Matanzas Shores will soon lose its distinction as an upscale community free of shops, restaurants and the traffic that goes with it all as a developer is about to build a strip mall on 2.25 acres at the southwest corner of State Road A1A and San Carlos Drive.
The development will be adjacent to a few of Lakeside’s homes and to its pool and amenities center, with the restaurant’s dumpster currently slated to be within sniffing distance of poolside sunbathers. Matanzas Shores residents have been attempting opposition to the plans, and failing that, they’ve attempted to alter some of its details they find less savory. They have failed on both counts, and county officials have told them there’s nothing they can do about it, nor anything county regulators can do.
What was once called Plaza del Playa–Spanish for the less lyrical, more Daytona-ish “Beach Square”–is now called Coquina Commons, not to be confused with Coquina Shores, the 750-home development planned for the area north of State Road 100, along Old Kings Road in Palm Coast: developers have figured out that the more they clothe concrete, steel, asphalt and tile in rustic imagery that will have very little to do with their development, the easier their pill could be for regulators and residents to swallow.
“Coquina Commons” was in fact cleared for construction at a county Technical Review Committee meeting Wednesday morning. The proposed development will not need to win planning board or County Commission approval, because it won that approval in 1998, and the site plan approved by the county this week is not substantially different than it was back then: it does not change to the point of triggering higher regulatory review than at the TRC level.
The proposed development has left Matanzas Shores residents frustrated and deflated even as about 130 of them jammed a town hall meeting on Tuesday and another 35 turned up for the Technical Review Committee meeting on Wednesday, where Ronnie Wilson, immediate past president of the Matanzas Shores Home Owners Association, seemed to sum up the residents’ mood.
“We have an interesting dichotomy here,” Wilson said. “We have someone who’s coming in and saying, I have approval, I get to do this, but I don’t like that part. The citizenry that has to live with this is told: it’s approved, and therefore we can’t do anything about it. But the the developer don’t like parts, so they get to change it. What part does the citizenry get to play in making their comment on what they want. Maybe they don’t like part of it. So why is it that only the developer gets to make comments to change, and the citizenry doesn’t? Quite frankly, it’s a little bit un-American, isn’t it?”
But there is nothing more American than the pre-eminence of vested property rights, which the developer is exercising.
The land is owned by Bijou Developments, registered to John Wallis of Jungle Hut Road in Palm Coast. He is represented by land use attorney Michael Chiumento. The proposed development consists of a nearly 10,000 square foot, two-story restaurant that, for now, would only be used as such on the first floor, though there are no set assurances that it couldn’t expand upstairs. There would be seven additional businesses in shops ranging from 1,240 square feet to 2,000 square feet. The L-shaped strip would be rimmed on all sides by some 150 parking spaces. Traffic would flow in and out of San Carlos Drive, not A1A. Sean Moylan, the assistant county attorney, on Wednesday specified that the development will be required to be surrounded by a security fence to ensure that traffic does not flow into the gated portion of Lakeside.
“I know that’s not going to be something we’re all going to enjoy seeing all those cars coming in and out of there. I’m not so worried about the cars as I am Bike Week,” Wilson said at the town hall meeting.
County Planning Director Adam Mengel and County Commissioner Greg Hansen sat through the town hall meeting, with Mengel explaining the proposal for much of the time when he wasn’t fielding questions from the very large but never uncivil audience. Mengel put the responsibility on the development’s approval on the commission of 1998. Residents raised due process concerns as they pointed out that minutes showed that back then residents had not been justly notified of the development. They had a memo written by Al Hadeed, the county attorney then and now, supporting their contention.
“I’ve seen the same thing in the minutes. But I don’t know if it applies to the situation we’ve got now,” Mengel told the audience. “I got to say it out loud. Now 25 years later, there was 25 years to appeal that decision.”
Since the development’s site plan could only be questioned by the regulatory process if it deviated significantly from its original version, residents tried to object on that basis. Carol Scott, a Lakeside resident, had prepared a list of what she termed ‘significant deviations,” starting with the elimination of what had been a planned entrance from A1A. She noted that there’s nothing to stop the restaurant from expanding to the second floor in the future. A gazebo was added to the current plans, suggesting additional seating–and therefore need for parking. Finally, the original plan had not taken into account the new subdivisions that have been built since.
