Palm Coast and Flagler County may soon have their first disc golf course. If the Palm Coast City Council approves a proposed agreement with a builder, the 18-hole course will be the central feature of a new 9-acre city park at the corner of White Mill Drive and Pine Lakes Parkway. The builder, Marbella Apartments, will build the park at its expense, but in exchange for substantial park impact fee credits.
The land was donated to the city a year ago as part of a nearby development agreement. A year and a half ago Mesa Capital Partners some 18 months ago won the city’s regulatory approval to build a 316-unit apartment complex on 19 acres on the West side of White Mill Drive and the north side of Whiteview Parkway. The complex consist of 14 buildings, some three-story high, some four-story high, near a subdivision of 205 single family homes built by KB Home.
According to the proposed agreement, Marbella Apartments would build the new park in exchange for up to $569,000 in parks impact fee credits. Impact fees are the one-time levy builders and developers pay on new construction to defray the “impact” of new residents on roads, parks, schools and so on. Currently the builder of a single-family home or an apartment unit must pay $1,769 per home as a parks impact fee.
The joint city-county parks master plan, which the two governments approved late last year, emphasized the need for a different kind of neighborhood park that could incorporate non-traditional recreation opportunities and use public-private partnerships to get past the planning stage. Deep in Palm Coast’s parks master plan are these findings: “Focus group participants, teens and survey respondents identified access to non-traditional sports/activities as a high priority. As existing parks are renovated and reimagined, and new opportunities are available, consider adding non-traditional sports/activities such as pickleball, bike parks, and disc golf as sports/activities to increase programming and attract new users. Continue to support new non-traditional sports and activities as they arise.”
The park would require low maintenance, resembling more of a passive park than the sort of active parks like Holland or Ralph Carter, where city crews and maintenance are heavier.
The Flagler County Disc Golf Club was established in September 2022 “to bring the Flagler county disc golfers together in a community fashion so we can fight for our own local courses to be made and installed as well as grow together in the sport,” its Facebook page states. The group meets monthly and holds its own events in the region. It has been behind the push for the park in Palm Coast’s W-Section. Its members are expected to speak in support of the project at this evening’s council meeting. (The group’s moderator, Craig DeWind, could not be reached before this article initially published.)
Disc golf, descended from vague American origins sometime in the 1960s, doesn’t have the explosive popularity of pickleball, which continues to reconfigure empty tennis courts. But according to the Professional Disc Golf Association, participation has grown at a rate of 10 to 15 percent in typical years, and by almost 75 percent in the Covid pandemic years (2020 and 2021).
Disc golf is in some ways similar to traditional golf, and in others, very different. In similarities, disc courses may have nine or 18 holes, and the point of the game is to land an object in a basket in as few tries as possible, starting from a tee pad. Each hole has its par. The substantial similarities end there.
In disc golf, players throw a light, frisbee-like disc toward an elevated basket or target on top of a pole. The basket’s circumference is wide enough to accommodate a disc, and is designed with a net-like chain above the basket that serves the same purpose as a backboard in basketball: it helps bounce or guide the disk into the basket. Players may object to the disc’s comparison to a frisbee. Just as golf requires different types of clubs, disc golf requires different types of discs, if not nearly as many–“driver,” “midrange,” “putter”–and a caddy is not necessary. Nor is the expensive maintenance of a golf course, the fertilizer, the water consumption or even much alteration of the landscape. traditional golf courses uproot and raze tree canopies. Disc golf courses thrive under them.
Most of all: disc golf is inexpensive to play and it is usually free, as it will be at Palm Coast’s new park. UDisc, the app for disc golf, reports that there are currently 15,000 disc golf courses worldwide, 9,000 in the United States, and 255 in Florida. The closest courses to Palm Coast are in Elkton and St. Augustine, the latter a nine-golf course at Aragon Park off U.S. 1.
The Palm Coast disc golf club park, which carries the name of Blue Heron Flats on some working papers, will also have restrooms, shade structures and a parking lot. It will be open to all. The city council is expected to make a decision on the plan this evening.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Cool! This I would think should pass with no problems yet I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting.
Greg says
Stupidity! This town is unbelievable!Im selling out move outwest to Arizona!
John Raybon says
This well go over about like foot golf with a soccer ball, went over at Palm Harbor. That was a flop.
