What had once been a hail-Mary type of proposal by a non-profit that’s opposed the development of Veranda Bay/Summertown in many regards over the past six years is verging on reality.
Flagler County officials and the developer of the 2,400-home project near Flagler Beach have tentatively agreed to a land deal that would shift some 150 acres of floodplain around Bulow Creek’s headwaters from development to conservation.
It’s in the non-profit’s name: Preserve Flagler Beach and Bulow Creek. To the credit of the group’s tenacity, the developer’s magnanimity, and County Commissioner Andy Dance’s shepherding of the negotiations, Bulow Creek may soon be protected.
“We knew there was going to be a compromise somewhere in there and out of that, we’ve compromised to about 80 percent protection of the area,” Dance said. “Not 100 percent, but anywhere in a 75 to 80 percent range. Acreage total is going to be about 150 acres plus or minus.That line hasn’t been officially determined yet. Our staff is working internally to try and look at the Lidar and other site data to make sure that we have a good case.” Lidar is a measuring method.
Dance was understating the role he’s played since last year, appearing before the City Commission at every chance to call for protections for the creek–”for eternity,” as he put it in mid-November.
Flagler County is working to meet a Dec. 8 deadline for an application to Florida Forever, the state’s land-protection program, for money that would go toward the land purchase from SunBelt Land Management. The county could also use some of its own land-protection dollars from the voter-approved Environmentally Sensitive Land program, which has about $8 million in hand.
SunBelt is developing Veranda Bay on the east side of John Anderson Highway and what is now called Summertown on the west side. Summertown is to have an expansive commercial center. SunBelt is represented by developer Ken Belshe and Palm Coast attorney Mike Chiumento.
They have been working toward annexing into Flagler Beach for over a year, and running into a series of obstacles along the way–as has Veranda Bay since its reemergence in 2019, after it had been planned as a smaller development by Bobby Ginn two decades ago. Veranda Bay is well under way, with at least 161 houses built and many of them occupied.
The Flagler Beach City Commission approved the annexation of Summertown in late November, on first reading, but made second and final reading contingent on a workshop to clarify several issues, among them the possibility of preserving land around Bulow Creek. That preservation would remove an immense obstacle from Summertown’s way as it would grant Preserve Flagler Beach and Bulow Creek assurances it’s been seeking.
That workshop took place Thursday evening, where Chiumento and Dance each asserted in no uncertain terms that a preservation deal is in the works.
Belshe, Chiumento and county officials, including Dance, had a “long, productive meeting” Wednesday, in Chiumento’s words, to address Bulow Creek. Both sides have come to an agreement as to what portion of the floodplain will be part of a sale agreement, Chiumento said.
“It’s a long ways away. We think it’ll be probably a year or two before those government agencies are able to truly identify and study, and we’ll continue to work together,” Chiumento said. “What we are willing to do is put in the [master-planned development] that we won’t even make an application for development of that area for two years.”
In sum, it amounts to a two-year window giving the county, Flagler Beach and the non-profit time to get their conservation financing together.
“That’s a great opportunity,” Matt Hathaway, a critic of the development who has modulated his criticism recently, said. He and his family have been at the forefront of pushing for protections for Bulow Creek. “Having the county here tonight is a big deal. Maybe there can be a little more open discussion about how much of it we’re going to protect. I think it should be all of it. There’s a designation of a floodplain for a reason.”
Dance added to that transparency, citing the actual acreage to be protected. The floodplain is “buildable through permitting,” Dance said, “to the detriment of the citizens.” In other words, local government cannot legally prevent development in floodplain that’s already entitled for development. It can press for buffers and regulations, it can encourage the developer not to build there, or it can buy the land and put it in conservation.
“We have an application through Florida forever, with a deadline on December 8, and we’re going to hit that,” Dance said. The application will include the data and land boundaries. Belshe’s “willing seller” letter is with Belshe for a few edits. It will be included in the application.
“It was very important to get those acreages closest to the creek bed,” Dance said. “ We’ve got other protections in other areas, the 75 [-foot] and the 200 [-foot buffers] that help. But that floodplain closest to the creek is preserved. The other fringe areas to the east can be impacted. That is up to them, if they want to impact those, we won’t put those under the conservation easement or fee simple. But those are permittable, as I mentioned, and they just have to provide additional safeguards.”
The County Commission has yet to be briefed on the meeting between Dance, Belshe and Chiumento, and there is no commission meeting before the Dec. 8 deadline, though applying for Florida Forever funds falls within the administrator’s authority. The Flagler Beach City Commission will also provide a supporting letter for the application.
Some county commissioners have been critical of the county administration getting ahead of the commission before consensus is reached on certain matters, and have punished County Administrator Heidi Petito with blistering evaluations and intimations of firing her. But the administrator has the authority to apply for grants–the administration does so routinely–and only subsequently seek the commission’s ratification. Applications don’t commit the county. Only commission votes do, and there are times when the commission-meeting calendar and negotiated matters in the field, as with Summertown, don’t match, thus requiring executive action.
