Note: this is the second of two articles on today’s “Meet the Mayors” event. See the other: “Palm Coast Mayor Alfin Hints Against Rolled Back Tax Rate This Year, But Says ‘New Sources of Revenue’ Ahead.”
There was a bit of a disconnect today in a panel discussion by county and city leaders about how attractive Flagler County is to its residents and those who keep pouring in, and how quickly developments are razing swaths of tree canopy. They spoke of the importance of preserving the region’s quality of life.
But they also spoke of how the torrid growth rate is inevitably bringing congestion, bringing numerous developments, some of them–as with a 6,000-home plan in Bunnell–colossal, and even crime: an uptick in the recent crime rate after years of decline is attributed to thefts from developments under construction.
All this as trees have become as essential as ever as a hedge against climate change, if not as a public safety matter: at the end of the discussion, Ed Fuller, one of the people in the audience, asked the panel how they would broaden their definition of public safety beyond police and fire services to include clean water, good roads, healthy parks that make life livable and safe. He might as well have included clean air and trees. “If your definition would change maybe you would think differently about it,” Fuller told them. “It’s not just fire. It’s not just the Sheriff’s Department.”
The county’s five mayors, the county commission chairman and a sheriff’s chief were the panelists at the annual Flagler County Realtors Association’s “Meet the Mayors” event, which combined lunch with questions from an audience of about 50, many of them realtors. The event can sometimes be dull, drawing on generalizations as each government representatives cheers about his or her city. Just as often, questions from the audience challenge the panelists to go beyond the gloss of annual reports and happy-faced PR talk. They usually rise to the occasion.
“I’m for development. I’m also really for conservation of the planet,” one of the audience members said. “We’re heading with so much development, with so many trees suddenly gone, and where all the water is going to go.” What are the local governments’ plan, she asked.
Marineland has a plan. Its mayor, Angela TenBroeck–who a few months ago was an invited panelist at the last global climate change summit in Dubai–detailed it. Other cities and the county are hoping to catch up. Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin in an interview after the panel discussion was candid: “Quite frankly, we’re just behind the times.” he said. “I think that my predecessors did not take the time to review, update and rewrite the comprehensive plan because they weren’t aware of how quickly our city anyway would build out. I think we’re behind the eight-ball quite frankly. I think we have an opportunity now to get ahead of the curve a little bit, because once it’s gone, you can’t replace it. So I think that we were just behind and now we’re doing everything we can to get caught up and make sure that we don’t allow that to continue in the future.”
Alfin acknowledged that the clear-cutting of trees and vegetation in subdivision under construction “is an issue. What it does is it upsets the balance between the natural environment and the growth and development.” The natural environment, he said, needs to be protected. The leading concern from residents responding to questions about the city’s comprehensive plan, which is currently being rewritten, is environmental preservation and quality of life.
That, of course, is not reflected in the city’s current environmental standards, which allow builders to entirely clear lots or subdivisions for home construction, and only require the planting of a couple of twiggish trees per standard lot afterward. In planned developments, the requirements for green set-asides are more rigorous, but those end up being reflected in segregated copses of trees or existing wetlands that would be unbuildable anyway, while the rest of the acreage is clearcut.
There are some similarities in the county. The scenic A1A corridor through the Hammock has a protective overlay, where tree surveys are required and tree protection is part of any development. But that standard doesn’t apply to the rest of Flagler. “We’re trying to catch up the remainder of the unincorporated county to reflect more closely with the Scenic A1A corridor,” County Commission Chair Andy Dance said. “I don’t think there is any comparison. That is a unique ecosystem that has a special level of protection. But we have to catch up the other parts to where we specify and measure our mature canopy trees and protect them in upland areas, because wetland areas for the most part are protected.” But he, said, “upland areas where we can maintain mature canopy trees should be the focus so that there is scattered canopy amongst the clearing.”
On several occasions when the County Commission has reviewed development applications, Dance has raised the issue of tree protection–and found himself disarmed by a lack clearer, stronger protective ordinances–or enforcement of those ordinances before it’s too late, such as the requirement that developers carefully delineate the development zone from tree lines.
