The proposed 12.6 million-gallon gas and diesel depot off U.S. 1 has quickly gone from an economic development triumph, as Palm Coast and county officials described it last week, to a political liability fueled by public opposition spreading at the speed of a wildfire.
On Tuesday, the Palm Coast City Council agreed to seek an analysis to determine whether there’s an alternative location better suited to the depot, a planned $75 million facility to be built by a start-up, Belvedere Terminals, with no track record in the industry.
The facility, rejected from Hull Road in Ormond Beach, is planned on 78 acres at the end of Peavey Grade and by a rail yard to be built there. It would be about 3,500 feet from one of the city’s three water plants in one direction and an equal distance from city water wells in the other, south of the Sawmill Creek subdivision and east of acreage planned for the city’s mostly residential westward expansion.
The city has limited land zoned industrial, as the entirety of that acreage is. Mayor Mike Norris is championing the project and fears that moving it would jeopardize Palm Coast’s chances to land it. But three other council members are concerned about the location, the vetting of the project–and the company–and the public outcry, of which they got a sample Tuesday at the meeting.
It took just a few days from the project announcement for an opposition Facebook page to emerge (“Palm Coast Citizens Against Belvedere Fuel Terminals / Grupo Mexico.” Grupo Mexico owns the Jacksonville-based Florida East Coast Railway, on whose tracks Belvedere’s 125-car trains would run and deliver the fuel to Palm Coast once a week.)
Council members have themselves quickly taken the measure of a potential new crisis on their hands, this one entirely on their watch: they are not interested in a fresh, long-running controversy just as they are resolving or distancing themselves from those they inherited. Though Norris tried to blame previous councils for putting this council in a difficult position (by rezoning industrial land to residential), the Belvedere project is entirely this council’s work, or liability, as even Norris is happily taking credit for it.
Drawing applause from the audience, Council member Theresa Pontieri called for a site-selection analysis “to look at a better place for this plant” in light of the 20,000 acres to its west where the westward expansion is planned. “We all understand the concerns. I know the mayor has worked pretty hard to help to bring this type of thing to the community. So let’s look at all options. I can guarantee you, we’re all going to do a lot of research, do our diligence, look into the company, the parent company, the environmental concerns, all of these things that you all are concerned about. I won’t speak for anybody else up here, but I’m concerned about them.”
Pontieri said the alternative site could be further west or in Bunnell. “Let’s really analyze this and make sure that this is appropriate in this community, and see if there’s other locations that are possible,” she said. “Let me be very clear: I support bringing in industry like this. What I do not support is doing it too quickly, and it proposing environmental and safety hazards. “ She visited the site over the weekend and was concerned about what she saw. “We’d be selling ourselves short if we just automatically say, this is where it’s going to be. And we don’t do a site selection.”
Norris was worried about the timeline, with the company going before the County Commission next week to secure a state $10 million grant that will subsidize buying the land. Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston assured the council that time isn’t an issue: The grant expires in June 2026. “They have 180 days to close, and after closing, they have 90 days to provide the budget and construction development details to the state,” Johnston said. “It sounds like we have some time in there if you would like to move forward with this site analysis study.”
Council members Ty Miller and Charles Gambaro are also weighing their words carefully about the plan, and support the analysis.
“This is a difficult one,” Miller said, recalling how the zoning in that area of U.S. 1 was at one point all industrial, but was then changed to residential in many areas, “which in my eyes should have never happened, because what it does is now it creates a inconsistency of land use adjacent to each other.” Potentially, he said, what remains of that industrially zoned land may never be usable, “because the residents that live on these residential areas right adjacent to it, don’t want the industrial and obviously will come out in force to let us know about that. And so it puts us in a very tight spot, because the only places we can put industry are on these industrial zone properties.”
Miller sought to reassure residents even as he cautioned that industrial development of some sort will come to these parcels, since they’re among the few left in the city. “I hear you about the concern for risk, safety, those things, and we haven’t made any decisions on the council at all in regards to this,” he said. “There is time for this to be discussed and figured out.”