Waste Advocates says
Really!! 18 Disc Golf Baskets on an open field for $569K of reduced impact fees! STUPID IDEA!!!!! I’m all for the Disc Golf but not for over a half a million dollars. The Developer Wins Again at TAXPAYERS EXPENSE!!!
Billy says
Why is it they have to destroy every inch of open woodlands or natural swamps? This town is really screwed up!
JimboXYZ says
They have a disc golf course in Fernandina Beach (Nassau County), it’s basically a low maintenance course that is at the local Fernandina Beach School property. They called it Pirate Point Park. Dad was into Bocce Ball instead at his age & as caregiver it allowed me to take him & his dog out for a twilight (midweek) or Saturday AM at the Marina without it being too much for a 95+ year old & 17+ year old dog. We would have dinner at a Center Street restaurant for the midweek that had sidewalk seating with the dog along. That or I bought him fish fillets and we would have that after the activity.
This course isn’t far from me, not sure I would play disc golf ? As I recall they have special discs like one would have special clubs for traditional golf.
https://udisc.com/courses/pirate-pointe-qNJL
Sue says
They talk about needing money and would forgo that much for this simple park??? Really I bet the city could do it for a lot less if it is really necessary.
The dude says
Why is this stupid?
Is there no frisbee golf in Arizona or something?
Dave says
I’m curious as to why you think this is stupidity.
Deborah Coffey says
No.
Developer Wins Again says
How to build disk golf course: Cut down a few trees. Plant some grass. Install a paved parking lot with a few lights. Install some odd looking chain things; repeat 18x. Done. That’s like $49,000… and they get $600,000 in waived fees? They might have as well “built” a forested lot!!
Rog says
It’s parks include pickle ball, bike park and disc golf..
BigMke says
This City is loosing it’s mind! The word “golf” shouldn’t even be used to describe the ridiculous event! Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible, where are the “holes” , clubs and balls?? It’s only “public” because no sane investors would put one dollar into this stupid idea!
Laura H says
What about a skate park? Nearest nice one is Flagler Beach or Ormond or St Augustine. Our kids too young for a job and too old for a splash pad need something to do
Ryan says
Thanks for the story !!
JimboXYZ says
“Disc golf, descended from vague American origins sometime in the 1960s, doesn’t have the explosive popularity of pickleball, which continues to reconfigure empty tennis courts.”
That’s generally what I found to be true in Fernandina Beach for their disc golf course. They incorporated it with the High School, so obviously the school months the course was closed to anyone during school hours. It was rarely used when I was lived there. The pickleball courts they had were rarely used there. Petanque (French version of Bocce Ball) had relocated from North Carolina to Fernandina Beach.
https://usapetanque.org/amelia-island-boules-club.html
Pickleball Association or whatever they call it is in Holly Hill, FL. I don’t get why the Tennis Center was expanded for pickleball when there was no hope that the Pickleball Association was leaving or dissatisfied with Holly Hill’s facility. What was done just south of Royal Palms Parkway on Belle Terre was a waste of millions of dollars. And for Palm Coast to have approved that without the USTA committing a tournament to Palm Coast, probably yet another reason why Alfin is no longer mayor. Maybe Alfin thought Palm Coast could become another location for a tournament before or after Hilly Hill’s ? But from another read (FlaglerLive) as I recall, the limited locker room facilities is just one reason why the USTA won’t ever have an event in Palm Coast.
https://pictona.org/
Duane says
Take a look around at the other disc golf parks. These things become rusty cages in a short period of time and no one will use them. This is an outdated sport.
Duane says
Your right about Pickleball in Holly Hill. Palm Coast could have saved a lot of money if they bought every resident an annual membership to Pictona in Holly Hill instead of spending millions on their courts. The Holly Hill facility is wonderful and offers more recreation activities than just pickleball. If you haven’t visited that facility, its worth the time.
J says
This might be one of the most uneducated responses to something i have read in a long time.
J says
There’s one in the R section?
Cathy S. says
For over half a million, in reduced impact fees, this City/County could open an ANIMAL SHELTER! People can’t afford to feed their families and pets. More building = more families + pets ! FHS is over 100% capacity. Save our animals, stop euthanasias, our pets deserve to be treated like family. 5 acres is a great place for a Shelter. Are there any builders, land owners that would consider donating land to save our animals?