“The one thing that I’ve noticed that can help alleviate the trees being removed is stronger enforcement during the initial stages of development of the tree protection barriers,” Dance, a landscape architect, said. “Far too often there are projects where the clearing proceeds and the tree-protection barriers haven’t been installed. When they’re properly installed at the right distance from the trees, they have a very high percentage of survivability. But once you start raking and clearing inside the drip lines of the trees, then the trees start to decline and you lose trees or they just pull them out by mistake without those barriers up.” That requires enforcement at the site-clearing stage before any tractors or mechanical equipment rumbles in. “Making sure that the barriers are up is a critical component that should be enforced with fines.”
Alfin said there’s a “natural conflict” between tree protection and growth, and he stressed that any additional protection also conflicts with efforts to make housing more affordable: any regulation that makes it more difficult for builders to build, or that adds environmental requirements on builders, would likely raise the cost of construction, and therefore of housing, at least in standard subdivisions of single-family homes. Those issues diminish where more dense developments, like apartment complexes, clear a much smaller area while providing housing for a much greater number of people.
“So carving out those places that need to be protected for the future is incredibly important,” Alfin said, before turning to TenBroeck, the Marineland mayor: “I think you represent a model of a unique ecosystem, so we can look to you as as where we would like to get to in the future.”
Marineland is an incorporated town of seven permanent inhabitants–animals outnumber human beings–but around 150 people work there, with the University of Florida or the dolphin attraction, and the city is planning on acquiring developable land to build housing for those residents, some of whom spend one month, some of them six months, some 18 months as they cycle through their assignments. “We’re not all tree huggers. We have ideas about what we should do going forward,” TenBroeck said, “and we intend on developing it in a way that’s logical, climate resilient.”
To the west of Marineland spread 42,000 acres of preserved land. “It’s very important that we make sure that we maintain that for the health of all of the communities in Flagler County,” the mayor said. Science, she said, should frame the discussion. “Trees are heat protectors. So it is a stressor that as we get warmer, we need more trees. It is important that we maintain not only new trees, but we have arborist come through and maintain the canopies of our historic and old trees.”
Several questions were directed at Bunnell Mayor Catherine Robinson regarding the newly announced plan in that city of a 6,000-home development that will sprawl westward over the next 10 to 15 years, quintupling Bunnell’s population of 3,600. The development, Robinson said, is in the conceptual stage and would go from denser clusters the closer it is to Bunnell’s core to less dense development as it moves west.
“There will be a lot of green space and they’re interested to see what comes back environmentally,” Robinson said. “Haw Creek is there, wetlands are there. So each development area neighborhood will have its own recreational area. There will be trails. Again, this is a conceptual look. And of course my thing is, I want to make sure at the end of the day when it’s all said and done, it looks like it did when it came to us for conception, because that’s important to me that we don’t rape the land and get rid of all the trees and have nothing but houses.”
So you’re looking for an immaculate conception,” Alfin told her.
“Yeah, sure,” Robinson said without skipping a beat. “It happened once before.” The audience roared. It was by far the best, if also the most scientifically inaccurate, line of the day.
Mary Lumas says
This got to be a joke. Now your worried about cutting trees down. Our local government could care less. I wonder how many gopher turtles we’ve lost with all this useless development.
Dan O'Donnell says
Back in 1978 I lived in a trailer on the east side of A1A what it was called the hammock It was right behind as I remember the sea witch restaurant It was incredible and once they built that bridge it was all destroyed
Kevin says
Flagler county is so corrupt
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
With only a few exceptions, the County Commissioners are largely to blame for this situation, which started to go off a cliff when the disgraced carpetbagger Joe Mullins was running the show. They DO NOT listen to their constituents. Time and again, homeowners have gone before the commission to express vehement objections to the wholesale demolition of tree canopies, all to ingratiate out-of-town developers who want to squeeze as many dwellings as possible onto a piece of land. They pay no heed to future flooding, traffic and environmental concerns. Areas that don’t flood now will definitely become flood zones when deeply rooted trees are no longer present. It galls me every time a beautiful and irreplaceable thicket is demolished or a grove of palm trees is clear cut just to make way for a self-storage facility or crappy-looking strip mall with the same predictable types of stores. How many nail salons, dollar stores or vaping lounges do we need in Flagler County? Our land is special and valuable. We can be choosy about how it is developed. The trashing-down of Flagler County is well under way, and the very people who can stop it — the commissioners — need to step up and do it. All they have to do is vote NO to brazen, unsuitable development! The next time the usual offenders on the County Commission are up for election for any office at all, you can bet that we, the citizens of Flagler County, will have no problem voting NO.
