[Correction: an earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the moratorium as a building moratorium, when in fact the moratorium would apply only to the placement of fill at building sites. While that may have the same result, discouraging or halting some construction, it is not, strictly speaking, a building moratorium, since construction may proceed without fill. The discussion on Tuesday made little distinction between the moratoriums’ effects on construction activity.]
The first hour of the Flagler Beach City Commission meeting Thursday evening felt like a geographic warp. Flagler Beach had gone Palm Coast on a raft of drainage wrangles.
Here was a resident choking up with desperation at the dais, describing how her house of 30 years has quickly been surrounded by new properties built on mountains of fill that have turned her yard into a small lake.
Here was the city’s new engineer talking about a 90-day moratorium on using building fill in certain areas so the city could rewrite its development code to address the issues.
Here were builders and the director of the Flagler County Home Builders Association decrying talk of moratoriums as pointless when the rules already on the books could and should be better enforced without punishing the majority of builders to target the unconscientious few.
Here was an actual, proposed ordinance spelling out the makings of a moratorium, an ordinance that seemed to have sprung up with little warning, putting the commission on the defensive in front of a chamber the home builders association had packed with advocates in tactical pre-emption mode. It worked.
Because here, too, were commissioners and the mayor taking turns to distance themselves from talk of a moratorium–a word whose 10 letters Thursday night had the distinct sound and caliber of a few four-letter words–with all sorts of reasons, not least the reading of existing rules, by Commissioner Eric Cooley, that spelled out regulations that should have made the warp unnecessary.
The commission agreed to table the proposed moratorium for at least two weeks, when a
The picture that emerged from that opening hour of the commission’s meeting was of a city unquestionably facing a problem with builders ignoring fill regulations, with a history of city engineers and a city that have done nothing about a comprehensive stormwater system, of existing regulations that some builders flout at will, and of a seemingly non-existent or overwhelmed code enforcement department of one employee that the city has not deemed fit to better arm against violators.
Equally startling was the divide between the administration and the commission as commissioners implicitly if sharply criticized their own staff for not enforcing city regulations, though the commission’s responsibility is not absent, since it provides its staff the means to enforce. Those means have been lacking.
In many ways, Annamaria Long, the executive officer of the Flagler Home Builders Association told the commission, this was a repeat of the drainage complaints in Palm Coast that started flooding the city council there last fall, where there was also a move toward a moratorium–quickly thwarted though it was.
“We just did this in January in Palm Coast,” Long and said. “I’m sure you saw the headlines. Moratoriums don’t fix things, moratoriums scare off businesses, they affect the private sector, they affect the public sector, they affect your own city employees. They’re not the answer. They never are. They never will be. We can fix the land development code. And we can still build houses because engineering can do their job.”
Much of the recent spate of complaints has come from one block in the city, the 2700 block on South Daytona Avenue, though as commissioners and others said, the issue has recurred elsewhere in the past. Kristina Shustack lives at 2708 South Daytona, a block that now mixes houses of long date with new ones. You can tell from their elevations. The old ones sit in troth. The new ones loom around them, built on top of small hills of fill.
“Some of us are running out of time. There’s only one lot left on my block, and every single home that’s been built since I’ve been there which is over five homes, has broken the rules, broken the codes, and I’ve played by the rules the whole time. And I just get more underwater every time,” Shustack said. The city engineer told her there was nothing she could do short of knocking down her house and rebuilding. But that’s not an option for Shustack. “This isn’t just hypothetical. This is my life. I have a 15-month-old son that could never use his backyard because it’s a swamp. I’ve lost all reasonable use of my property because of what’s happened around me. And because I’ve sat and I’ve waited and I’ve asked and I’ve emailed and I’ve come to every meeting, and I’m trying to get a resolution and all I get is lip service, and I’m sick of it.”
Shustack was echoing the complaints of a few dozen property owners in Palm Coast who had lived without issues in homes of long date until the lots around them started sprouting new homes, on mounds of fill far higher han their own. Palm Coast rewrote its technical manual regulating construction, limiting fill heights. Palm Coast did not have to do so by rewriting its Land Development Code, a more laborious process that can take months, if not years. It was instead an administrative rewrite, now in effect. Complaints have dried up in Palm Coast, even though June and July have brought significant rain.
Bill Freeman, Flagler Beach’s new city engineer–he’s been on the job one month: “welcome to the fire,” Cooley told him–said existing regulations allow builders to dump 50 cubic yards of fill on a lot. The regulations require builders to ensure proper drainage. But by the time the fill is in and the house is built, there’s little room for the kind of drainage infrastructure that would not displace the equivalent of 50 cubic yards of water. So floods result.
