Flagler County government’s proposed $114 million plan to rebuild, maintain and protect 18 miles of shoreline over the next six years depends on raising the local sales tax by half a penny, imposing a $160-a-year tax on each barrier island property, including Flagler Beach, doubling spending on the beach from the county’s tourism-tax revenue, and temporarily using some general fund revenue toward the effort.
The plan requires more of a political than a financial buy-in from Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, Bunnell, Beverly Beach and Marineland. Aside from the barrier-island tax, or fee, it makes no demands on the cities’ property-tax revenue. But it would require Flagler Beach, Beverly Beach and Marineland to cede to beach management all their share of the revenue from the new half-cent sales tax, and require Palm Coast and Bunnell to ceded half their share of that revenue. The cities’ share of the current sales tax would not be affected.
At a joint meeting of local governments on Feb. 5 Palm Coast and Beverly Beach, and to some extent Flagler Beach, bluntly rejected the county’s request for financial help to rebuild and maintain Flagler County’s beaches. County officials at that meeting said they had a financial plan to get it all done. But they did not present it. (See: “Eroding Management Plan, Cities Bluntly Tell Flagler County: Not One Extra Dime for Beach Protection.”)
County Administrator Heidi Petito and Deputy County Administrator Jorge Salinas now have that plan down to the dollar. Petito and Salinas presented the plan to the Marineland Town Commission last Thursday. They are presenting it to the Bunnell City Commission tonight, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday, and the Flagler Beach City Commission on Thursday. The County Commission has yet to see it as a commission. But the plan, Petito said, is the result of the commission explicitly directing the administration to come up with concrete and pragmatic options to finance the county’s beach management while taking account of residents and municipalities’ resistance to new taxes.
The result is a thoughtful, detailed approach that attempts to balance the large financial cost of protecting the county’s primary economic asset–the beach–with local governments’ own burdens. The plan would relieve all the cities of any beach-management responsibility, especially Flagler Beach, making the county responsible for management of all 18 miles of shoreline. The county would carry the largest financial burden and the only managerial burden. But the varied funding mechanism seeks to spread some of the financial pain around through existing and novel means, while leaving all the cities’ property taxes (or general funds) untouched.
“As a county, people need to come together and support it,” Petito said of the plan. “Doing nothing is an option. Not a smart option, but it is an option.” So if the cities do not support the plan, the county will simply go ahead with rebuilding and maintaining the unincorporated part of the beach to the extent possible, which may not be as substantial as if the whole County was on board. As for Flagler Beach, its now beloved beach-renourishment section south of the pier, completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last summer, would be a one-off thing instead of a 50-year, ongoing project.
Maintaining that renourished beach is Flagler Beach’s responsibility. The city has yet to come up with a plan to do so, or to come up with part of the local match to fund the next round in 2030. The Petito plan gives the city an out. It makes the county responsible for it all.
If Flagler Beach declines, there is no money for the next beach nourishment round in Flagler Beach, due in 2030. The 50-year plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would just die. The beach would not be far behind.
The Petito plan has many layers and can seem complex, but broken down into its component parts, it’s rather straight-forward.
There are two components to beach management. Beach renourishment is one. That’s what’s often referred to as the “construction” part of rebuilding a beach–the literal dredging and dumping of new sand and rebuilding of dunes, the way the Army Corps did in Flagler Beach.
That phase would cost $42.4 million. It is necessary because since Hurricane Matthew, the beaches have been critically eroded in several parts, and without sea walls–which the state Department of Transportation has installed or is installing in two segments–erosion will continue, endangering A1A, which has been repeatedly bruised in severe storms, and flooding the barrier island, as was the case during Matthew, when dunes breached. The county cannot afford to lose the economic base of the island, Petito says, or else every local government’s services and quality of life would suffer.
“What we are trying to get back to is the pre-Matthew conditions,” the county administrator says. “Right now Flagler County is more vulnerable than when Hurricane Matthew hit,” she told the Marineland Town Commission. That may be true in some segments of the shoreline, but not in others–not in the Army Corps segment in Flagler Beach, for example, and not along the segment of northern Flagler Beach where the state built a seawall. Elsewhere, Petito is correct: the band-aid emergency sand dumps the county conducted since Matthew have themselves eroded.