Crystal Lang says
@Keep Flagler Beautiful; I agree 100% well said. However, it’s too late!
Concerned Homeowner says
Keep Flagler beautiful, I agree! We moved to Palm Coast less than three years ago, because we wanted to live in a smaller town with less traffic and crime and a slower pace to relax. The city we lived in previously had grown and unfortunately brought a lot of crime and dangerous activity near our home. We thought Palm Coast was great before all the destruction around us. In five years, I think we will be back in the same situation we wanted to leave.
Jim says
Man its going to get really hot here with no shade tree cover, be all roof tops, hot asphalt . I can’t believe how it a free run at destroying all the woodlands for apartments and houses. Palm coast will be just like every other town, Jacksonville,Orlando, one big concrete city full of crime, drugs , traffic, overpopulation. I been think of moving back north to a quiet small town. This area isn’t very relaxing anymore.
Sandra says
I’m there with u. Moved here thirteen yrs ago and now have 7 house that have gone up around us. My yard floods in heavy rain. That takes 3or 4 days to drain. I bought a house already built in the early 80ties. It gets hotel every year with no breeze
What happened to all the regulations that Palm coast had.?
Atwp says
Glad to see the leaders saying something about nature. Doubt they will do anything about the aggressive land clearing. Nature has a way of taking back what belong to her. Trees are wind breakers, grass and weeds help prevent floods. Good job Flagler County. Mother always take back her own. The lack of vegetation increase the temperatures, displacement of birds increase insects, lack of snakes increase rodents.
Sandra Mccauley says
It’s they’re fault. Quit keep issuing permits. They are destroying Volusia and Flagler. They are taking away the old Florida. You now see dead deer all the time. Your taking their homes. We have armadillos, opossums and snakes moving into our yards.
The Sour Kraut says
Gee, it sounds like an election is coming up and the carpet baggers in office want to tell the voters what they think they want to hear…just long enough to get re-elected.
Mothersworry says
Conditions could be placed on density, lot size, any number of things if those official really want to get serious about controlling development.
Doug A says
The tree canopy of full grown oaks and pines on lots in Palm Coast are clear cut and replaced with little gem magnolias and crepe myrtle bushes and not shade trees. Every new house is the same doesn’t matter which builder it is. I would think that since global warming is a buzzword the city building department would have rules that shade trees need to replace what was originally there.
Greg says
There was a bit of a disconnect today in a panel discussion by county and city leaders about how attractive Flagler County is to its residents and those who keep pouring in, and how quickly developments are razing swaths of tree canopy. They spoke of the importance of preserving the region’s quality of life.
You’re already too late. City realtors will never stop feeding themselves. Quality of life and traffic is already destroying Palm Coast. You cry save water, why is that? Is that so you can build another 15000 homes?
Erod says
Keep approving thousands and thousands of new home construction and hold ridiculous panels like this chaired and seated by the very same politicians who have approved every development project acting like you really care.
Oceanside says
Agreed. Commissioners COULD and SHOULD do MUCH more to hold developers accountable.
Shark says
What does Alfin care. He lives on a five acre lot with plenty of trees !!!
Dianne says
Alfin doesn’t care…he’s making a lot of money on commissions along with his wife..he’s to blame for all of this..him and the rest of them who sit on the board.
They need to go..clean house
Wow says
Ready, fire, aim. They didn’t think about the effects of scalping the land before they did it?
Doug says
The Flagler County Commission and the other local elected officials who approve this out of control development are complete idiots.
Shark says
No – the people who elected them are complete idiots !!!
dave says
Hate to tellya, but this is nothing but total greed of the county and cities. The overall majority of these county and city leaders lets call them, will be buried under the ground when every last tree is wiped from their soil. Its all left to the children to figure it out. Bulldoze down, cut up and burn is the new county matto, why it brings in money when new homes are built and people move in. They can talk all the BS they want its all about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, not preserving anything about the woodlands. Another hate to tell ya, It’s occurring all over this state, no land will be spared.
