Flagler Beach Prepares to Annex Veranda Bay, Adding 2,700 Housing Units and Doubling City’s Size by 2044

Rarely do city commissioners get to cast a vote that potentially doubles their city’s size, rebirthing it as something inconceivable even a few years ago. That’s what the five Flagler Beach City Commissioners may do Tuesday at a special meeting as they consider the annexation of Veranda Bay, the 800-acre development on the two sides of John Anderson Highway that, when it is built out in 2044, would total 2,735 housing units and 5,100 residents–equal to the current city population–over half a million square feet of commercial space, and a new, walkable downtown.




The city’s planning board unanimously recommended approval of the plan when it got a preview of the proposal in a 135-minute hearing earlier this month. The planning board normally would not weigh in on a voluntary annexation. In this case it did “because of all the interconnected moving parts,” City Attorney Drew Smith said. The attorney also told the board that the commission would “appreciate” its recommendations. He didn’t explain. It was self-explanatory: unanimous recommendations from the Planning Board eases the way for the City Commission, giving it some cover from any expected criticism.

Opposition, however, has been limited.

The city has been begging Veranda Bay to annex. Some residents have voiced concern, firing off emails to officials and in some cases calling for a stop to the annexation. Commissioners have been reassuring residents that they will have their say on Tuesday. At the planning board itself, however, opposition was muted.

If anything, some of the speakers complimented the developer and his representative’s presentations, which answered their questions. One resident asked for more efforts to save older trees. Ken Bryan, a former city commissioner still battling a defamation suit filed against him in 2020 by one of the companies connected to the Veranda Bay developer, said he represented 20 to 25 residents neighboring the development. He supports the annexation, but spoke of two issues: the burning of vegetation on the property, which had upset many residents, and access from the development to Palm Drive, which he and his neighbors oppose. He wanted formal assurances that there would not be such access in the future.




The city planner, for her part, felt compelled to write commissioners in defense of the administration’s recommendation for annexation. “I understand citizens’ concerns with the proposed annexation of Veranda Bay and its potential of changing Flagler Beach,” Lupita McClenning, the city planner, wrote commissioners last Thursday. “My responsibility as the City Planner is not as a decision maker, but in providing the data and analysis which minimally considers the character of undeveloped lands; the availability of, and impacts to the City’s facilities and services, and consistency with the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Although the Commission has important issues to consider as it relates to the Master Planned Agreement, the annexation and the large-scale future land use amendment are consistent with the Comp Plan; and applying the City’s codes and ordinances appears to be in the best interest of the City.”

McClenning noted that whether the city annexes or not, development of the property will continue. “The residents of Flagler Beach should consider if they prefer the development to be consistent with the City of Flagler Beach goals, objectives, policies, codes and ordinances; or prefer another jurisdiction’s goals, objectives, and policies to apply,” she wrote.

That had been the commissioners’ argument for annexation when they were cheering it on earlier this year. “Flagler Beach is looking to incorporate those pieces of land simply because we don’t want Palm Coast to annex them into their city,” Flagler Beach Commissioner Eric Cooley said in January as he raised the specter of towering buildings if the city didn’t impose its own codes.

The city planner’s position was not without its subjectivity: “It is a beautiful vision,” she had told the planning board. “It is a game changer, definitely, for the city.”




Planning board members’ questions were limited–only Brenda Wotherspoon raised a few–and opposition to the plan at that stage two weeks ago was muted. Wotherspoon echoed McClenning’s conclusion: “I just want to reiterate that whether we annex or not, you have the approvals in place, and you’ll go forward.” Wotherspoon had been among the skeptics, if not the opponents, of the plan in previous years (she referred to her attendance at what turned into a rowdy meeting at the Hilton hotel in 2019, where the plan, then known as The Gardens, was jeered. She compared her original conception of the plan as “barracks.” But she’s been a convert since. “I have to apologize, because it does feel very nice,” she said, describing a recent drive. (See: “Boos, Jeers and Defiance as Flagler Beach Voices Its Opposition to The Gardens Development on John Anderson.”)

As is often the case with mega projects, the regulatory steps are not as simple as approving an annexation and moving on. In this case, the city would also be approving a comprehensive plan amendment, which would then have to be ratified by the state and returned to the city for a final approval, and a rezoning as a master planned development, or MPD.

A fiscal impact study of Veranda Bay, a 33-page document prepared by Robert Gray of the Ponte Vedra Beach-based Strategic Planning Group, is the city’s bible behind the annexation. The development over the years would have 350 apartment units, 1,332 condominium units, and 975 single-family houses, with the houses built out by 2034 and the apartments in place by 2031. The condos would build at a slower pace from 2029 through 2044.




