Palm Coast, Beverly Beach and Bunnell officials told Flagler County in blunt, at times almost belligerent terms Wednesday evening that their constituents will not accept any new tax or fee to pay for beach management, whether it’s renourishing beaches or maintaining them.
“I hate the word fair, because life’s not fair,” Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris said. “We’re not a beach city, and I’d be hard-pressed to go back to my city council and say, Here, here’s another fee we want to tack on you.” He went on to describe the municipal boundaries within the county as “gerrymandered.”
“I’d gladly contribute to beach renourishment if we un-gerrymandered our county and include that barrier island in my city limits, so our city residents can benefit from that taxation,” Norris said.
Flagler Beach officials were more measured, to the extent that they want proportional costs shared mostly by beach users. That would be Palm Coast’s, whose residents leave by far the biggest footprint on Flagler Beach’s sands.
The 45-minute discussion during a joint meeting of local governments at the Government Services Building Wednesday evening left county officials reeling, even though the responses from the cities to the county’s earnest call for help were not unexpected. The tone, which reverberated with the sound of a door slamming, was.
“I heard a couple comments that I didn’t particularly care for. I don’t think you should be close-minded on this issue, that it does need discussing,” County Commissioner Greg Hansen said at the end of the discussion. “We have a plan to make this all happen without raising your taxes. So I just encourage you not to leave this room saying I’m not going to do it. I think you should go leave this room and saying, Well, let’s see what they have to say. Let’s see what the plan looks like.”
There is a plan. It’s complicated and it’s not finalized. But it doesn’t involve Palm Coast, Bunnell, Beverly Beach or Marineland. It involves only the unincorporated parts of the barrier island, whose residents would pay more taxes or fees.
If there is a broader plan that involves the cities, the county has not made it public. So it’s not clear what Hansen was referring to when he included the other cities in the plan. He had laid out the importance of a beach-management plan that involved all communities, if it is to be successful, summarizing a packet of information disseminated to the city officials.
After Hurricane Matthew opened the county’s eyes to a loss of 70 feet of beach, Hansen said, the county got to work on a beach management plan. The county’s consultant, Olsen and Associates, repeatedly stressed that the county couldn’t rely on federal and state grants to pay for beach management every year. “You have to show that you’ve got something in the game yourself,” Hansen said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continued what turned into a 20-year plan to renourish 2.7 miles of shore in Flagler Beach (slightly more, when including portions the county paid for). That culminated with the renourishment that took place last summer. No sooner was the sand rebuilt than hurricane Milton struck, shearing off a significant portion of the new sand. That’s why a beach-management plan is essential: erosion is inevitable. Losing the beach is not–unless nothing is done.
Doing nothing is an option, said County Commission Chair Andy Dance, who also chaired Wednesday’s meeting, but not a desirable or wise option. “We had federal and state money that paid almost entirely for that first stage of nourishment,” he said. “You do the one and done, and you may lose that partner in the future.”
The county puts future renourishment costs for all 18 miles of beaches at $120 million, with the ongoing local share of that at $72 million (federal and state sources would pay the rest). The county has only a fraction of that money in hand, with several ways to raise more: property taxes, sales taxes (including possibly raising the county’s half cent sales tax by another half cent), tourist tax revenue, special taxing districts, user fees–including beach-access and parking fees–and state and federal grants.
Flagler Beach is responsible for paying for the maintenance of the beach the Army Corps rebuilt. So far, it has no money and no plan on how to do that.
“If you get a big storm, the C section and the F section and Palm Coast are going to flood, and the homes along the Intracoastal are all going to flood, and that’s not our determination. That’s NOAA,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Hansen said. “Their charts show that. So we’re putting all this together and trying to figure out what to do.” Hansen appeared to be mixing apples and oranges: a grave storm could very well flood Palm Coast’s canal neighborhood, but as a result of a massive storm surge. Dunes and renourished beaches would have not prevent that.
Hansen continued: “Now we’ve got a plan. We know what we’re going to do. We’ve got a plan to get it done. We know how to fund it and take care of it, but we need some help. That’s why we’re doing this meeting. We need some help. If we have to do it ourselves, we’ll do it. But that’s not fair.”
It was to that statement about fairness that Norris replied with his dislike of the word.