“These are the points that we need to concentrate on because they are significant deviations from what the original plan was,” Scott said. Again, the points did not change the review committee’s direction, though Moylan pointed out to the developer’s engineer at the meeting some of Scott’s issues.
“We’ve seen based on experience, that it becomes hard for a tenant to resist the profit motive and they begin to add seats,” Moylan said of the potential restaurant expansion upstairs, “and we end up with parking that we can’t control and it ends up on the right away. What can we do to make sure that as time goes by the second floor doesn’t become a de facto area of a restaurant where drinks are served or where anything is served?”
Amir Malek, the project engineer (who participated in the TRC meeting by phone)m said “notes” could be added to the site plan to that effect. But he demurred beyond that. “It’s just going to be a matter of enforcement,” he said. Moylan accepted the note on the site plan. “It’s up to us to figure out how to enforce this,”: Moylan said.
Moylan also pointed to the impervious surface–the amount of concrete and asphalt covering up ground–that rose in the site plan 70 to 76 percent.
Malek did not go beyond saying he would have to “double check that,” while talking about some additions of landscaping. “I need to coordinate with, you know, the owner and stuff,” Malek said, “I’m quite certain that we can add, you know, some landscaping elements within that hardscape there you know, to less than that number.”
Impervious spaces are not a minor matter in the area: Matanzas Shores residents have been increasingly concerned about flooding, the more so since the Las Casitas and Los Lagos developments were built–and with the ocean’s dune structures chronically washed out.
Malek was otherwise put off, and let it be known several times, when the TRC opened the floor to residents to speak their mind and ask questions, expecting Malek to provide answers. He defended the location of the dumpster next to the Lakeside amenities center. He stood by the findings in the site plan. “We’re comfortable with the outcomes of our analysis and our design,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is not the proper venue for this type of meeting.”
That wasn’t actually his call, but nor was it his role to defend development plans against residents’ questions veering as much toward political and historical issues as some of Scott’s technical issues.
Moylan at one point reminded the audience that the mixed-use addition of the commercial strip was once looked upon, in the 1980s, as a very favorable thing: housing mixing with commercial development, allowing residents access to places to eat and shop within walking distance. “That was wise planning,” Moylan said. That’s what the development was seeing to bring in what amounts to the last undeveloped segment of Matanzas Shores.
But that wasn’t enough to placate residents who, as Alan Goodman had suggested at one point, would, in an ideal world, rather buy out the owner and keep the acreage green. Alternately, Goodman raised the possibility of the HOA refusing the new development access to its sewer system, which could have litigious consequences: the development’s owner has been a member of the HOA for years, and so is no stranger to the neighborhood, Mengel had said.
And it’s not as if Matanzas Shores is a preserve worthy of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. Between its Surf Side high rises, its Los Lagos, Lakeside and Las Casitas subdivisions and its Las Brisas condos, Matanzas Shores is a dense agglomeration of homes, time shares and vacation rentals that sprawl toward the upper reaches of Flagler County on State Road A1A.
The community of thousands is hardly a model of environmentally-conscious growth: aside from the environmental calamity that resulted in the pretentious and exclusionary Hammock Beach and Hammock Dunes developments during the same period of untrammeled growth in the county, the zigzagging Surf Side high rises in faux sand tones are among the only walls of cinder block between A1A and the ocean along Flagler’s shore.
Local residents have mobilized over the years, first to oppose the original development (unsuccessfully), then (successfully) to oppose a mirror-like row of condos that would have turned that portion of A1A into a canyon. Matanzas Shores residents themselves then became opponents of subsequent development in their midst as plans to encircle Lakeside with Los Lagos and Las Casitas emerged. That opposition was again unsuccessful.
So there’s not a little irony in current residents occupying homes whose development was once staunchly opposed, now forming the opposition to oppose what would be the latest addition to one of the county’s most densely populated areas of the county.
Ed says
If all else fails, why not meet with Bijou Development’s owner John Wallis and negotiate a few concessions directly from him. He certainly would want to be a good “neighbor” and garner local support for the project and hopefully have the local community embrace the center and support his business tenants.
Any good business person would be open to reasonable concerns and issues, even if the residents have to hold their noses over the development.
Everyone gets the homeowners concerns but if it’s really too late to stop the project then at least try to make it as palatable as possible.