There would be a 36,200 square foot marina and clubhouse and a 250-room hotel. The analysis projects that Veranda Bay will generate 1,039 direct jobs, a little over half of them filled by Flagler County residents. The development would be governed in many respects by its own community development district, or CDD, what Mike Chiumento, the land-use attorney representing Veranda Bay, described as an “HOA on steroids.” An HOA is a homeowner association. “They have the ability to manage storm water systems infrastructure. They have the ability to levy bonds against the landowners within that CDD to build infrastructure,” Chiumento said.

It projects that between annexation and 2044, the development will generate $452 million in revenue for the city’s various funds in taxes and fees, and that after that, it’ll generate $56.2 million a year. The figures cannot, of course, be verified since they are projections deep into the future.

The land is in unincorporated Flagler County, whose regulatory process Veranda Bay has followed to date. The county does not object to the annexation, “but we do have some concerns that we want the city to take into account as it moves through the decision making process,” Assistant County Attorney Sean Mylan told the planning board.

The development borders on Bulow Creek, the county’s first protected greenway going back to the early 1990s. “One of the things that is being proposed is that the buffers along that creek be greatly reduced,” Moylan said. “we’re here to ask, as this moves forward, that the buffers along Bulow Creek remain at least as large as they are now under the county’s jurisdiction.” On the ground–as opposed to on paper–that’s about 75 feet. Further north Bulow Creek turns into Graham Swamp, where buffers dwindle to 25 feet. Along scenic John Anderson Highway, the county has a required 25-foot minimum buffer, but an actual average of 50 feet.




The county is asking the city to ensure that those buffers are spelled out in the plan. Mike Chiumento, the land-use attorney representing Veranda Bay, told the planning board that “the annexation agreement does provide that we will be sensitive to the county and the residents’ concerns about John Anderson,” ensuring a 100-foot buffer on the east side of the road and a 50-foot buffer on the west side. The agreement calls for open space on 40 percent of the property.

The county is also asking that John Anderson is turned into a city road, and that Veranda Bay should build a required “spine road” to State Road 100 before John Anderson, also known as County Road 201, degrades too much. The county is asking that residents of the development be prohibited to drill their own wells so groundwater is protected. “We don’t want holes getting poked in the aquifer all over the place with individual homeowners,” Moylan said.

The city administration, which recommends approval of the annexation, acknowledges that the development’s demands will exceed the city’s current capacity for water and wastewater, but the city is expanding that capacity. “For those who are concerned, the reality is,” Chiumento said, “if there comes a point where there is an inability to provide services, our project can’t go forward, so we have to wait. So that is the way that that issue is resolved when dealing with potable water, wastewater and reuse.” Reuse is another word for recycled water used for irrigation. The project also has a concurrency agreement with Flagler County schools–meaning that it is paying development impact fees that would presumably provide for additional school construction, assuming it’s needed. It has not been needed for going on 18 years.




The original project as approved by the county in 2005 when it was a Bobby Ginn property added up to 2,000 acres. Since then, about 1,100 acres was conveyed to the county for conservation and recreation. The county approved the first phase of the development in 2020, the ongoing build of 335 houses. It was the culmination of a process riven by public opposition that, back then, included Flagler Beach. The city wanted the county to impose four conditions on the development, The county did not do so. Soon after that, the city warmed to the development.

Ken Belshe, representing Veranda Bay and a series of companies owning the lands being considered for annexation, addressed the planning board for the first time at the Sept. 3 meeting. He also serves as the project director for is Marina del Palma off Colbert Lane and years ago–the development that brought him to Flagler County–led the development of Palm Coast Plantation’s 634-home subdivision. “None of the stuff that I may envision is possible until we get through the zoning process and get through the annexation process,” he said. “Much of it is vision.”

Belshe described what it’ll look like on the east side of John Anderson: “It’s going to have a really impressive gate, along with a clubhouse that will have pool, tennis courts, bocce ball, pickleball, dog park and numerous other types of things that amenities I think that everybody will be very proud of,” he said. (Note: no golf courses, a significant change from the 2005 plan.) “We do all this because we are in the business of selling lifestyle.” A marina village will be situated on the west side of the road, where condominium-type buildings of “less than 35 feet” will rise around the 120-boat-slip marina.

The west side of the development, which will include a commercial component and low-density residential area, will be rebranded as Summertown even though it will remain under the same developer. “We are envisioning that as a walkable downtown, commercial, sort of New Urbanism type development that we’re really excited about,” Belshe said. “We propose there’ll be retail, shopping, dining, entertainment, cafes, bars and and a boutique hotel that we want to incorporate meeting space into.” He compared it to Celebration, Seaside or “Downtown Winter Park without all the stuffy people.”