The key voice was always going to be Palm Coast’s, the largest city and taxpayer in the county. “Currently we are facing a water crisis in our city,” Norris said. “And for me to go back to my residents and say, Here, here’s another fee, here’s another tax, I don’t see that in our future right now.” He described as “lopsided” the amount of money the city pays in county taxes as it is, the same word he used to described what he said was just $464,000 in Tourist Development Council grants over the last 13 years–an inaccurate figure: in 2022 alone, the city got a $739,000 TDC grant to help build the Southern Recreation Center.
Palm Coast City Council member Ty Miller said the city has its own funding challenges, and sees little appetite among Palm Coast residents for any additional fee or tax for the beach. He said he’d be willing to have a city workshop on the matter, but had little hope that the outcome would be different.
Bunnell Mayor Catherine Robinson put it in even starker terms: “I can tell you their appetite will be probably fasting,” she said of her own commission. “We’ll put it on the agenda and see how it flies.”
Then there was Beverly Beach Mayor Steve Emmett (who at a previous such joint meeting, when the discussion veered to homelessness, had said people are unhoused because they like it. It’s their “lifestyle.”)
Emmett spoke as if modern science, sea rise and climate change have no bearing on the beach. “The beach maintenance maintains itself. It gives and it takes,” he said, inaccurately: the ocean has not returned the 70 feet of beach Flagler’s shore lost over the last few decades.
“Yes, we have the hurricanes, we have the damage, we have the floods, and we always recover from it one way or another. We get through it,” Emmett continued. But taxes? “Taxes do not cut it. You will never control nature. Man cannot control it. The best that you can do is try to survive it and rebuild the best you can. We bought where we live. Nobody told me to buy on the ocean. I did it because I wanted to be next to it. I had an old Commissioner once told me, so if you don’t like it, move.” (Dance tried to say that it’s not fighting mother nature so much as “mitigating” some of its more damaging effects.)
Emmett was categorical about any proposed taxes: “When you talk tax, that taxation on us, I tell you right now, I will not support it.”
He added, “What do we get back to our people? Taxes. We give them taxes, spend more money on stuff that we don’t even need.” He did not explain how Beverly Beach residents don’t need the very beach they moved to be near. But he boasted of having the lowest property tax rate of any jurisdiction in the county, “maybe in the state.”
Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley said his city supports renourishment and maintenance, but did not say how. Fellow-Flagler Beach Commissioner James Sherman said it’ll take “the whole community.” But then noted that almost three in four visitors to Flagler Beach are from Palm Coast. “We do want to be a part of this, but also we want to make sure everybody is paying their fair share into this. Because it’s not just Beverly Beach, Marineland, Flagler Beach and unincorporated parts of the Hammock to burden these costs.”
Local officials love to speak about “community,” cooperation and the meaninglessness of boundaries. Except when it involves sharing costs. Dance tried to bridge that gap.
“As a community,” Dance said, “we all need to understand the importance of the beach to each of us from Palm Coast and then out to the barrier islands. It’s integral to who we are, and we need to do what we can as a group to ensure the success.” The value is economic and environmental, with the barrier island representing “the single biggest area of tax revenue for the county.” He said the county needs to adapt to sea level rise and climate change.
“There’s been millions of dollars that have been spent and millions of dollars that will be spent, so we have to wrap our heads around the the dollar figures and the benefit,” Dance said. The federal government will repair the federalized beach in Flagler Beach at 100 percent after a named storm and a federal disaster declaration. But that’s not even certain anymore. “As we’ve seen with changes in the federal government in the last couple of weeks, some of those things may not be so secure after all,” Dance said. “We have to work on this ourselves, and make sure we do what we can locally.”
So the responsibility will be largely local. The county’s plan to manage the unincorporated part of the beach is a start. But “that’s a piecemeal approach that only protects certain areas of the community,” he said.
“We think this is a community wide effort from Bunnell, Flagler Beach, Beverly Beach, Palm Coast, all of us together need to make this beach nourishment work. And so the conversation now is, can are you willing to assist in this, to make it a county wide effort so that we aren’t going out on our own just to protect the unincorporated.”
The answer Dance heard Wednesday evening was a resounding No.
He’s not losing hope. “That just proves we’ve got work to do to be able to counter those arguments,” he said today. “It comes back to us to make a better case.”