“We looked at the situation, we realized that the language of the Land Development Code needs to be revised. So that’s basically the next phase,” Freeman said. That’s how the 180-day, or six-month, moratorium in certain designated flood zones emerged.
Cooley didn’t buy it. “The problem is we’re using selective reading is what we’re doing,” he said. “If you follow the complete Land Development Code, not pick and choose which you want to talk about, then that picture is a little bit different.” He was also skeptical–as were all the commissioners and the mayor–that a 180-day moratorium would make a difference. “I’m hearing moratorium talked about a lot, and this is not a moratorium discussion,” Cooley said. “We’re supposed to be talking about fill allowance.”
To Commission Chairman Scott Spradley and Commissioner Jane Mealy, any talk of moratorium was premature in light of an extensive (and complicated) report by a consultant the city hired to study Flagler Beach’s drainage issues about to be delivered. That report will be discussed in two weeks. There is no sense discussing moratoriums now before the consultants’ report is studied and understood, the commissioners said. Spradley and the mayor were also concerned about the number of projects a moratorium would affect.
“It boils down to enforcement of what we already have,” Mayor Patti King said. “I’m torn on the moratorium aspect because I know we have so many people in the pipeline that this affects.”
Rich Smith, a builder who lives on Flagler Beach’s Lambert Avenue, essentially summarized the situation with a sharp sum-up he delivered to the commission at the end of the hour-long workshop: It’s not true that there aren’t good homes built in flood zones, he said. “There are a select few, and I really feel for the homeowners that have had bad experiences, because they could have been prevented,” Smith said. “But four to five or six or 15 that are bad, there are 75, 100, 1,000 that are built in the same zones that worked fine. And I will suggest because nobody will bring the cat out of the bag–I’ve got to do it because I deal with this every day–is that we haven’t had leadership in the engineering department for god knows in years. We haven’t had it.” A few people clapped.
“And as a result of it, we don’t have people in place to manage what we’ve got,” Smith continued. “And I will tell you directly: we have a management problem in the engineering department.” He turned to Freeman to his left, telling him he was exempt. He was too new. “The real issue here is the ones that are getting complaints and the ones that are causing problems and the ones that are not in compliance: I guarantee if you took the time to go out and look at the good ones and compare them to the bad ones, you would determine that staff screwed up. Staff approve something that should have never been approved. And then when they went out in the field to inspect it before they gave a CO [certificate of occupancy], they kowtowed down and said, Oh my god, what have I done? I am so embarrassed that I let them slip through that I must give the CO. This is absurd. This issue can be resolved at permitting. This issue is a permitting issue and a staff issue for not having either the knowledge or have the responsibility to make sure that this Land Development Code is read and managed properly. That is where the stops and starts.”
The moratorium discussion took place during an hour set aside as a workshop. The moratorium proposal was on the subsequent meeting agenda, but the commission ratified its decision to table it at least until its July 26 meeting. The proposal isn’t dead. But it appears to have been all but disarmed.
Joe D says
After the 2 most recent hurricanes went through Flagler County, the terrible flooding affected exiting home with little to no elevation. Sooooo….
Homeowners either elevated their homes (if possible), and new developers elevated their new builds to lessen the issue of flooding. Unfortunately water ( among other things) flows downhill!
That being said, isn’t there EXISTING regulations that you have to control your own property run off, so it goes into drains (or swales, etc), and not across your neighbors’ properties!?!
New higher level builds should have a perimeter buried drain system to collect runoff, and direct it towards the neighborhood drainage system.
When I bought my retirement home in Flagler in 2019, I INSISTED on buying an ELEVATED home, due to flood risk. I’m from a coastal state where elevated (8-10ft) homes in coastal areas were REQUIRED since the mid 1980’s. Florida doesn’t seem to care about anything but WIND mitigation ( even as late as the 2005 regulations). I was correct in my purchase. My home survived both recent storms with no flooding, and only the loss of my roof top HVAC “hurricane cover.”
You can’t expect people to elevate their properties to protect from flooding, then penalize them, because their neighbors aren’t elevated. That is assuming that the elevated homes have been constructed with drainage systems to divert runoff AWAY from neighboring properties.
PS: ONLY one code enforcement officer!?! WELL, I see where the problem is with new builds?!!