Gambaro drew on his own background as a logistics officer in the military, said without hesitation: “There are risks associated with it,” which must be studied and mitigated. “To the residents, I hear your concerns because I’ve lived it, okay?” Like his colleagues, he said the discussion is taking place in the context of a city looking to diversify its tax base. But he is supportive of Pontieri’s request.
“Let’s get after answering these hard questions, and see if it’s a good fit,” Gambaro said. “If we need to move it, we move it, if not then we’ll figure out a way.”
They all spoke after hearing a series of residents voice their own concerns.
Wayne Bruce, a resident of Sawmill Creek who moved there from Ormond Beach, said he was “with the struggle down there” against the Belvedere facility, when it was to be built in Ormond, “ and now I’m very concerned about what’s going to happen to our beautiful city,” with a planned 12.5 million in fuel storage capacity, according to the company’s chief financial officer. (Bruce put the figure at 13.5 million but did not cite a source.)
“This facility will be very close to existing communities and new communities,” Bruce said. “I hope in your due diligence study, that you take all this into consideration and listen to the people of this beautiful city.”
He was followed by Angela Dawson, also a resident of Sawmill Creek. “You couldn’t ask for a worse project for the city, with the possible exception of a nuclear waste dump site,” she said. “Ormond Beach, roundly rejected the proposal for all the same reasons that we should do it.” She said the Ormond Beach rejection was bipartisan, while the projected tax revenue “is not worth the risk of a single life.” (County Administrator Heidi Petito has projected at $800,000 a year overall, though that has not been verified, and the figure is likely an exaggeration.) Dawson pressed for light industry, not heavy industry.
Bradley Watson described the proposal as a “reckless development that benefits a few while harming our community.” He then tied the industrial development to residential development, seeing the two on the same plane and blaming Mayor Mike Norris for going along. He cast doubt on the tax revenue projections and described the opposition as apolitical. “We do not want this facility, and that should tell you something. We demand better. We demand that you listen to the people who put you in office,” he said.
(City and county officials have stressed that the fuel facility, as a commercial-industrial development, is not comparable to residential development, especially in one regard: it will generate significantly more property taxes and ostensibly relieve some of that burden from residential development, though in fact urban areas like Jacksonville, which include vast swaths of industrially taxed properties, have not seen lower residential property taxes, and Palm Coast’s residential taxes are relatively low, compared to the average in the state.)
Others spoke along the same lines, recalling Ormond Beach’s opposition or referring to the low number of jobs the fuel depot would bring compared to larger enterprises, and one, Ann Miller, a new resident, spoke approvingly of the plan: “It will bring jobs to the area and industry and will provide tax revenue for our city,” she said, but the city should also require Belvedere to jointly hold exercises with local first responders, who themselves should get additional training. She outlined several additional safety measures to write into a prospective contract.
Tjmelton says
Is this the same deal as the water& sewerage. extortion or shakedown? Ever hear of EAST. PALATINE,. OHIO??
Crisco kid says
DO NOT TRUST PETITO’S WORDS, SHE DOESNT LIVE THERE
AND SHE DOESN’T CARE LIKE THE REST OF THEM ON THE
FCBOCC WITH THE EXCEPTIONS OF CARNEY AND PENNINGTON.
RELOCATE IT NEAR THE GRAND HAVEN AND SEE WHAT THEY
HAVE TO SAY!
Dennis C Rathsam says
Water & gas HMMMMMM Even Joe Biden knows this is a disaster! P/C almost burnt down once, & now you want to add fuel to the fire! If the wild fires happen again! The explosion would be heard throughout Fl! Our homes are worth less, with this new water crisis…Who,s gonna move here when your water bill is a high as your electric bill.THEN YOU ADD FUEL TANKS, Tanker trucks everywhere….The noise from trains 24 HRS A DAY!!!!! Geeez I thought Stuff Em In Alvin was NUTS, this guy needs a lobottomy!