Mothersworry says
Nobody wants to pay for it?? How about a user fee? Or a parking fee. That will leave it up to the individual tax payer.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
And yet the City of Flagler Beach Commission foolishly approved the Veranda Bay development, which is not only sure to flood, but will also make surrounding areas flood-targets because of its defoliation to prepare the area for its new, stick-built houses — good luck with that when the next big hurricane comes through. As a taxpayer in unincorporated Flagler County, I’m not at all thrilled to have to pay for the stupid decisions made by the City of Flagler Beach. I detest the cheap-looking, overly-tall Margaritaville hotel which should NOT have had a rooftop bar, but that got slipped past the commissioners. And i still fume over the $739,000 federal grant money FB could have gotten from the Flagler County Tourist Development Council, but instead missed both the original deadline to apply AND the 18-month extension! That money could have remediated the beach before the next storm came through.
Joey says
Just put a toll on the bridge !!!!
Good money after bad says
Just throw more sand into the ocean
Laurel says
City commissions. How dare you try to put the expense of beach re-nourishment on the backs of the barrier island residents only? In that case, I say don’t do it and leave the beach to nature. You don’t want to pay, don’t play. Stay on the west side of the bridge, and make sure your vacationers stay there too. I should not have to foot the bill for your benefit. How dare you advertise us yet tell us to bite the bullet, having a fraction of the population pay, while you sit back and and say “NO!” while reaping the benefits. Again, today, the Dunes bridge was backed up all the way from the toll both to the four way stop, heading east. Slow as hell. It’s certainly not the locals trying to get home.
Your ad:
https://www.visitflagler.com/
Some nerve!
Get a new logo, new ads, and stay away. That would actually be great! The City of Palm Coast has tried to punish us, and in some instances succeeded (food and water costing us more than PC residents, and sewer will too), for not annexing into your city limits. No thank you! We’ve seen what you do. And Norris, you are no different. Clearly, you have no understanding what “gerrymandering” means in this dramatically red county. Hansen, stop faking it and step up for a change.
Cities, you don’t want to pay? You say “NO!” then I say “NO!” If you cannot participate, leave the beach alone. Totally fine with me. This place certainly isn’t on the list of best Florida beaches on it’s best day.
Unbelievable!
Chris Conklin says
If Palm Coast, Bunnell and Beverly Beach residents don’t want to contribute to saving the beach they should just stay home. Flagler beach doesn’t want them here anyway. For the most part they don’t spend $ at beachside business and just leave a huge mess every weekend that the beach sanitation guys clean up and do an amazing job. If you refuse to pay go to Walmart, buy a sprinkler or a plastic kiddie pool. don’t forget the rubber duckies. Hope you enjoy your summer when it’s a 100 in your back yard
Villein says
So the beach isn’t really accessible anymore if you’re not staying close by. There’s no place to park, I’m sure that was by design. The county’s emergency chief talked about “strategic retreat” for low lying homes in Palm Coast. Translation- you are on your own, good luck with that.
I guess the people who benefit the most from the beach having sand should pay the most for it… that sounds- “fair.”
I think all this talk is foolishness. Pretending as though the beach is at all sustainable defies our experience. There’s no economically viable way to sustain the beach. We have hurricanes every other year now. Most are extremely destructive to the coast. Flagler Beach and Beverly Beach will have to be abandoned to the sea. The County will lose all that sweet, sweet tax revenue.
JimboXYZ says
When DOGE dismantles USAID, there might be $ 100’s of millions each year for renourishment or outright rebuilding America’s coastlines as a border ? See what happens, the amount of resources available, that should be used alternatively & appropriately to resolve “real” issues & not dumping money into such unworthy causes as what that slush fund has been wasting taxpayer dollars. The Federal government has been operating far too long like it has for wasteful spending. How many times over, could’ve Flagler county beaches, if properly managed, have been rebuilt ? Like anyone’s individual budget, gotta take care of the essentials, the rest of it are luxuries. I can’t, with a god conscience, require the taxpayers to pay my property taxes, grocery bills, energy bills because I opted to waste my resources on something that didn’t matter for a personal hobby.
Laurel says
Oh my gosh, Jimboxyz + 4: Step out of the orange Jello and take in some fresh air!
Roger C says
How to fund the renourishment of the beach has been under discussion for what seems forever. It is clear that the residents of Bunnell, Palm Coast, and Beverly Beach use the beach as much as, and probably more than, the residents of the barrier island if for no other reason because there are so many more of them than are those that live on the barrier island. In addition, their proximity to the beach is what drives the value of their homes.
