Palm Coast Council Ties ICI’s Easthampton Development Expansion to Affordable Housing for Public Servants

Last Updated: 5 p.m.

Facing down and at times rebuking sharp public opposition, the Palm Coast City Council today voted 4-1 to approve on second and final reading expanding the Easthampton housing development from 58 to 71 houses, and narrowing the lots from 8,250 square feet to 6,000 square feet to make the houses more affordable. 

The approval is contingent on an unusual set of conditions based on an 11th-hour proposal by the developer that had never been mentioned before or included in city documentation available either to city staff or the public. 

The development must secure a letter of intent from a developer-affiliated nonprofit that will build and sell the houses at or below market value to such buyers as teachers, cops, firefighters and veterans who can’t typically afford the current median price of just under $400,000. A set of covenants will attach to every sale, restricting homeownership to qualifying individuals. ICI Homes, which owns the lots, will not make a profit on the sales. 

The master-planned development (MPD), owned by a subsidiary of ICI Homes, was approved for 58 homes in 2012 after ICI sued in objection to a lower density. Agreement over 58 homes was the result of a settlement. The council approved the amended MPD on first reading, 3-2, earlier this month, with conditions, such as raising the lot size from 5,500 to 6,000 and more explicitly defining the “public benefit” of approving the amendment. (See: “Expansion to 71 Homes Reignites Decades-Old Conflict Over ICI Homes’ Easthampton Development.”)

Though represented by Michael Chiumento, the land use attorney based in Palm Coast, ICI today deployed two of its most potent weapons in its arsenal to make the “public benefit” argument: Nika and Forough Hosseini. Nika is the company’s corporate counsel and the daughter of Mori and Forough Hosseini, the ICI owners and Plantation Bay residents. Mori is one of the state’s most politically powerful business figures. Forough heads the nonprofit that is to play a central role in providing the “public benefit” in the Easthampton project. 

“After much discussion regarding public benefit that came from this dais,” Nika Hosseini said, addressing the council, “we determined that the greatest public benefit this property can provide is to serve those who have already served us. This is about veterans who defended our country, teachers who educate our children, firefighters who run toward danger, healthcare workers who care for our families in moments of crisis. Many of them work here. Many of them live here, yet many still rent, year after year, without stability and without the opportunity to build equity for their families. The nonprofit organization FBH Community is uniquely positioned to close that gap.”

FBH Community is a Daytona Beach nonprofit founded by Forough Hosseini. Nika Hosseini described it as a company that builds quality homes and sells them at or below construction cost through partnerships with contractors and trades workers, and with overhead covered by ICI’s own foundation. In 2022, for example, the company donated $326,000 in services and overhead, according to its IRS filing. “The result is life-changing,” FBH’s website states: “more than 90% of participating families now pay less in mortgage payments than they did in rent, gaining not just a house, but lasting stability.”

The nonprofit’s 2022 tax filing, the latest available, shows net assets of $2.9 million and revenue of $1 million from the sale of homes, with grants, gifts and other contributions accounting for twice as much revenue. 

FBH Community would become integral to the Easthampton development. “ If there are any other nonprofits out there that can build at or below construction costs, we are also happy to work with them as well,” Hosseini said. 

“So you’re going to donate this property,” Council member Ty Miller asked Hosseini, “and once that happens, ICI will make no profit off of this property.”

“Zero. That’s correct,” Hosseini said. 

In an email to FlaglerLive, Hosseini said this afternoon that “In the past 24 months, FBH Community’s Homes Bring Hope has closed on 15 homes and is planning to close on an additional 18 homes by the end of its fiscal year on June 30, 2026.”

A declaration of restrictive covenants attaches to each property and outlines the qualifications and requirements of homeowners, Hosseini said. For example, the homeowners typically have a 10-year hold before selling the property, and the sale may only be to another individual who qualifies under the covenant. 

The proposal drew skepticism from the public in attendance and from Mayor Mike Norris, who questioned whether the houses built could be sold to the sort of professionals Hosseini described. He cited neighboring home prices for houses sold or under contract ranging from the $400,000 to the $800,000 range. “Why are you guys presenting this now?” Norris asked Hosseini. 

“At the last meeting, there was a lot of significant talk about public benefit,” Hosseini said. “We are working with nonprofits and doing this type of work. It was something we’re familiar with, an example we thought we could bring to Palm Coast as well.”

Several members of the public who addressed the council–most of them but by no means all of them residents of the E Section–opposed the proposal. “There’s not a single person here that’s going to stand up here and say, yes, we want 13 more homes,” an E-Section resident said. He said there’s no opposition to the original 58 homes, but not more than that. Others told the council that the 2012 settlement agreement leaves the council free to deny the request for the additional houses. 