Davide Morse says
The solution is to stop. Just stop. I don’t get it. There is nothing but nature in Flagler. There are no real jobs in Flagler. If there are no homes here no one will move here & we can all benefit. Relay on tourism. Gov grants to improve things. Some growth is inevitable of course, but not like we are seeing. It makes zero sense to me other then greed. Cause you know everyone from the Flagler commission down to the palm coast commission & likely all the other gov officials have greased pockets. Look at the property appraiser…Had all that land then sold it to bj’s to develop. You telling me that wasn’t a conflict of interest? He didn’t get some kickback? PLEASE!
JimboXYZ says
Marineland is the last place that needs to be quoted for “how to do it right.” Marineland is nothing more than a theme park town. It’s not even a real town beyond the spin on the concept. A narrow strip of land between the intracoastal & Atlantic Ocean. Reminds me of Golden Beach in Miami-Dade County, A1a is the only road there, only they don’t have an aquatic theme park. Marineland has no grocery store unless you count that gas station convenience store at the south end of the tourist attraction theme park. Anything residential in Marineland is parasitic for infrastructure for anything sustainable there. Without affordable transportation I doubt anyone would live there unless Marineland was subsidizing those people beyond what anyone else would get to live there. Residents of Marineland are driving miles to get to Publix, driving further into Palm Coast to shop, see a doctor or anything else any civilized community needs to be sustainable. Without UF & the theme park itself it’s an oasis at best.
I see Flagerlive finally got over to take photos of the area, need to take the one that’s East, so that everyone can save the gasoline to drive over & see I-95 from that destructive swath of Alfin lies for a vision of 2050. Taking an online survey where the questions are loaded to support Alfin’s vision of unsustainable growth & lower quality of life. Quality of life will get worse with the 4 lane plans for Royal Palms Parkway, Town Center Parkway & Old Kings Road projects slated for the next couple of years. And Alfin wants more tax on homeowners that simply never wanted anything to do with this. This all starts with Biden-Harris and Build Back Better that was unfunded until hyperinflation has made living anywhere USA a miserable chapter of anyone’s lifetime for an experience. That’s the reduced quality of life that re-electing Alfin represents. Landlord’s paradise is what Palm Coast has become, unaffordable housing, higher rents, the art of making a living off the basic needs of shelter and making the rest of us pay for their gold mine of a career.
Jim says
You rant and complain about all this construction, etc. and then blame it on Biden-Harris. Florida is a Republican state, from the governor, through the legislature to the local city government. Republican. How Biden-Harris can be responsible for all this is absolutely beyond me but I have to say that I’m so glad my mind does not function (I use that word loosely for you) like yours…. Build back better has nothing to do with new development, idiot. Hyperinflation (not a fact, genius) has nothing to do with new development. Do you ever look at anything other than Fox and Newmax?
I think if you ever accidently ran into a fact, your head will explode. When I think of what’s wrong with Palm Coast, you are the first thing that comes to mind….
John Woodward says
When talking about the subject of the article, the development irresponsibility of our local leaders (and I use that term very loosely) , these comments, both yours and Jimbo XYZ, are really only a distraction. There is going to be a real crisis coming from all of these development plans. These communities that were never envisioned as bustling cities are quickly outgrowing their infrastructure. Roads, utility, and drainage are going to play a big part in everyone’s day to day life and these necessities are not, and have not, been upgraded at the pace of the population.
When these insufficiencies come to light it will be catastrophic to the economies of these wastefully spending places like Palm Coast. And when those city coffers run dry who is going to accept the brunt of these economic shortcomings? The residents of those cities. Increased taxes and lower quality of life are the cost, those are the things that, as a resident, you will accept, or you will move. The local government entities are rife with corruption, wasteful spending, and poor leadership. No different than national government, or international government for that matter.