Bob says
Build it on Old Kings next to Alfin !!!
Your purchased representative says
Haha put it in a national park they are for sell now thanks to orange moron. Or maybe in a nature preserve (preserved for profit) .personally I think they should put it by the water treatment plant that way the plant can make more money as nobody would be able to drink the water hahah so less labor and less cleaning in general. There are no other concerns than profit for the very few .it is all that matters in this nation. In fact 3 individuals have more wealth than 4 billion people combined. But immigrants and people on food stamps are the problem?the maga morons killed nation we had.
Billy says
Palm Coast is a huge residential area! not a diesel depot! Dam this city council is idiots!
Ray says
Ann Miller could not care less about the folks of Palm Coast. If it will be built, keep it far away from are water source. People don’t want this, what part of NO do you not understand?
Build it, but in a proper area. I also read an article that the construction has started. Is that true? If so, it was under the radar, and needs to be investigated.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
I have no faith that the same officials who thought it was OK to put a fuel depot right next to a water treatment plant and two water wells will get it right in Round 2 of their push to force an inappropriate industry on our county. For Pontieri to even suggest Bunnell as an alternative site shows she is out of her depth. Bunnell is surrounded by, or adjacent to, many residential neighborhoods. This project didn’t belong in Volusia County, which is more than twice the size of Flagler, and it certainly doesn’t belong here. A terminal like the one being proposed would set us up to be the next East Palestine, Ohio. Imagine telling future business investors that one of Flagler’s big selling points is its fuel depot owned and operated by a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico, a company with an appalling record for environmental violations.
Joey G says
My god are these people that STUPID? I guess they are. What Happened. On Friday, February 3, 2023, at approximately 9:30 p.m., a Norfolk Southern train had 53 cars derail in East Palestine, Ohio. Water and soil monitoring has been ongoing in nearby communities in Beaver and Lawrence counties. Three days later, at the urging of the rail company, Norfolk Southern, about 1 million pounds of vinyl chloride, a chemical that can be toxic to humans at high doses, was released from the damaged train cars and set aflame. And they are willing to take a chance like this. They all need to go.
Not in Flagler County says
This should not be in Flagler County. How dare Petito act like this was a done deal. Many of us have connections with Ormond Beach. It did not belong there, and it does not belong here!
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Time to recall all elected officials who defy the rights of their employers i.e. “We the people” and destroy their quality of life as well as endanger their health,welfare and safety.
How dare any official allow a foreign company with no US assets (none disclosed) to use 1 inch of our land at the risk of destroying anyone’s life.
nbr says
Like the Vice Mayor said “I can guarantee you, we’re all going to do a lot of research, do our diligence, look into the company, the parent company, the environmental concerns, all of these things that you all are concerned about”
Having worked in the Federal world of contracting for 40+yrs, the Key words are “due diligence” Ask the right questions.
Start up have no history to present, that does not mean they do not have sound executable plans, which “should” contain HAZMAT CONTAINMENT PLANS from the point of embarcation to debarkation. This is just one piece of PC DILIGENCE plan
Ed P says
Keep Flagler Beautiful,
Everyone’s concerns are absolutely well founded. No debate. An environmental disaster waiting to happen. The location is unacceptable. It could be workable if not for the water plants. Industrial with rail access and the plot of land is large enough.
However, Grupo Mexico does not have an abysmal environmental record as you claim.
They are really a mining company, primarily copper. They are also a major transportation and infrastructure company. Yes they have had issues. Their strength in this proposal is the rail line. They are multinational.
Belvedere is also a transport company that has been around since 2017, not exactly a start up. They have identified a “weakness” in the current delivery system of fuel. It’s all trucked in from outside of our region.
If a safer location was agreed upon, or the water plants/wells were able to be moved, would approval be possible? I don’t believe it would. No one wants a fuel depot in their backyard, safe or not. Although it’s just a storage facility- not a refinery, rail traffic, truck traffic, the eye soar it would be, quite possibly out weighs the “potential” environmental threat everyone is rallying around.
