the 100-year floodplain.
The county is hoping that the environmental value of the land will increase the chance of a grant, which may also be paired with the county’s own Environmentally Sensitive Lands program funds. The 48-page application—12 pages of narratives, 36 of attachments—focuses on the land’s conservation profile and how it matches up with the state’s Acquisition and Restoration Council criteria.
Flagler County contends that the acreage meets multiple ARC goals, from protecting biodiversity and water to providing recreation, flood mitigation, and connectivity to other park land. It would enlarge Flagler County’s Blueway project, benefit management of Bulow Creek Headwaters Regional Park and adjacent state conservation lands, and protecting water quality downstream from the floodplain, all as the land is in “imminent danger of development,” the application states.
The parcel would serve as natural flood storage and drainage, with the wetlands acting as buffers between upstream development and downstream communities such as Flagler Beach and Ormond Beach. It would support passive recreation through trails and wildlife observation.
The county projects a joint funding approach involving state and local agencies, underscoring “the support of Flagler County’s Board of County Commissioners and the City of Flagler Beach.” The last line is technically half correct: the Flagler Beach City Commission at its workshop last week happily agreed to provide a letter of support, but the County Commission has yet to formally take that step. The letter, or resolution, is likely drafted already.
The grant application also provides rich detail of the land’s cultural and natural value.
“The property consists of wetlands and riparian uplands adjacent to Bulow Creek and provides downstream ecological benefits to Bulow Creek State Park and the Halifax River estuary,” the application states. “The addition strengthens the existing Flagler County Blueway Florida Forever Project by expanding its ecological footprint into one of the most intact remaining riverine systems in the region and will be part of a network of conservation lands that includes Graham Swamp Conservation Area (3,185 acres), Bulow Creek Headwaters Recreational Park (1,160 acres), and Tomoka Basin State Parks (7,340 acres).”
The property also contains several natural communities that provide a habitat to wildlife, including the Florida panther, the tricolored bat, gopher tortoises, the Florida black bear (when it isn’t being hunted with the state’s blessing), the eastern black rail, the wood stork, the blue heron, the tricolored heron, and the Florida sandhill crane, a particularly elegant, wide-spanned bird.
“The Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC) will review this proposal at its meeting on February 14, 2026,” Petito wrote commissioners. ” If approved, the next steps will involve pursuing acquisition through Florida Forever, the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), and Flagler County’s Environmentally Sensitive Lands (ESL) program, with the potential to share funding for either fee simple purchase or conservation easement. This is the beginning of a long process, but it was essential to start with a willing seller, and I’m pleased to report we were able to secure that commitment today.”
NJ says
This land should have been zoned as a WETLAND therefore NOT available before development! Time for a State wide 200 ft from all Brooks, Creeks, and Rivers