I believe you shouldn’t concern yourself with a problem if you don’t have some kind of a solution or at least intelligent input to spawn a solution. My solution, stop re-electing incumbents without something truly noteworthy in their term. People like Alfin make more of the empty promises they made last election cycle and, for some strange reason, we believe this time will be different. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Is this not exactly that? If you don’t make a significant contribution to your community than why would your community choose to allow you into it? Raze the city and county commisions and get new faces with new ideas into the offices. Get a mix of political affiliations (yes, including things like independents and libertarians} and require them to be effective. No different than if you hired someone to run your business. If I entrusted my income to someone, I would be meticulous about the standards I would hold that person to, why are we not as critical of those that have influence over our everyday quality of life?
I will end this rant with one final thought. The act of expansion and growth cannot be simply for personal gains by a municipal leader. The community must be able to thrive, embracing that growth to make the community a better place to live. Do you think places like Palm Coast are a better place to live than they were 10 or 20 years ago?
JimboXYZ says
Didn’t quite work out the way that Biden lied about it ? Housing list/sales prices doubled here from pre-Covid Trump => Biden. Interest rates went up, Nothing beyond Duplex rentals from the turnover I see around my neighborhood & that’s existing & new construction. I’m starting to even see the For Rent signs in the swales & yards. You might want to pay attention to what is going on.
https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-real-estate-policies-taxes-affordable-housing-2020-11?op=1
Shark says
I agree with Jim. It’s republicans like you who elected the circus act running this town !!!
Tired of it says
No matter what the issue, no matter how clear it is that what is happening to our city is down to the local
republicans, you want to bring in Biden. Well, contrary to your factually incorrect statement, there are many places in this country where people are happy to live. Inflation didn’t just happen in the last three years. The seeds of inflation were sown by trump with his failed tariffs, his tax cut for the rich and corporation, that made our national debt raise to to levels never seen before, his failure to balance the budget, and uncontrolled corporate greed. His failure to being back manufacturing, the millions he spent on golfing and vacations, his lack of sound financial policies. I bet you are one of the ones that thinks brining back a failed, indicted, con man will fix everything.
Jim says
With the exception of Marineland, this is absolutely nothing but BS. Alfin says “his predecessors” didn’t do their jobs. Then he goes on to say efforts to safe some trees add cost to building homes. Well, Alfin, you’ve been office for awhile and it seems all I see about once a week is another development approved in Palm Coast. So what I see is that there is time to approve these developments but apparently no time to put together a plan that requires developers to keep some percentage of mature trees and/or plants in the developments in the planning and approval stages. All you have to do is drive by a construction area. There are absolutely no trees left when the building starts. I guess we all just love living in subdivisions with 7′ trees and little plants and bushes here and there. God forbid a development imbed plans to keep as many trees as possible from the start.
All this is from many of these politicians is lip service. It’s much like those that go to church on Sunday and spend the rest of their time screwing anybody they can just so they can get a leg up on others.
I’m so sick of Alfin’s BS that I just can’t wait for the election. I don’t know who we can get that is better but I’m not sure we can get any worse.
The “region’s quality of life” is already pretty much gone. What’s left will disappear as the current approved subdivisions get completed and inhabited. And our realtor neighbor and his cronies are just fine with that. Don’t be fooled by the tap dance.
JimboXYZ says
What I see happening for the I-95/Sabal Preserve Environmental Catastrophe ? Concrete walls will need to be erected like the Southside area of Jacksonville, FL for residents that are closest to I-95. That’s the Palm Coast vision of 2050. Palm Coast is currently #26 & growing in the state of FL.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/cities/florida
Pogo says
@Famous last words
I was here first.
The dude says
In deep red MAGA areas, universally followed by :
“I got mine!!!”
Susan R says
Ya think? It is too late and the construction will continue to go on!! So much has been approved that we have yet to see the worst!
The poor gopher tortoises being killed on roads, or buried in their burrows. This expansion has got to stop! I thought we had a water problem? Apparently not with all these new builds and the other 15000 to come in Bunnell, as well as 3 developments on Old Kings Road, overpasses, round abouts instead of lights, but the trees are shelter to sooooooo many animals, and give us protection from the sun. The Commissioners are killing this place! When will they realize, the people have spoken but they are the ones that vote it in. Its a disgrace. Water, water, is going going gone!
Skibum says
It is getting a little late to start a conversation about this issue! Isn’t that something important that should have been addressed in each local government’s master plan? The old saying certainly applies here: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.