Thus, I think Flagler County should just raise the property tax across the board next year, and in future years, to generate the funds, along with some of the bed tax and the sales tax, to do the necessary work. It is not worth continued discussions about adding a fee to the property tax bill to generate funds for this work. That way all residents of the County will share in the cost.
It is time to get the work done, and stop talking about how to fund it.
PCFL says
I’d be down for a new tax to renourish the beaches here IF the county fires the inept Heidi Petito and her gang of bullies. I don’t trust her to be responsible at all
Silence Dogood says
Mike Norris wants the barrier island to annex into Palm Coast in one breath, and then talks about Palm Coast’s water mess in the next. Even though he is new to the council, he is already demonstrating his incredible ignorance of the county as a community and the English language specifically.
Kat says
I live on the unincorporated portion of the barrier island and I am already in a special taxing district. We are paying almost $500 a year for 20 years to correct a drainage problem that occurred due to the building of Sea Colony. I pay a toll to come over the bridge every day to come home. I pay an absolutely ridiculous homeowners insurance premium for living on this island. I chose to live here and I accept those fees because that comes with the territory. But in no way, shape, or form am I going shoulder another special assessment to pay for a beach that is used more by people that don’t live here than by the people inhabiting the unincorporated portion.
When I walked the beach this afternoon, there was a large number of people in front of Bay Park, which has a public beach access with parking. There was almost nobody on the beach between Bay Park and Washington Oaks. So virtually everyone I encountered on the beach today didn’t live locally. And Bay Park was built as part of the drainage project from our special assessment fees. I don’t have a problem with anybody using the public beach, but I do have a problem with being asked to pay for everybody using that Beach when they don’t have to contribute.
As much as I hate it, if the surrounding communities aren’t going to contribute thenI say make people buy beach badges. You can’t take a very small section of the population and make them pay for an amenity that is available to all of the population and all of the vacationers that come here due to the advertising of our beaches.
I agree with an earlier post about Mayor Norris’s ridiculous statement about the Palm Coast city limits being gerrymandered. Palm Coast has expanded its city limits numerous times since I moved here over 20 years ago. They unsuccessfully tried to annex the unincorporated areas of the barrier island and have been trying to punish us ever since we successfully averted that outcome. If they had their way, we would be a canyon of high rises like Daytona Beach Shores by this time.
Elitist says
I will HAPPILY pay a huge assessment in Flagler Beach if we charge the rest of county residents to use what they have decided they don’t benefit from. I don’t care what beach you go to. You want elitist? You got it. I’m exhausted from Palm Coast, Bunnell, and others trashing our beach and streets while celebrating our tragedies. It’s disgusting. Us vs Them is fine by me.
I just feel sorry for those on a fixed income that won’t be able to afford this. Flagler Beach is fast becoming a rich man’s town and pricing out lifelong residents. If that’s what this county wants though, so be it. Reap what you sow.
Lola says
It’s amazing what the proximity to the beach does for Palm Coast homeowner’s property values. “Just minutes from the beach” is noted on many house listings. If the beach goes, so do their property values…. And you know they will all point fingers and blame everyone else should the beach disappear. And forget about it if A1A gets washed away again. Non Flagler Beach residents are the first to unleash their fury that they can’t access the beach. I just can’t.
Julie says
Give FB residents a parking decal and charge non-beach residents in Flagler County to park and play in our beach town.
Pig Farmer says
How about putting a $2,000 tax on every new home built in the county? At the rate homes are being built, we could generate huge amounts of money for beach replenishment!
Maria says
Apparently, the towns and residents don’t want to help the county find a solution to pay for the beach. So would the residents of our County accept doing nothing at all? The money needs to come from somewhere. No one wants extra taxes, no one wants to pay for parking, no one wants to pay to use the beach, no one wants another toll bridge, no one wants an assesment, no one wants visitors, who actually contibute to economy of our county through their spending, no one wants to pay, but everyone wants the beach. Quite a problem.
Ed P says
“Palm Coast is not a beach city”. Was it because Palm Beach was already in existence?
The entire concept was to create a model environmental community with access to natural areas and recreational opportunities.
Mr Mayor , if not for the beaches, what natural areas will be left in 20 more years of development?
Try a google search asking what Palm Coast is known for. Dang. Beaches, Washington Oaks Park, Marinas, golf courses and the intracoastal. No beach, this all disappears.