John Moreno says
That’s what was done when Los Lagos and Las casitas were approved. There were important concessions negotiated including expanding the perk pons and money toward amenity improvement. Hopefully the owner will be willing to consider options.
Shark says
Strip Malls – storage facilities and pizza joints. Welcome to Palm Coast !!!
Laurel says
Shark: The Hammock is not in Palm Coast, it’s county. Either way, big money talks, residents walk. Our unique barrier island, and maritime hammock, is being destroyed along with its neighborhoods loaded with transient strangers (which the county commission allows because “…we want the bed tax” claimed Hansen). Welcome to Florida, where residents have no say thanks to supposed “property rights.” No good developer *neighbor* here.
Vote them out, state on down.
Bill says
What happened to St Augustine will happen all over Florida. You are right. The voice of the natives doesn’t mean anything in the face of big money. Florida is toast and the hoards of Northerners keep coming. Look away look away
Betsy says
If Chiumento is involved it’s terrible for our community.
don edwin miller says
unamerican are the guys you voted into office. as long as the electorate votes according to who has the most yard signs, the worse it get. builders pay for the candidates yard signs for a reason. thought we all knew that.
marlee says
Time to get outta Floriduh!
Pogo says
@And so it goes
marlee says
GOOD One, Pogo!
lyrics:
I’m sick and tired of hearing things from
Uptight short sided narrow minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic psychotic pigheaded politicians
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied
Son of tricky dicky’s
Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocket full of hopes
Money for dope, money for rope
No short-haired, yellow-bellied,
Son of tricky dicky’s
Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocket full of hopes
Money for dope, money for rope
I’m sick to death of seeing things from
Tight-lipped condescending mama’s little chauvinists
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
I’ve had enough of watching scenes from
Schizophrenic egocentric paranoiac primadonnas
All I want is the truth just give me some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied,
Son of tricky dicky’s
Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocket full of hopes
It’s money for dope, money for rope
I’m sick to death of hearing things from
Uptight short sided narrow minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic psychotic pigheaded politicians
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
Carol Scott says
As an old Lakeside warrior involved in constant battles to help save our beautiful Hammock from irresponsible construction, it is evident the battles fails time and again. We here in Lakeside enjoy a rare and beautiful 102 -acre green space preserve nestled next to the clean Matanzas River where one can sit on the dock, fish, watch the sunset, or push off in a kayak to enjoy a quiet splash down the river. We often refer to our Lakeside neighborhood as Paradise.
Someone once said, “There are fights that you may lose without losing your honor; what makes you lose your honor is not to fight them.”
It is quite devastating to learn we lost our fight, knowing what damage the strip mall will visit upon our Paradise.
Carol Scott aka Carol Taylor
Bob Ziolkowski says
This is a done deal so let’s make the best of it and hope that maybe a brewpub and medical cannabis outlet are a couple of the 7 other establishments.
jake says
Yeah, because everyone wants a pot store in the neighborhood.
Brian says
I have one across the street from me.
Wow says
Don’t read much about drunken brawls at pot stores. I’d rather have that then a “brew pub” which is a fancy name for a bar.
PDE says
It was made clear at the Town Hall meeting on June 20 that although Matanzas Shores residents were not notified about this proposed development back in 1998 as advised by past (and current) Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed, the Flagler County Planning Board wasn’t going to make any attempt to rectify or remedy the situation.
It’s just another example of a county that rubber stamps just about any development that comes across it’s desk, without meaningful input from residents before approval is given.
And when (not if) school children & other pedestrians are struck and injured or vehicle-to-vehicle accidents occur at the Coquina Commons location, either on San Carlos Drive or A1A, the county can’t say they weren’t warned about the liability issues surrounding the development.
Laurel says
The county seems to have forgotten about hurricane evacuations.
As an Independent, I can tell you this is what happens when you keep voting in the same Republicans who claim to represent you.
John Moreno says
When the development was approved the area that is now Las Casitas was a perk pond. There were no plans for individual homes in that area. If there were the Board decision may have been different.