Dbhammock says
The issue is all the clear cutting they do when a developer wants to build. All you have to do is go into Halifax plantation and see the old section with all the trees versus the new section which was clear cut and totally treeless.. it’s horrible.
Bob C says
And where will the water for all this development come from? People need to wake up before our taps run dry.
Norman Roy says
Time to have a planned growth and KEEP the Trees! I am a Charter Member of RIFCO.org which was organized to KEEP Western RI part of the “Last Green Valley” which included Eastern CT. Yes, we KEPT the Farms, Ranches, and Forests of the “Last Green Valley” from being DESTROYED by Carpetbagger Developers. Help me organize a CONSERVATION Group to Protect the Farms, Ranches, and Forests of Flagler County and Putnam County. Once BEAUTIFUL Land is DESTROYED by Development, you will all say ” I should have HELPED Stop the Uncontrolled Development!. I need your NOW! Please email Norman Roy –[email protected] Also, please check out . RIFCO.org I am proud of my work I did with RIFCO and my friends in RIFCO willing to help us. The Tree Farm that my late father and I owned will NEVER be Developed because of our Very Strong Believe in Conservation.
Where is the Lorax? says
Take a moment and recognize the horrible irony of the name of this new, clear cut housing development: Sabal Preserve. What a gross, irresponsible abuse of power.
for real says
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.
Steve meyer says
They cut down 100s of trees but, I try cutting down a half dead tree on my own property an they wana fine me 500 buks
Give Me A Break says
Yup! Ain’t that a hoot lol. Friends of mine cut their tree down in the front of the house and on their own property cause it was causing a lot of issues. City came and told them they HAD to replant and put the same tree that was there. Really???? Kudos to my friend she said hell no and they planted the tree they wanted there. The city of Palm Coast has some serious issues. For me like all of us, I pay taxes and my taxes are going up again just like everyone else’s taxes so I will put whatever tree I want on my front lawn. We tell the Mayor and his cronies to stop with the building and spending money on round abouts and crap we don’t need and they ignore us and do it anyway so…my property, my taxes, I will do what i want with what I purchased and own.
vance hoffman says
Now they care now it’s an issue? VOTE THEM ALL OUT. We have one chance to get this right if they keep putting their personal gain over the people. I’m voting for anyone other than who is the incumbent. Can it really get much worse?
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
Vance, I hear on the street that one County Commissioner wants to run for State Senator. I, for one, will remember his voting record as commissioner when he throws his hat in the ring. I’ll stomp all over it, figuratively speaking. So will many other voters.
Joe D says
There’s a favorite ( and disturbing) futuristic movie of mine from 1972 (yes 1972). It’s called SILENT RUNNING…
After the loss of all plant life on earth a Botanist (Plant expert ) was given the task of caring for a spaceship containing the last of the EARTH’S PLANT LIFE. His job was preserving and protecting plant life, with the PLAN to REPLANT the Earth ( or somewhere NEW) SOMETIME in the future.
After a few years, the current government leaders at the time decided the plant preservation program was TOO EXPENSIVE…and they wanted him to destroy all the plant life on board, and return the spacecraft back to EARTH. Of course that was a HORRIFIC idea to the Botanist…
The REST of the movie is his response to those orders…and the reason for the NAME of the Movie.
It is as POWERFUL now as it was THEN….and the SAD part, is that we have learned VERY LITTLE since 1972! We keep repeating the same environmental destruction, then wonder why the Summers are so much hotter, and the storms and flooding are intensified….SURPRISED REALLY?!?
Greed appears to RULE ALL!
Oceanside says
Commissioners are a joke. They don’t require ANYTHING from developers. Allowing the developers to do their own “environmental impact studies”– can we say “conflict of interest”?! NO ONE is doing any real hydro-geological studies–NO ONE even knows if there is enough ground water for the burgeoning population. Flagler is the next Sinkhole Alley.
I’d like to know what developers are paying commissioners these days.
Commissioners do NOT represent the people. In all of these polls and delphi meetings, current residents are AGAINST the unbridled development 75-86%–but the commissioners could not care less.