The barrier island has zero value in the city’s view.
You have a plan, just not a good one.
Is it because everyone living on the island is “ one of them”. ( heard often in town)
Matthew says
Every penny spent goes out with the next tide/storm. erosion happens. EROSION HAPPENS, & has been, we’ve all watched it, until now it’s gotten to the point of critical mass.
We need a long-term solution.
Until we invest in a series of jetties & appropriate seawalls, logic dictates that we will be stuck on this merry-go-round from hades where a storm comes and washes away all the money that’s been spent on “renursement” We’ve been watching that happen for decades, It’s time to admit that a temporary fix is not a long term solution to this problem that is not going away.
Go ahead, blow another couple million dollars on a Band-aid that’s gonna get washed out with the next storm.
Janet Sullivan says
Sounds like there are no Palm Coast residents who want to use the beach.
Thomas Hutson says
Beach Protection
Wake up Flagler County residents, and this includes Marineland, Palm Coast, Bunnell, Flagler Beach, the barrier island; this current beach renourishment is a JOKE. And for those residents that think anyone living west of the bridges should be charged a special fee to use our public beach , get a life. Where do you think the most recent 27Million came from? Our tax money, everyone’ in the State has paid for that beach. Supposedly a public beach, but walkovers are owned and controlled by private owners or businesses, and they fight among themselves for access to the beach. Mother Nature will take care of the beach, and no matter how much money you throw at it, it won’t change that!
The beach management group, whomever that are, needs to stop wasting tax dollars and come up with another solution, if there is one, to save the “private owners” beach.
Laurel says
Thomas Hutson: You don’t seem to understand. You want us to “get a life”? So, you want us to have a special tax overlay for 6,000 +/- residents to pay for beach re-nourishment for 120,000 +/- county residents? That makes sense to you? I think not. My husband and I are not getting a single benefit from tourism, and could care less about it. The tourism industry has gone overboard with the commissions’ love of vacation rentals. Add the 6 – ? persons limit in the county, and 10 persons, not including toddlers, limit in Palm Coast, who patronize the vacation rentals, mostly owned by people and companies who/that do not reside here, that’s more population using these beaches. Beaches which were once nice and quiet and had plenty of parking. Our taxes have not gone down, instead, the commissioners want to raise just barrier island taxes.
I don’t live on the beach, I do live on the ICW. We have a dock and a seawall that are on the Army Corp of Engineers right of way, who have the full right to take it all away if needed. We maintain that right of way. We pay for, and maintain that seawall. We pay for, and maintain the dock. No one else. You don’t. Palm Coast doesn’t. No one else pays for it by fees, taxes or any other means. But, just like you, we have to get in a car, drive to the beach, and park in a public park, that you seem to think only we residents on the barrier island should pay for, and by the way, “get a life” to boot!
This beach re-nourishment is for tourism.We have a life, we have a home, and we do not want to watch the continuation of further loss of quality living here, while paying for other’s investment incomes. If the price is spread across the county, with emphases on vacation rentals, resorts, and houses and businesses directly on the beach, so be it. If not, let the beach go.
Donna says
The powers that be need to get their head out of the sand. I live in the hammock, pay an exorbitant amount of taxes and don’t use the beach, any beach. Beach badges, like so many beach communities have, charge the people who use the beach. How many tourists are going to use the beach from the new hotel? All of them. Charge the hotel by the number of rooms for badges. Require badges for all who actually use the beach. Problem solved if you think you can stop or slow down Mother Nature. We the people of hammock are not paying , we pay enough already.
Kitty says
Maybe they should use parking meters like in old St Augustine, and use the raised funds for beach management and also turn that old Bank of America building into a parking garage
FlaglerLive says
The city is working on such a plan.
Laurel says
Well, that’s something, though not much. Margaritaville will be happy.
