There will be no fuel depot or fuel farm, nor a landfill, at the nearly 1,900 acres Bunnell city government is speeding through a rezoning from an agricultural designation to industrial, Flagler County officials said this evening.
“They’re not going to have a fuel depot. This is not Belvedere, so they’re taking that off the table on this land,” Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan told the County Commission during this evening’s meeting of the commission. County Commissioner Leann Pennington said that the land will not be zone for a garbage dump, either.
That does not rule out the possibility that the fuel farm could end up somewhere in Flagler County.
Belvedere Terminals is the St. Petersburg start-up looking for a few dozen acres to build a massive fuel depot at a railhead in the region. The depot would have a gasoline storage capacity of 12.6 million gallons. Ormond Beach last year rejected the plan after the company’s long battle with residents there. Flagler County and Palm Coast governments were ready to cede 78 acres to Belvedere off U.S. 1 to build there. Residents rebelled, and Palm Coast reversed course.
Belvedere started looking further south in the county, and appears to still be doing so. Bunnell City Manager Alvin Jackson would not comment last week when asked if Belvedere was prospecting in Bunnell.
If it is, it is doing so further south than in the acreage slated for a rezoning in Bunnell.
Jackson’s and Bunnell’s secrecy about the motive behind the large rezoning led to speculation among residents, who have sent a stream of emails and other forms of communications to Bunnell and county officials, overwhelmingly opposing both the rezoning, not just over fuel depots or garbage dumps.
“This is not just a city issue for Bunnell. It’s going to impact all of Flagler. We’re going to feel those effects all over our county,” Savannah Brinkworth told county commissioners, from water resources to wetlands to flood protection to recharge issues. “What’s most troubling is the straight rezoning approach that this is taking–no environmental studies, no traffic analysis, no site plan, no public review of the impacts, just a blanket industrial designation.” She described that as a shortcut.
The county will have the opportunity to comment on the rezoning to Bunnell government at the rezoning hearing later this month, Moylan said. “The attorney for the land owner has called me several times, called our office, and is doing a good job, in my view, of engaging with the county and getting started a conversation and coordinating and listening to what our concerns are,” Moylan said. Orlando attorney Tara Tedrow is representing the landowner.
The owner, he said, is reconfiguring the rezoning request from heavy industrial to agricultural industrial, which limits the type of industry that could be cited there. “They were trying to address the concerns of the public, and they are proactively engaging with the county, so I view that as a good thing,” Moylan said.
The original proposal by the landowner–the proposal that went to the Bunnell Planning Board–was for the majority of the acreage–1,383 acres–to be heavy industrial, and 459 acres to be “agricultural community industrial,” or ACI zoning. Those proportions would not necessarily change, but the owner would keep the heavy industrial designation near the rail line. To opponents though it may be a distinction without a difference.
Agricultural community industrial allows such uses as blacksmith shops, ornamentation iron manufacturing, sheetmetal products manufacturing, planing and millwork manufacturing, culvert manufacturing, concrete forming and fabrication operations, and so on.
The rezoning is paired with an amendment to Bunnell’s comprehensive plan. The Bunnell City Commission after the first reading of the comprehensive plan amendment will “transmit” the proposal to the state for review, at which point Flagler County and other local and state agencies may comment on the proposal. The County Commission asked Moylan to appear at the transmittal hearing before the Bunnell commission later this month, to make the county’s concerns clear.
Here we go again says
I bet they are calling the county! I hope Sean does not bend to their pressure. Why try and do this so quickly? Why should they get a shortcut? We will all be watching Sean and Adam on this one. The company will certainly try and butter them up and maybe even worse.
Billy says
Do not trust the county officials, they lie!
Thomas says
A project of this size should have a PUD or at a minimum a comprehensive development order. This will impact the entire county and not just the land owners around it. I think this set of commissioners have shown they can make tough decisions based on what is right for the community and I believe they will do again. The obligation should be on the landowner to show WHY they need the rezoning of this magnitude and why are they not disclosing what the plans are. No landowner does a rezoning of this magnitude without the property already being sold or a really good plan! If it was good for the community wouldn’t that get out there?
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
While this is very good news, and our county commissioners and other officials are to be thanked and applauded for treating the matter with the seriousness it deserves, it does not mean that residents of Flagler County should become complacent. Flagler is a small county, and there is NO PLACE in it that could safely accommodate a hazardous fuel terminal. Look at a map of our county. If they go farther south, they are probably eyeing Favoretta, which is very close to: Plantation Bay (5,100 residents) and well within poisoning distance of Hull Swamp Conservation Area, Relay Wildlife Management Area, Bulow Creek State Park, Tomoka Marsh Aquatic Preserve, St. Johns River tributaries, and many of Flagler’s finest residential neighborhoods at the south end of Old Kings Road. If the fuel farm were to go southwest, it would contaminate Lake Disston, one of Florida’s most beautiful fishing lakes, located in an area teeming with wildlife. Northwest: Crescent Lake. The western border of Flagler County: the St. Johns River itself. Flagler is too compact and far too environmentally sensitive with all of its water sources for a fuel farm. There is no argument to justify its presence here and we won’t stand for it. Belvedere, get out!
Hammock Bear says
Since the first news of this proposed Fuel Depot there has not been one person in favor of a Fuel Depot in Flagler County. Those who oppose the Fuel Depot also speak about it all around the county. NO MEANS NO.
FLF says
It makes you wonder what is really going on here. There should be absolutely no re-zoning being done here until a plan is actually submitted about the future intent of the landowner and what proposed businesses are going where. Just like the 8000 home monstrosity development that at least we got to review. You can get on the property appraisers website and see who owns the property. I looked it up. Very interesting who owns it. Same question as the other development. What flood zone is it, where will all the water go in Tropical rain event? Where are all the utilities coming from? Businesses need water and sewer, where’s that coming from? No well water or septic tanks for this endeavor. Every manufacturing business has some kind of waste stream, some much worse than others. Oils, solvents, cleaning systems, scrap metal and plastics. etc. All fine and dandy until someone doesn’t follow the rules or has an accident. Show us the plan BEFORE changing the zoning.
Rubber stamped says
I have a rubber factory I can open right there. Will pollute the local water and air supply but think how much money I can make!
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
Favoretta has a deep history with some of the founding families of Flagler County. The idea of destroying this area along with what’s already going to happen in Haw Creek is greedy and disgusting.
If this keeps up, the beauty of Flagler County and what makes it different from all the other counties on the east coast will forever be changed and even lost. I’m not born and raised here but I’ve been here 20 years… enough to understand how much change has already happened and how this will impact our county if these thoughtless projects are pushed through.