It’s a nonstarter. It’s DOA. No one will be able to breathe life into this corpse.
Palm Coast and Flagler officials are aware of these realities but would also certainly be criticized if they didn’t explore the proposal. Rest assured, they know.
The dude says
Look… Palm Coast can’t afford to only have service industry as a tax base.
You olds are way too cheap for that to produce what this city needs for its infrastructure.
The grifters, handymen and mow n blow specialists are too unreliable.
Waiters, waitresses, and dog walkers don’t make enough to really impact the tax base.
And, the MAGA morons you keep electing refuse to impose on the builders building thousands and thousands of units, any sort of reasonable impact fees.
The county and city needs this. In large part because of you.
Gaslighter says
The fuel depot is going to be built somewhere along the railroad tracks in NE Florida, like it or not. It’s coming. Don’t like it? Stop buying gas. But you’re not. You can’t! Some community within a 100 miles of us will benefit from it – the tax revenue, the higher than average pay jobs. This isn’t the 1950’s. We’re a smarter society. We know how to build and protect these things. Our water will be fine. Palm Coast will not just burn down tomorrow. The biggest aggravation will come not from the roar of the once-a-week train, but rather from the 50 ton tanker trucks that will be constantly in and out of the facility, up and down US1 (good luck with those new roundabouts!), Matanzas, PCP, and I-95. That’s going to be your biggest trade off. Is all that going to be worth the benefits? Matanzas Pwy particularly will need to be significantly upgraded, along with the I-95 interchange. That’s going to be the main artery for thousands of tanker trucks a month. That’s the part that needs to be discussed in any negotiations with the company and the state DOT.
Keep Flagler County Great says
Instead of developing Palm Coast into a beautiful,well structured, and safe town, Palm Coast Council is just destroying the environment and making it more industrial. Wondering what the Ritz Carlton developers think, we are not far from each other people!
Carol Clauson says
A huge fuel depot sandwiched between a water plant and wells. What a terrific location 😳. A company with no track record in the industry and a state grant of 10 million to to subsidize the land purchase (our tax dollars, thank you).
Sounds bloody fishy to me.
Tired of it says
No, the county and the city don’t need this. Just another seriouly flawed, under the radar deal by incompetent, elected and non elected public officials. This is a dangerous proposition for the health and safety of all who live here. As for “The dude says”, if you don’t like how the olds make this city work, move.
Robjr says
Don’t competent people recognize and address these issues before rather than after the fact?
Cindy Jameson says
This Fuel Farm needs to be moved out of Flagler County not to another area in Flagler County.
Ariana says
You forgot to mention that the new approved Somerset phase will be 30 to 40 feet from the fuel depot. This is not safe and no one will buy there. They were talking about transparency with new buyers because anyone from out of state won’t be aware of this.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
Ed P, it may be a matter of personal interpretation, but I stand by my comment that Grupo Mexico has an abysmal record for environmental violations. Please take a look at this Wikipedia page and read the section titled “Pollution and Environmental Issues,” which is broken down by cases in the US and outside the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_M%C3%A9xico.
I also know a little bit about their ethics from childhood experience. My father worked on the US Army’s missile program at White Sands, N.M. During that time, our family lived an hour away in El Paso, Texas. Young children in the area were coming down with serious respiratory illnesses that ultimately were traced to the ASARCO copper smelting plant, which had been burning hazardous waste. I can still remember seeing the long, black plume of smoke coming from the top of the smokestack with the name “ASARCO” on it. It would start every evening as the sun was setting, thus minimizing the operation’s visibility to local residents. ASARCO is a Grupo Mexico subsidiary. Fines and clean-up costs are chump change to Grupo Mexico when compared to profits generated from their operations in vulnerable or passive communities. Don’t believe the hype.
Larry says
Current site is BAD and HIGH RISK because it’s too close to City of Palm Coast’s Drinking Water Plant.