CPFL says
The problem with charging people to park in Flagler is the businesses in Flagler will suffer, because people do not want to pay if they are going out to eat or shop. See how much your tax revenus from restaurants and stores will drop and tourists going to other beaches…..there is a lot to lose. I go to Flagler mainly for restaurants and barber, the beach not so much. When going to beaches in the area I rather go to Varn or Jungle Hut, but 9 times out of 10 I go to St. Augustine where I pay for a pass to drive on the beach. Living in PC do I feel it is some of my responsibility to help with assuring our coastal areas are renourished…absolutley! It is the responsibility of everyone in this county to pay for maintaining the county. I do think a bigger portion should be on the cities or areas nearest to the coast, your property protection is relying on it more than mine. I hate the way California does things but the MeloRoos (spelling?) type of thing may be needed around here. Have the new developments and houses coming in pay an extra fee per house for x amount of years to help cover cost of added infrastructure and whatever else…add a beach fee in there. Maybe it is an extra $500 a year for 20 years and split that up for city infrastructure and county needs. People around here beeotch about paying for this and that, I do not play pickleball, use playground equipment, and do not use many other things the county has, but people do not understand it is about us as a group not just about their individual self. I am ok with contributing to the better good of the community and having all the recreation and whatever in place.
Laurel says
CPFL: I agree with some of what you write, but believe me, I have little to worry about becoming beachfront! Those who are directly on the beach, or earning income from tourism, should kick in a little more. Year ’round residents should not be penalized.
As for the parking meters, I don’t agree. Go to Tybee Island, GA, and see what happened there! There is so much tourism, that seriously overtook old, little homes, that there are parking kiosks everywhere, and I mean everywhere! Parking on Tybee Island is $4 an hour, and there are still plenty of tourists.
Also, hotels in places like Tybee Island, Jax Beach, etc. charge nightly parking on top of your hotel room bill. That is actually common practice in many places now.
Doug says
I cannot agree more with Laurel and the residents of the barrier island. This area has withstood decades of weather until Flagler County allowed developers to remove the natural dune barriers and replace them with condos and private homes. Flagler County created this mess, and we WILL NOT pay this bill alone. If the rest of the county isn’t willing to contribute to the costs of beach re-nourishment, then keep yourselves west of the ICW and demolish that toll bridge. Furthermore, if the county commission sells out the Barrier Island residents, there will be hell to pay come election time. Yes, you too, Greg Hansen. Good riddance.
Thomas Hutson says
Reply to Laurel,
Just one question that I have regarding the current and past beach re-nourishments….do you really believe that the current beach re-nourishment is to protect Flagler County beach? What do you think the scant wall along A1A is for? To protect A1A and the houses along that stretch of beachside. When Mother Nature does her thing all that ugly sand will be washed away and some spots will have over 20ft drops down to the beach.
Enough said and enough to wasted money!
Laurel says
Thomas Hutson: To answer your question “…do you really believe that the current beach re-nourishment is to protect Flagler County beach?” Partly. I have stated many times, it is to protect their precious tourism, which only benefits a small portion of investors. Now, there are public beaches for residents to enjoy, but those residents reside all over Flagler County, and should be a part of the solution. Resorts, *Margaritavilles*, vacation rentals, homes and businesses directly on the beach, or directly benefiting from the beach, or subdivisions directly benefiting from private beaches (and there are many) should cough up more. Simple.
Will the ocean take it away again? Yes. I have also stated that this beach is one of the most turbulent beaches in Florida, with no reefs or any kind of breaks to stop the natural scalloping of the sand. If Flagler County wants a beach, everyone should pay up, not just a few. If Flagler County doesn’t want to pay, let the beach go.
Todd Hutcheson says
Shortsided in my humble opinion. The beaches are part of what makes Flagler county a great place to live and visit.
Burn baby burn says
It’s almost as if people think anything about our way of life is sustainable at all. We will destroy the very ecosystems that keep us alive but the profits for the few for that short time will be lucrative !
IC says
I don’t understand the problem with the beach in Flagler Beach.
Look at Old A1A, which is north of Marineland, for example. Has the beach disappeared in this place? NO! It’s still there! And its size hasn’t changed much. Its location has changed – it has moved west toward residential buildings and almost destroyed A1A, which is why they had to move this road.
This raises the question: – why do we need to protect a beach that is not being destroyed, but is moving west?
And if the beach does not need to be protected, then another question arises – what needs to be protected? If we look at the situation with Old A1A, it turns out that the following require protection: A1A, residential buildings that are located directly in front of and behind this road in Flagler Beach, land plots on sand dunes owned by individuals and the city of Flagler Beach. And if this is so, then another question arises: Who should then pay for the A1A road (which is SR by the way) not to be destroyed, so that the houses that are in this area, the land plots that are on the dunes are not destroyed? All the residents of Flagler County, or only those who own it, and who can lose it?