There were also more unseemly comments, the sort of comments familiar in almost all discussions of developments that open the door to more affordability: “This, to me, just sounds like low income housing, that that’s my problem,” an E-Section homeowner who described herself as “in shock” said. “That is not a public benefit. That’s a public huge detriment.” Another city resident called it a “bait and switch,”  and another questioned the transparency of the deal, referring to political connections between ICI and the governor. He suggested tabling the proposal for further study. 

A woman who owns two properties on Eric Drive and Eisenhower Place fears a precedent-setting decision that could lead to smaller houses in Cypress Knoll. “If our firefighters and teachers and other individuals need help in buying those” houses, she said, “then they should be looking for other possibilities, because there are houses available in Cypress Knoll. You don’t have to go far. All you’ve got to do is go down Eric Drive, and there’s about six houses for sale.”

An affordable housing advocate and E-Section resident had more pointed questions about how the council would make ICI accountable–how the prices of the houses to be built will be offset enough to ensure that a modest-income individual could afford them? “I really just advise you, as somebody that’s worked in legislative affairs with affordable housing, get the fine details very clearly laid out, because at the end of the day, there is a lot of bait and switch,” he said. “My biggest concern is for the people that they’re going to go after they’ve been tired of being lied to, and if you’re going to give them something affordable, make sure it really is with a fine tooth comb.”

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t,” yet another E-Section homeowner said. 

When the public comment segment was over, Chiumento asked that Forough Hosseini herself address the council to explain how her nonprofit operates, detailing the methods and stipulations that allow the nonprofit to sell at or below cost. “There is a stipulation that they need to remain in their homes for 15 years, because if we do not put that stipulation, the moment that they close the house, they have equity,” she said. “City of Daytona Beach has donated many lots to us. Volusia County School District has donated many lots to us. Halifax Hospital has donated lots to us. ICI Homes has donated lots to us.” 

Hosseini said the selection process in Volusia County is conducted through 10 partners–from Volusia County schools to Halifax hospital to Daytona State College and others–who would send information about their “lowest income employees so we can help them become homeowners.” The process would then start, involving the prospective homeowners in the design of “ICI quality homes.” 

Eligibility criteria call for a household income of 120 percent or below the Area Median Income, that the candidate must be a first-time homebuyer, have a minimum credit score of 600 and complete an approved first-time homebuyer education course.

She said the downpayment charged is $500. Nika Hosseini specified in the email: “FBH Community’s Homes Bring Hope works closely with the City of Daytona Beach and the County of Volusia to secure Down Payment Assistance ranging from $15,000 to $50,000 for qualified buyers.” FBH also collaborates with the state to assist eligible qualifying professionals through the Hometown Heroes Down Payment Assistance Program and with lending institutions that offer additional down payment assistance programs.

She also noted that Daytona Beach does not charge the nonprofit impact fees–an exemption Council member Dave Sullivan said he would not agree to. 

Council member Charles Gambaro, who made the motion to approve the proposal, said it would “maximize” the availability of affordable housing and “provide for our veterans, our first responders and our nurses and even our teachers. And so I’m sorry. I’m not going to withdraw my motion.” 

Council member Theresa Pontieri had to fend off accusations of doing ICI’s bidding, after receiving $5,000 in contributions from ICI subsidiaries in her ongoing campaign for a County Commission seat. She said she will be returning the money, but would have voted for the proposal regardless. 

Pontieri spoke of the proposal as “exactly how we get these types of attainable housing initiatives accomplished without costing our residents a penny.  I do want to connect what we’re doing here with actual people, with actual people in our community that serve this community every single day.” She strongly rebuked suggestions that the houses should not be built for affordability. 

“Most importantly in my mind, this is a positive impact on our entire community,” Pontieri said.  And there was a comment made that, well, this doesn’t benefit us. I want to know who ‘us’ is. Who is ‘us’? Is us, not our firefighters? Is us not our police officers? Is us not our teachers? Is us not our nurses? Is us not the guys that we depend to dig out our swales, because they make a starting pay of 42 grand? Is that not us? To me, that’s us. I don’t want folks to be priced out when we depend on them at two o’clock in the morning to respond to our calls. I don’t want people that are going to be teaching my kid in school in a few years to be priced out of living in our community because we’re not considering them ‘us.’ That’s not acceptable.”

Mayor Mike Norris maintained his opposition to the proposal, calling it “contrary to the public interest” as it “adds to the total” of houses “already in the queue.” The council then voted, with Norris in dissent. 

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