Celia Pugliese says
A moratorium also needed in Palm Coast for the same reasons properly proposed by excellent councilwoman Pontieri and out voted…and this why we need Jeffery Seib and Ray Stevens in the Palm Coast council in spite of developers and their candidates wishes. Is what we need nit what we want!
Palm Coast Old Timer says
Have to agree with you on your choices, Celia.
Jeffrey L. Seib, candidate running for Palm Coast city council district 1, is very well educated (Louisiana State University).
Compare that to the other candidates in the Palm Coast City Council district 1 race: Austrino (realtor), Ty Vincent Miller (closely connected to the Flagler Home Builders Association by marriage) AND only a resident of Palm Coast for 2 years AND working closely with DANKO putting up their campaign signs together, and then Shara Brodsky (who until recently has been living in Ormond Beach).
I live in Palm Coast City Council District 1, and I am voting for Jeffrey L Seib, because he doesn’t have any connection to realtors, developers OR the Flagler Home Builders Association, AND he doesn’t have to lie about his connections and/or credentials. He’s highly educated from LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, AND is aware of environmental and wildlife concerns in Florida. He’s been here a long time. The other candidate, Brodsky, doesn’t even come under consideration for me.
I only just met Jeffrey L Seib at the Tiger Bay Candidate Meet & Greet a couple of weeks ago , have no relation to him, haven’t contributed to his campaign, BUT I have investigated all the City Council candidates thoroughly, and I will only vote for Jeffrey L Seib.
Celia Pugliese says
Thank you Old Timer as we need to be carefully choosing who will represent us best in city, county and state.
The current discontent and state of affairs needs change for us as in the city, county residents and also the school board we been honored with former state troopers chief Mr. Derek Barrs https://www.voterfocus.com/CampaignFinance/candidate_pr.php?op=cv&e=37&c=flagler&ca=705&rellevel=4&committee=N and Mrs, Ramirez running for school Board we need some “law and order” there too. I lived here since 1991 and know well all the happenings along the way and we want to preserve what made us move here.
With councilwoman Pontieri and the right candidates in the council Ray Stevens and Jeffery Sieb will be no more flooded residents because higher built next door and Mr. Cooley and the FB commissioners should be as well fixing it for those residents there by having the builder resolve it
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
“…a seemingly non-existent or overwhelmed code enforcement department of one employee that the city has not deemed fit to better arm against violators.”
I would think the city should take the lead and admit they screwed up and fix the problems, even if that means a moratorium has to be put in place. Just shy of jacking up the Shustack house, and filling the property in properly, along with doing the same for others that have been affected the city has to take a good long look at what broke down and fix it for good. Maybe jacking up is the right way to go along with ensuring ALL houses built higher have to rectify the current problem by installing proper drainage, have the original builders pay for that.
Celia Pugliese says
I could not agree with Nephew of Uncle Sam any more. Our city has to correct for all the affected residents with the same high backfilled infill lots now flooding their properties. City allowed that and has to fix it by forcing the builders to install proper drainage in those higher built houses and resolve it for those suffering residents.
JimboXYZ says
From that photo, the lower elevation property has a sagging middle for a front yard that is all rocks. Wonder if that was every a grassy yard that was replaced with rocks ? Anytime enough water flow happens that will erode away & definitely puddle there. Looks like the garages at at risk, the front door is elevated.
https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/south-daytoba.jpg?w=1000&ssl=1
Jim says
Such insight! You must be an engineer.
Hippy says
Thank you Rich Smith for sharing some truth.
Billy says
The whole idea s build as much crap as possible and worry about it later!
Celia Pugliese says
Palm Coast has it in its ordinances does it have it Flagler Beach too?: Chapter 24 – ENVIRONMENT | Code of Ordinances | Palm Coast, FL | Municode Library
Sec. 24-156. – Lot survey.