Find another site far away from the drinking water plant.
If this company builds on that site and runs the fuel business for a number of years, City of Palm Coast holds a high risk if the company ever decides to walk away from the entire plant (due to bankruptcy or a fuel spill or a fire, etc). City of Palm Coast would then be stuck with a toxic waste site and the needed cleanup would cost the city millions of dollars to cleanup the toxic site with spilled fuel after the company simply declares bankruptcy and walks away from the toxic site.
Probably best to just say NO to this company. There are better, cleaner companies that can build, not as toxic and not as dangerous.
Those fuel delivery trucks running 24×7 on Palm Coast roads are guaranteed to get into wrecks and there will probably be a few Palm Coast residents killed in those wrecks every couple of years. High speed travel on US 1 with lots of residences in the area…there will be wrecks with those fuel truck traffic and perhaps a big fire caused by a fuel truck crash and that brush fire can burn many acres and spread fast. Does the city have enough fire and hazmat equipment to respond quickly to the fire and fuel spills caused by these accidents?
The facts says
Every fuel depot facility like this has a given leakage amount minimum. The queation is not if they leak, they all leak. How much they leak is the question. The unavoidable amount documented, using best indusrty standards. is a fraction of a percent, but with this proposed depot size of 12,500,000 gallons even a 0.1% leak rate would equate to hundreds of thousands of gallons leaked annually. Usually these fuel depots have test wells surronding the facilities several miles radiating out so the leaked caricinogens pulsing through the ecosystem ground water can be monitored and tracked to ensure they do not contaminate peoples drinking water. With two wells and our cities drinking water on the same peoperty less than a mile away feom the proposed facility the carcinogens will leak directly into our drinking water and irrigation water without even the slightest possibility of early warning, detection, or a chance for remediation preventing it from causing cancer. It is true Ft. Pierce has a similar fuel depot, but it is also true Ft. Pierce is a hot spot for brain cancer. And Jacksonville has one, and avoiding living in a industrialized city is the reason I chose to live in Palm Coast and commute to Jacksinville for work. And as a scientist with experience in this exact type of issue, I can say with confidence it is improbable to expect hundreds of thousands of gallons of leaked fuel to stay on site, it will pulse through the aquifer and places like princess place, the canals, waahington oaks, and our beach communities will likely end up having test wells drilled to monitor the flow of carcinogens. And monitoring is about the best we can do. As the toxic fuel breaksdown with or without treatment the fumes rise up through the ground sickening, for example, people and horses on nature trails. It is not uncommon for remediation experts to go out in full hazmat suits to test wells miles from sites like this, like princess place park will be, and find picknickers and hikers unknowingly in places so toxic osha will not allow employees work outside without full hazmat suits. The risks of this type of project so close to municipal water facilities and community simply cannot be stressed enough.
whiplash says
Before buying in Sawmill Creek or other close developments people should have researched to find out about the adjacent zoning. Buying adjacent to industrial zoning should have been a red flag! They should have expected nothing less than: “Industrial Development”.
Without such industrial development taxes and utility charges on residential properties will just continue to increase. Industrial development will only help to keep our property taxes low!
All of our water in Florida comes from underground. Anywhere a fuel depot is located in the state there is a risk to the water supply! So, the NIMBY, “Not in my backyard”, argument, if accepted means no fuel depot should be anywhere in Florida. Imagine the price of fuel if all had to be trucked in from other states?
Hard NO says
This does not belong in a residential area. JFC. A company that plugs its ears and closes its eyes regarding environmental protections will destroy this town. With companies like this, accidents are only a matter of time. When that happens, there goes the land, water, and air in Flagler/Palm Coast. Idiots. Every last one of them and the people that support this nonsense.
COM POST not Palm Coast says
Palm Coast will be a crime ridden slum in 20 years once the big corporations sell there thousands of rental homes in town.