FL state law and commissioners should require developers to set aside 30% of the acreage of these new cities for parks and undeveloped buffer zones. But they don’t. They should ban clear-cutting and force developers to KEEP the live oaks. But they don’t. Flagler looks just like Daytona–huge apartment complexes all over the place yet not a single tree or park in these new cities; not even walking paths.
Worse than that, Growth “Management” Director Adam Mengel has gone on record stating that current homeowners will be required to sell their homes along John Anderson Hwy citing eminent domain. Eminent domain for a developer that residents don’t want. Flagler County government—like most governments—does not recognize or care about private property rights for individuals (except, of course, for their own property. Rules for thee but not for me!)
Voters–STOP voting for commissioners who are developers, contractors, or have any real estate connections. We need residents with a moral spine to run for office–ppl who will not be bought or sold.
Don White says
Back in the early 2000’s, after Bobby Ginn of the Ginn Corporation, encroached on County owned land on the northeast side of the Hammock Dunes Bridge and cut down most if not all of the trees and heavily wooded vegetation, I and other local environmental activists including Jane Culpepper and Jerry Full, Mike and Gail Duggins, and others appeared before the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) to protest. Ginn Corporation representatives claimed they “did not know” they were on the County’s land. What an implausible joke. It turned out there was little the County could do but give them a slap on the wrist and, as I recall, a $300 fine, because the County’s existing regulation was weak and non-specific. With this problem in the County’s existing ordinances exposed, we were subsequently asked to participate in the land development and environmental portion of the County’s required review and update of its Comprehensive plan. We wrote a very good and detailed tree protection ordinance that was accepted and included in the subsequently adopted Comp Plan.
That was twenty years ago. Fast forward. Flagler County still has a tree protection ordinance: https://library.municode.com/fl/flagler_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=FLCOCOOR_APXCLADECO_ARTVIREPRST_6.01.00INTRREPR_6.01.05TRPRDUCO
And it has a Comprehensive Plan that supports tree and environmental protection in the Conservation Element: https://www.flaglercounty.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/4545/637498839201670000
I will leave it up to readers and the public to decide whether current elected officials and their staffs are enforcing the ordinances and Comprehensive Plan policies already on the books.
Backslapping Commission says
Dan White: SPOT ON! and now along comes Andy Dance who presents himself
as the tree protection ordinator and inventor right before elections!!! Then comes
Pennington who wants to save Bunell from increased taxes but not irresponsible
growth and ovedevelopment, her reelection will be coming up soon too, its look
at the shiny coin method of distraction as they pave the way for Alfin’s westward
ho. What commerce is in Bunnell for 6000 homes on poor infrastructure, alot
of flooding there but noone cares about that! Do not reelect these losers, they
all have been there long enough to say NO to developers and irresponsible
development.
Ranting at the destruction says
It’s all about GREED. We wouldn’t want the “developers” to lose .000001% of their obscene profit by having to work around existing trees or save anything of the natural areas. I have lived here all my life (and that’s a long time ) and remember when there was no Palm Coast. There was a beautiful forest with live oak hammocks – hence the name Hammock, wildlife and clean water. In 1971 when ITT came and raped and pillaged, we knew then it was only going to get worse. When I am forced to drive into Palm Coast, which I try to do as little as possible, I am horrified at the destruction and Bunnell, which was a tiny little town is now going to explode with a 6000 horror show. The area they will destroy is full of deer and every other animal that lives in Florida, trees that cannot be replaced, swamp that NEEDS to be there and plants and birds and insects that are vital to our environment. It makes me sick, literally sick.
The commissioners don’t care, other than to appease the voters. They allow these “developers” to browbeat them into letting them do whatever they want with threats that they will “go elsewhere”. Well, please DO go elsewhere. Also, when they build these hideous pigeon coop subdivisions, are they required to plant any SHADE trees? No. They plant some sickly sabal palms that they cut off all the fronds to the very top, stick them in the sand and leave them to wither and die. And has anyone ever thought about requiring them to provide a hurricane/tornado shelter in each subdivision for people to shelter in when a storm comes? Of COURSE not. That might cost the greedy @*!a#@$!s a penny of their profits. They wouldn’t want to lose that one lot for a SHELTER for people that they are charging completely ridiculous amounts for cheaply built, disgusting houses that are built in a day and cost close to a half million dollars. Why do we need 75 storage units every five feet? Because they don’t make houses with enough storage to begin with and on a postage stamp sized lot there is no room to even add it. Instead we have delightful storage buldings lining the roads.