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(a)Each owner or contractor of a building or facility shall illustrate the proposed building or facility elevation and the proposed finished elevation of the lot all along the lot lines and at the drainage facilities existing across the front and/or back of the lot. The elevations of the areas surrounding the lot for a distance of 15 feet or to the adjacent building are necessary to assure stormwater originating on the lot under consideration is properly cared for. The proposed directional flow of stormwater runoff shall be included on the illustration. The illustration shall be a part of the building permit application and submitted to the City Manager or designee for approval at the time that permit is applied for, and prior to lot clearing or grading activities.(b)Following construction of any building or facility, prior to final inspection by the City Building Department, the owner or contractor shall provide a final survey of the property on which the building or facility is located, as well as the adjacent right-of-way. The final survey shall show all horizontal dimensions of the building or facility, setbacks from front, rear and side lot lines, a description of the type construction, ancillary buildings on the property, encroachments, easements and final grading (finished) elevations, as well as any other information necessary to give a complete physical inventory of the property and of the improvements constructed thereon. The final survey shall be signed and sealed by a professional land surveyor licensed to do business in the state. Grading elevations shall be shown along the lot lines at intervals of 20 feet and along the rear lot drainage system and the roadside swales at those same intervals. Invert elevations of pipes beneath driveways or driveway swales shall be shown as well as road elevations, both centerline and the edge adjacent to and/or opposite property corners. Elevations of drainage conveyance facilities with adjacent rights-of-way shall also be shown. The direction of stormwater runoff shall be shown on the final survey.(c)The final survey shall be submitted to the City Manager or designee not less than two working days prior to the day the request for final inspection is made to the Building Official. If examination of the final survey and/or physical site examination by the City Manager or designee indicates stormwater drainage has not been properly provided for, then the owner or contractor shall correct deficiencies to provide for proper drainage. The drainage examination shall include movement of stormwater into the conveyance system and assurance that stormwater runoff onto adjacent lots has been considered and mitigated.(d)No filling or grading will be permitted after the final survey except such grading as is necessary to rectify improper grading as indicated in subsection (c) above.(e)Residential single-family buildings on lots one acre or more in size may be partially or totally exempt from the requirements for preliminary and final lot surveys if it can be clearly demonstrated, to the satisfaction of the City Manager or designee, that stormwater runoff originating on the property will not adversely affect the property of others. All other requirements of this article shall apply.
Joe D says
Sounds like the basic regulations are on the books…now MAYBE the jurisdictions in Flagler County can support the ENFORCEMENT of those drainage regulations ( they appear pretty standard to what I’m used to in other jurisdictions), with more than just ONE inspector (REALLY!?!)
Mothersworry says
Why not some regulation directed at not changing the elevation within 15 feet of a boundary? How about not permitting construction that does not keep run off on the property and not permitting run of onto a adjacent property. Finally tighten up the regulations already on the books and impose meaningful fines or perhaps revoke building permits for violations. If the enforcement folks are overwhelmed stop issuing permits until they have caught up.
Seems everybody has an excuse for no action while another homeowner owner get’s drowned. That is pure BS!
Greg says
Understand, they don’t care about your home! I fought this battle with Jason D, 5 years ago. Flooding is your issue, not the cities. They will lie through their teeth to ship it you up and then move on. NEVER trust any politician.
Celia Pugliese says
The person that you referred to ,Jason D. 5 years ago (former Home Builders Assoc Director for over 10 years), as per the record influential in all these exceptions of our ordinance that I posted above and allowing builders do as they please. This is why we need change in city council and county. Not only he gets Carte Blanch from council and mayor he is running the city now and in our hard earned dime (his six figure pay and benefits) also this : Tyler Wilkins of Orlando-based Crossman Company is tasked with lining up commercial tenants for the buildings. He’ll be pairing up wht Palm Coast Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo ,on the effort here: https://flaglerlive.com/promenade-at-town-center-breaks-ground/. Am I am wrong interpreting this costly freebie for developers paid by us? How many high paid city staff involved in this project? Then there are no enoiugh funds to give our services thru public works. Just my view of a resident here since 1991.
Marcos Romero says
When City Engineer Fred Griffith left the job under duress he was replaced by Lee Richards to manage the engineering department. It is very true that there has been a lack of leadership in the Engineering department. Lee Richards is a retired architect and not qualified as a non engineer to be the head of City Engineering. The Code enforcement is another problem that is described correctly by builder Smith. The rewrite of the City LDC has been going on for to long. Larry Torino has been working on this rewrite, but is he not retired? Those are problems that point to mismanagement by City Goverment. The other problem is Flagler Beach is Coastal community. The County pumps water to lower the level of canals to the east raising the water level in the surrounding estuary of the Coastal community. Flagler Beach stormwater plan is designed to drain into that estuary system. When we experience northeast winds in our area the water level increases further. The City needs a new master plan for stormwater and the rewrite of the LDC must take priority.
Wow says
It’s always struck me funny that the new houses on the beach have to have a bottom floor underneath living space (and didn’t flood in Irma) but new houses on the canal can be one story (and did, mightily, flood during Irma). Really doesn’t make sense.
No one looks at the history for these regulations.
Mike says
It’s against Florida building code to have water flow onto anothers property. Lawyers gonna get involved. If it were me and the city approved time to call Saul and sue all involved.