Might as well put this in now and expedite the road to the end
Ed Danko, former Vice-Mayor, PC says
Norris couldn’t care less about the residents whose home values would plummet if this future environmental disaster is built. Makes me wonder how he would feel if it was next to his home.
Ben Hogarth says
Something tells me that housing inventory surplus in the “great” state of Florida will continue to rise… steadily.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
Thank you to The Facts Says for that eye-opening information. What you’ve shared is consistent with the after-effects from the East Palestine spill. The dangers of leaking chemicals are far worse than anything we might imagine. After East Palestine, just the toxicity in the air spread as far south as South Carolina. The surrounding water and land were essentially dead, and many tens of thousands of animals and birds died. There are newly-filed lawsuits involving 7 wrongful deaths from that event. Flagler is at MUCH greater risk than even Ormond Beach would have been, with all of our canal neighborhoods, beaches, sensitive wetlands and wildlife. This atrocious, ill-conceived deal simply must not go through ANYWHERE in Flagler County. Don’t forget that western Flagler County has Disston Lake (1,844 acres), which is designated as “Outstanding Florida Water” by the Florida Dept. of the EPA. It’s a treasure for those who enjoy fishing, kayaking or canoeing, with cypress trees and a beautiful shoreline. It’s a wonderland for bird-watching. How ironic that today a Flagler County ad came out soliciting new members for the “Flagler Industrial Development Authority.” Why does it have to be “Industrial?” Why can’t we proactively seek IT, financial, and other low-impact, high-revenue-generating businesses? South Florida is thriving with companies of that type that have relocated from out of state. Attention elected and non-elected officials: Flagler County is not a dumping ground. If someone with some snap spent one week on the phone calling CEOs of high-quality, non-polluting companies around the country and offering incentives to relocate here, I’ll bet we would see some results.
Ed P says
The Dude,
I agree with your assessment. However, I take umbrage with the ageism portion and the maga moron moniker but maybe because the truth hurts. Ever hear that sometimes it’s not what you say, but rather how you say it?
Back to the concept that Palm Coast absolutely needs to expand the tax base beyond the service industry. A fuel depot on top of our water source isn’t the correct sword to fall on.
Warehousing, distribution centers, data centers, research and development, office space or even light industrial are the ticket. The i95 corridor along the rail system is actually a great resource.
Finally, without the “olds” this town ceases to exist. Just look around. There are more millionaires/deca millionaires than you might suspect. Don’t be “jelly.” You may even join the club one day. Little secret, you have to be tough to grow old, it’s not as easy as we make it look.
Ed P says
Keep Flagler Beautiful,
Most of the Grupo Mexico environmental liabilities and even super funds were created by acquisitions. Mining is dirty, especial smelting.
It’s a very old process and was not environmentally friendly. The acquired business were not good stuarts of the environment. Their primary role in fuel depot is transportation. Apples and oranges.
PDE says
This proves what an informed public can do when they voice their concerns as a large group about yet another bad idea ‘thought’ up by our local ‘leaders’.
If more people paid attention to what’s going on in and around their lives before they cast their vote(s), and then raised hell when they learn of an ill-conceived, half-baked bad idea like this one, our town, state (and) nation would in a much better place.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
Ed P.: The “acquisitions” are wholly-owned subsidiaries, but whichever way one chooses to describe those subsidiaries, parent company Grupo Mexico is still responsible for the actions of their holdings, including Belvedere. Based on the information shown on the Wikipedia page and many newspaper accounts, I would not call Grupo Mexico environmentally responsible.
Crisco kid says
Not in Flagler County:AND KEEP DAVID SULLIVAN AWAY FROM A CITY COUNCIL
POSITION THE ONE WHO GIVES HIS SIDEKICK HEIDI PETITO STRAIGHT A’s UPON
HER YEARLY EVALUATIONS! Dance, Hansen, and Richardson are looking for an ally
on our city council so that they can continue with their antics.
Alter Jane says
CAN THEY MOVE THE FUEL DEPOT TO THE SITE WHERE THE DIXIE HOTEL WAS ?