The Palm Coast City Council is not yet ready to approve Old Kings Village, a planned 205-home development on 60 acres on Old Kings Road, 2.5 miles south of State Road 100. The proposed development is within a short distance of Polo Club West, an equestrian community significantly less dense and more lush than would be its neighboring “Village.” Residents of Polo Club West are objecting to the Village, absent wider buffers and other safeguards.
Real Estate & Development
Florida Lawmakers Put Developers’ Interests Ahead of Residents’ Hurricane Safety
In a bill to supply aid to the victims of Hurricane Ian and Idalia, lawmakers told local governments in counties hammered by the storm that they were not allowed to make “burdensome” changes to their land-use or growth plan regulations for three years. No learning from their mistakes and trying to avoid repeating them.
9-Building, 216-Unit Apartment Complex Would Line Old Kings Road South of Palm Coast Parkway
The Palm Coast Planning Board in a 5-2 vote that reflected some sharp resistance to the project recommended approval of a master plan for a nine-building, 216-apartment complex lined along Old Kings Road’s two lanes, halfway between Palm Coast Parkway and Town center Boulevard. It would be by far the largest development visible from the road south of Utility Drive, changing the complexion of what had been one of Palm Coast’s last remaining greenways.
Realtors Want Their Signs in Rights of Way. Palm Coast Warns that Hate and Other Signs Would Follow.
Palm Coast Council member Ed Danko is leading the charge on behalf of Realtors and other businesses to open up city rights of way to their advertising signs on weekends. Fellow Council member Theresa Pontieri is warning that doing so would open up rights of ways to every sign imaginable, including hate signs, while overwhelming the city’s Code Enforcement Department. The council is split on an issue it will have to decide soon.
As It Fields Flood of Complaints, Palm Coast Is Revising Building Rules to Limit New Houses’ Fill Elevations
Palm Coast government, responding in part to mounting complaints about flooding seemingly caused by new construction of much higher homes in the city’s quarter-acre single family home lots, is working swiftly to limit how high the slab elevation of new homes, and the fill beneath it, may go. A new house at 98 Birchwood Drive has been ground zero of a problem that until now had not drawn broad attention or responses by the city.
Palm Coast Approves Final Step to Complete 210-Home Whiteview Village Gated Community
The Palm Coast City County on Tuesday approved the final plat for 81 homes in Whiteview Village, phase two of a two-phased development of 202 homes approved as a master-planned development by the council in 2018. Construction began in 2021 in an MPD that also includes a future 316-unit apartment complex.
Palm Coast Residents Complain: New Homes Built Higher Than Ours Are Flooding Us, and City Turns Blind Eye
In Palm Coast, new homes are suddenly being built on significantly higher fill bases of a foot, two feet or more than adjoining properties. Older properties that never flooded now do. Homeowners of long date are shocked as they watch the yards of their dream homes–their main investment–turn to small lakes. The city has made them feel even more powerless: there’s nothing the city can do. There are no limits on fill height.
Bowing to Bitter Public Opposition, Council Kills Seminole Woods Apartments and Limits Development to 416 Homes
In a twin blow to the developer–and to the city’s meager apartment market–the Palm Coast City Council Tuesday rejected a rezoning application that would have allowed for an apartment complex near the south end of Seminole Woods Boulevard, and rejected a land use change that would have allowed for the total number of housing units there to go from 416 to 850.
Palm Coast Approves 91,000 Square Foot Storage Facility Next to Elks Lodge on Old Kings Road
Another storage facility will go up in Palm Coast, on 12 acres on the west side of Old Kings Road, just north of the Elks Lodge, on land owned by First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Palm Coast, which is to the north of the site. The three-story building will be 91,000 square feet, or about half the size of a Walmart Supercenter.
Rent Hikes May Finally Moderate Thanks to Historic Housing Construction Boom
An unprecedented surge in the nationwide construction of new housing — mostly apartments — may finally be making a dent in fast-rising rents that have been making life harder for tenants. More than 1.65 million housing units were under construction last year, the highest annual number since federal record-keeping started in 1969. Florida added 233,000 new housing units since mid-2022.