Last year was the hottest year EVER recorded and it will only be worse. In just the last five years I have watched in horror as every single area of vegetation has been mowed down for yet more stupid strip malls and storage spaces and Bunnell looks like a used car lot. It’s disgusting and sad and I am heartsick. Where are the animals supposed to live? They build these wonderful bike trails too, but there is only one parking area for people who don’t happen to live right along the trail to come and bring their bikes to ride. They’re completely useless to those of us who don’t live right next to one. Our kids are not safe riding or walking anywhere because of the horrendous traffic and Flagler Beach has been completely destroyed. That monstrosity that they’re currently building is the final blow. You can’t even drive down A1A now w/o being in bumper to bumper traffic. A new road being cut through Bunnell is destroying the last vestige of forest left there and if this 6000 house monstosity of a subdivision goes through, then that is the end of any rural area in Flagler County. I can only hope that I am dead before it reaches our place.
Kennan says
Money money money. It’s all about the Benjamins baby! It’s the American way. Everyone’s full of shit. Nobody cares about the environment.. Nobody cares about preservation. There are no causes anymore. Whoever has the strongest lobby and the most hollow promises wins. It sucks, but that’s who we are now.
Gentile Youd says
Here’s one among many realtors who believe in climate change and fight hard against destructive and unnecessary development. I offered myself twice as a non-party candidate for all the people but the voters voted straight ‘R” down the line and I was not elected.. As a private citizen I continue to fight incompatible, inconsistent zoning which is destructive to the health, safety and welfare of all of us. But in Flagler County it’s all about Red and $$$$$. I am a registered Republican ; I ran non party because local issues are non -partisan issues – air, water, trees, leaded piss ass planes flying all over are NOT party issues.
At 80 I am still fighting for us, the people , as a private citizen. Had I been elected I would have some real ability to stop the destruction. The voters make their choices now we all have to live with those choices.
titfortat says
As learned in 4th grade, humans and animals must have oxygen to breathe and live. Humans and animals breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon-dioxide. We cannot breathe IN carbon dioxide as it would be toxic to us. Guess what ‘breathes’ in and stores carbon dioxide and ‘breathes’ out oxygen? Trees. Plant life. Once that tree is cut, dying it no longer provides oxygen to us, and instead releases all of it’s stored carbon dioxide into the air. It is developers, real estate agents and builders that are adding the climate-changing carbon dioxide to our atmosphere with the massive destruction of miles and miles of trees and plants. In about 10-20 years we will no longer be able to breathe so easily and we will be suffering the same type of temps as redlined Texas is now enjoying – 105- 120 degrees. The county commissioners and city council WANT Palm Coast to look like Jacksonville, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami. Palm Coast is already unable to keep to it’s budget because of the greed of the council and the ‘leaders’ ‘advising’ them. Annex, Annex, annex. Remember a few years ago the big to-do and the millions it would cost with City Council wanting to reduce the lanes of Whiteview from 4 to 2? They went ahead and did it despite citizens’ outcries. Now with all the additional homes they will soon have to put those 4 lanes BACK in again. Idiots. Stop electing republicans, people. They are NOT interested in YOUR welfare or way of life.
titfortat says
Of course, with the subpar homes being built by a already known subpar developer whom was well known as such in Atlanta for decades, non-hurricane stable-great for non-Florida states but not here, there will of course be SIDEWALKS alongside each home, correct? With ALL of the complaints about safety and traffic along non-sidewalked streets that city council has heard over the years, of COURSE they required EACH new housing development to put in those needed sidewalks, right? RIGHT? Answer – NOPE. And the street lights they put up will not cause light pollution at night, right??? The tops of those lights will all have covers on them to keep the lights pointing down and out, not up, right? RIGHT? The beauty of Palm Coast is being systematically destroyed day after day. No more annexing of lands, and I say reduce the council’s pay back to at least $15,000 a year for their part-time, regressive, anti-citizen sloppy work.