Carol Scott says
The secret deal struck in 1998 underscores the necessary realization nothing is safe from greedy owners, developers and engineers who involve themselves in irresponsible construction on this barrier island and particularly, The Hammock. As mentioned in my comment above, we have a rare and beautiful preserve abutting the Matanzas River. Surprisingly, a few of us are monitoring its safety. Is it protected in perpetuity? Maybe not. In years to come, the HOA could build a few condos and homes and sell off parts of this environmentally sensitive land. Bingo. Riverfront property for sale! Watch your back, folks.
dave says
That’s ok, Progress, greed, all rolled into one big con game. And then after its developed and they get a few tenants, and the year after when the rent is so darn high, the tenants move out and there you have a open empty pit and a hole in the community structure like most of the strip malls. Here to day, gone tomorrow. .
john Moreno says
Agree! Two strip mall toward Publix. one empty mother with two tenants
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN says
Chiumento is just doing his job as the hired attorney, we need to vote people out of office who are not going to fight for
resident’s decent quality of life so with the next go round of elections be sure to do your homework and ask candidates their
positions on the issues we as citizens are currently facing and there are a lot facing our county, time to vote the Pied Pipers out
who claim that there is nothing they can do. The gotta live with it, it’s approved and you can’t do anything about it argument will continue to live on with some of these current city and county officials, attorneys planning board members, etc. It’s got all to do with what lines their pockets and Mengel needs to start working for the taxpayers of Flagler County and stop siding with these developers with his 25 year time machine remark for the residents to appeal a decision that the residents were not properly notified about is BS. And as for Moylan once again another time machine argument, “wise planning” 25 years ago does not pertain to the development that took place all those years up to and including now. All of this planning should have been revisited as he development was going on, these poor excuses are no longer acceptable and do not pertain to today.
Sandy Beach says
Law Abiding Citizen….Agree with everything you said and Mengel is a problem…he chastises citizen property owners but developers love working with him behind closed doors. Check out the new build on Malacompra that has taken over the “use” of the adjacent county owned paper street…for side access into their garage. County property for private use?? If I had county property adjacent to my lot would I get “wink wink” access use of county property? No…I am not a builder with several projects in Flagler county.
Truth and Mercy says
The future of retail is flaglship sites and warehouses. Malls and strip malls will quickly become a thing of the past. Not forward thinking at all.
Keep electing realtors, see how it works out for you in the end.
Bill says
Palm coast will look like Jacksonville in 2 years
Celia Pugliese says
All those over a hundred affected residents that attended the county meeting need to organize and collaborate and gather funds and contact ASAP Land Development Attorney Brent Spain excellent litigator that has helped us locally already. He was worth every penny:https://theriaquelaw.com/
Celia Pugliese says
Unfortunately in 1998 around the time ITT left us and we were also in Palm Coast under county rule, that county commission with Mr. Jim Darby chair and commissioners Seay and Hanns among other two, allowed a lot of damaging to all residents of Palm Coast and adjacent areas by changing original zonings, comp plan, stablished by ITT-ICDC for us to buy our homes, county did it to benefit developers futuristic plans. The worse of it all was to exchange our Palm Coast several blocks of ocean front parcel to Bobby Ginn for the Ocean Hammock beach front golf course of today. While in this fateful exchange Palmcoaster’s lost their beautiful Sun Sports Resort beach front swimming pool, cabanas and tennis courts we all residents enjoyed so much for an affordable membership then. Problem was that we didn’t know yet that moving to this beautiful area we will have to invest in Land Development Expert Litigator Attorney’s to preserve the value of our homes and our quality of life.
Also further in the early 2,000 same commission, same chair decided to invite the pilot flight schools to set up camp at our small local then Flagler Executive Airport to create mayhem noise and lead fuel contamination from above to us all residents of Palm Coast. Being the worse exposed those thousands of residents in homes already adjacent to the airport that never had this problem before. This is what our neighbors have to endure since then on this following videos. Actually is worse today!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhkm7Dor3qE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMvEIX6ojWc
Skibum says
1998 was 25 long years ago. I’ve lived in a lot of places in my life, and I’ve yet to see even one rural or suburban area on the outskirts of an incorporated city that has remained largely untouched from 25 years of population growth. I certainly agree that city and county planners should be doing a better job and prioritizing projects that maximize the potential for quality of life of those who live in a community, but it is folly to just wish that everything should remain the same. Progress happens all around us whether we like it or not.