As things stand now, Summertown owns no land next to Bulow Creek. The PUD calls for a 75-foot setback from the property line, and 200 feet from the creek, whichever is greater. There are areas where the development is hundreds and in some places thousands of feet from the creek. “There’s an area where our property does get a little closer, and in that situation, we had negotiated with the county before where there’ll be additional buffers in those two spots,” Chiumento said.
Veranda Bay/Summertown are required to have 40 percent of open space. “The open space for 40 percent includes preserved lands, passive recreation conservation area, the Marina basin and buffers and wetlands,” Lupita McClenning, the city’s planner, said. But the 1,100 acres previously deeded to the county for preservation are not part of that 40 percent calculation.
The other significant topic of discussion at Thursday’s workshop was the so-called “spine road” that will run inside the Summertown portion of the development, from John Anderson Highway to State Road 100.
The commercial portion of the development in Summertown will be built first. A portion of the spine road may be built concurrently, Chiumento said. The full road is to be completed when the 150th home in Summertown is completed. If it isn’t, “no further building permits will be issued for new home construction” in Summertown, the development order states.
Steve Noble, a John Anderson Highway resident who has been among the most vocal critics of the development–and whom the development company sued, but lost–said the spine road should not wait: construction traffic is already churning up and down John Anderson, when it should be contained to the development. “So to put any more traffic on John Anderson Highway is really going to be a bummer,” Noble said. “The spine road should be used for all construction, in my opinion.”
With Thursday’s revelations, it appears that annexation will sail through the City Commission on second reading in January. (The commission is not taking up the issue at its Dec. 14 meeting.) But it won’t be unanimous.
City Commissioner John Cunningham said the annexation process should be paused for lack of information. He called for again requiring an overpass from the west to the east side of John Anderson Highway. That overpass had been part of a previous development plan, two decades ago. The requirement was removed when the county approved the development in 2019. Cunningham got support from one resident in the audience.
But the tenor of Thursday evening’s outcome from the public perspective was, with qualifications, closer to the words of the likes of Caleb Hathaway (Matt’s son, one of whose recent novels’ settings is immersed in the local environment) and Melanie Thompson, who applauded the negotiated deal. “I am so glad to hear what I’m hearing tonight. I was very teary eyed,” Thompson said, though she remains concerned about the spine road.
Barbara Revels, the former county commissioner and member of the non-profit, called the negotiations for preservation “wonderful news,” but called for a concurrent reduction in density in the development–as opposed to shifting density from one side of John Anderson to the other in compensation for acreage converted to conservation–and for explicit restrictions written into documents against homeowners infringing on floodplain protections through improvised footpaths or overzealous mowing.
John Tanner, the former state attorney, the lawyer for Preserve Flagler Beach and Bulow Creek and a resident of John Anderson, pressed his advantage, seeking to protect John Anderson from additional traffic and press for an overpass (or underpass) with that spine road, rather than a crossroad at-grade.
I’m surprised that Mr. Tanner continues to go down this route,” Chiumento said. “It’s been litigated by Mr. Tanner on two and three occasions, but there was never a requirement for an overpass or underpass. So it’s disappointing that after all this litigation, all his lawyers that he still hasn’t figured out or remembered, that the commission determined there is no requirement for an overpass or an underpass.”
Chiumento was correct, but so was Tanner. Chiumento was correct about the 2019 decision by the County Commission. Tanner was correct about the original Planned Unit Development in 2005, though the overpass possibility even then was optional, not mandatory. But as Flagler Beach City Attorney Drew Smith noted, “I don’t know that it’s appropriate for the city to try to mediate that dispute.” He added: “I think the encouragement for them to have a discussion is a good one. I think it’s good for us to have a discussion.”
Belshe for his part noted that the overpass-underpass option has generally been misinterpreted: in the 2005 proposal, he said, it was intended–if built–to be part of the self-segregation of the development, so its residents would not have to mingle with commoners. “It was all about privacy. It was all about exclusivity,” Belshe said. “They didn’t want Flagler Beach people over there, to be honest with you, that’s what they said. So I know that may sound a little inflammatory, but that was the remark.”
Beyond that, Belshe was taken aback by Tanner’s return to the overpass issue as such. “I’m shocked I’m having to stand up here because I had a conversation with Mr. Tanner out in the breezeway,” Belshe said, speaking at the very end of the workshop. “Mr. Tanner walked up and said that he was now all good with everything, because we had agreed to this land deal with the county. And I said, John, are you serious? He said, I am. And I said, You promise? He said, I promise. We shook hands, and that was 30 minutes ago or whatever, right out here in the breezeway. Mr. Mengle was there and heard that.”
Reached today, Tanner said Belshe’s words were accurate, but “out of context.” Tanner said he shook hands with Belshe on the understanding that the entire west side of John Anderson would be ceded to conservation, except for the portion that would be devoted to commercial development. Tanner is still intent on protecting the scenic-highway, semi-rural road character of John Anderson, and the surrounding area, and is fearful of potential plans in the future to four-lane John Anderson.
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