K says
Where how will this strip mall
get insurance if home owners cannot? Who wants to pay sky high prices for biz insurance for wind flood fire acts of God? When the deluge comes those business will be deep in water like Fort Myers was and all
of Volusia County was. It took months to dry out businesses with diesel generators. And still mild remained.
None of the overpaid Flagler workers know anything about environment and controlled growth.
I can see how people will leave Florida and they are. We have lost 5 people since December in Lakeside and ALL HOUSES ON THE LAKE SIT EMPTY. I CAN SEE THEM FROM MY BACKYARD. They are investment homes, not primary homes.
Las Casitas was full of renters and owners who are now mostly gone. Yep. Not many folks here. I do not think that a strip mall will bring much business except from travelers speeding down A1A.
Boycotts work. Just don’t go to the strip mall. Close the pool and lower your HOA fees. The pool is dirty and unkept anyway. A strip mall does not « fit « and no one voted for it. It does not make sense when older strip malls need business. Patronize the Old Publix and the restaurants and hair salons on Old Kings near Petco. That is the original downtown Palm Coast. I go there for everything. After swimming at Surf Clubs, it is obvious that almost no one lives in those condos. No one is on their deck. No furniture is on any of the decks. Hurricane shutters are up. I doubt anyone ever bought surf club 100% . It’s not convenient. It’s in the middle of nowhere and not even vacationers like that. Even visitors want to go to St. Augustine. There are condos a lot of people will be ditching and throwing away due to new state laws. And their kids do not want to inherit these condos. Most people do not like Florida year round weather and do not want to inherit property here. Condos all have lawsuits for building codes. Palm Coast is not growing. Our school population has flatlined fir the last 10 years. It’s our basic source of income: Home owners. The Matanzas River Basin is the most import to keeping NE FL from flooding I joined as a RiverKeepers Alliance member when I realized how important this basin is for the Matanzas floodplain. If it goes due to development, we will have 1 in 500 year hurricanes here too not just in SWFL but right here. It is all connected. If you think because you do not live in a neighborhood you will not be affected, rain goes everywhere. I wonder where We need runoff areas. Volusia County buys property to preserve for its own health. It’s overdeveloped. Florida looks like Swiss cheese with lots of holes and is tradition swampland. What possesses people to move to the lighting tornado and disaster capitol of all states, I don’t know. It’s a losing battle to
own swampland property. If you fill it all in, there are consequences as we have no hills mountains and we have too much develop for 2nd and 3rd homes. People come to Florida to live out their years and die. But they usually move somewhere safer in their later years. This is NOT an infinitely growing area. I do not see people coming here to look
at homes. I am a local and do not want nor need pizza or pot stores on the corner. I can go fishing instead. No one really lives out here in Lakeside. They bought 2nd homes and were called back to the office. They just visit when the weather suits them but no one is buying Lakeside property. Maybe that is why they whore themselves out. Look at the disaster of Sea Colony, a mold hell. It is now a glorified trailer Airbnb in spring because people refuse to live in Sea Colony. It’s full of mold. Good luck to some strip mall. Although people own these homes, they do not live here. I am being sincere. Working from home has created communities we think exist, but the lawyers and property management companies are the ones who own everything. My husband is a
NY/FL attorney in Matanzas Shores. A trial lawyer and litigator. If you have questions, I suppose you could call him for advice. Our family has a homestead and investment in this community since 1970. Investments my family made while living in Michigan. Palm Coast then and now is still considered swampland meaning the water table is very high and damages are greater than any other state. I love my home and family. This is why we live here. We are used to controlled growth areas. Richard F. DeVall is an independent attorney who represents tons of home owners, divorces,tickets, car accidents. He mostly helps people who are ripped off by contractors, but he was in Government Law for 27 years and has practiced General
Law for over 35 years. 386 627-8440 if you want an independent attorney opinion. Or need someone to fight in court for you. It’s my opinion he is a wonderful person, not wealthy and works for the common man, and is not part of any system that is backward or corrupt. Not part of any system yet does collaborate with judges and firms in Ohio NY Michigan and Florida. Most people are good people. Mr. De Vall just happens to be exceptional and can help you in any type of case or potential case. I have to this out there because big firms cost big wasted money. He works with Zinnlaw as a senior advisor and advocate.
John Moreno says
Interesting but somewhat confusing.