The county would carry out that re-construction phase from north of the Flagler Beach pier all the way to Marineland. The cost for that phase is $42 million. The county is willing to shoulder the full cost. It would do so through its share of the existing sales tax, through tourist tax revenue, through the general fund, which would devote between $3.3 million and $3.9 million a year over the next three years to the plan, and through state and federal grants. The county already has $7.4 million of those pledged.
Doubling the tourism tax revenue for beach management may be a challenge, because it depends on re-allocating nearly $1 million a year, for just three years, from the tourism capital fund–which has funded grants for Palm Coast’s Southern Recreation center and Flagler Beach’s boardwalk reconstruction–to beach management only. That means there would be no grants for capital improvements for a while.
The cities might complain. But as far as rebuilding all the beaches are concerned, the cities would not have to put up a dime.
Then comes the maintenance part. That phase would cost $72.1 million. “We can do the construction but when it comes to maintenance, everyone has to have skin in the game,” Petito says.
That’s the part where the cities have to be more engaged. That’s the part that requires an additional $12 million a year, so there’s enough money to maintain the beach and accumulate savings for the next renourishment phase in staggered years, starting in 2030. That’s the part for which the Petito plan calls for an additional half-cent sales tax.
Flagler County is the last small county in Florida not to have that half-cent on its books. It would generate $10.6 million in 2026. Flagler County’s share would be $4.7 million, Palm Coast’s would be $5.4 million, Flagler Beach’s would be $277,000, and Bunnell’s $213,000. Beverly Beach would get $26,000 and Marineland less than $1,000.
Under the Petito plan, Flagler County would direct all of its share to beach management. It would require Flagler Beach, Beverly Beach and Marineland to turn over all their revenue from that half cent to the county. And it would require Palm Coast and Bunnell to turn over half: $2.7 million from Palm Coast, $107,000 from Bunnell. Both cities would still have more money than they have now, if they approve the plan.
The $160-a-year tax on barrier island properties would kick in in 2027.
The numbers are not set in stone, in the sense that state or federal grants could reduce the local commitment, and unexpected storms could raise the cost. “Each year we’re going to have to reevaluate this fund,” Petito said.
There are many more details to the plan (see the documents in the bullet points below). But in essence, that’s it. That’s the plan Petito is presenting to local governments, ahead of the next joint government meeting on March 12, when the county hopes to hear more positive responses from Palm Coast, Bunnell and Flagler Beach.
“At the end of the day I’d like to see everybody on board,” Petito said. But it won’t be up to her. It’ll be up to the elected officials and their sense of shared responsibility, assuming they see the beach as such. So far, that has not been the case.
The Plan in Details:
- Flagler County’s Coastal Erosion and Management: Comprehensive Report
- Flagler County’s Coastal Erosion and Management: Executive Summary
- Flagler County’s Coastal Erosion and Management: Slide Presentation to Local Governments
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
“At a joint meeting of local governments on Feb. 5 Palm Coast and Beverly Beach, and to some extent Flagler Beach, bluntly rejected the county’s request for financial help to rebuild and maintain Flagler County’s beaches.”
1/2 cent sales tax no problem, yet if Beverly Beach and Flagler Beach still object then use the money to re-route A1A. At some point the sea will win.
Fernando Melendez says
I think it’s a reasonable plan put together by the county.
Ed Danko, former Vice-Mayor PC says
Third year in a row Flagler County has attempted a sales tax increase for one excuse or another. I urge all Palm Coast residents to show up at city hall and JUST SAY NO during public comment. We already have infrastructure and water treatment issues that will cost us mucho bucks.
Thomas Hutson says
Ok, so this crap is the secret plan our County Manager and Commissioners did not want the voters to see. Well now voters of Flagler County you see the secret, now let’s send them a Very, Very loud NO TAXES, HELL NO no more taxes. Just another huge waste of tax dollars., and by the way Big Daddy Warbucks cancelled all grants and special funding. Get rid of this County MANAGER AND COUNTY ATTORNEY, hey call King Trump’s right hand man, the nut case that jumped around with a chain saw like a wild man. Bet he could find money without raising taxes, just fire the fat cats at the top. One thing for sure, you don’t want Flagler County Government controlling anything, they have a very special way of wasting tax dollars.
Surfs up and so are the taxes says
The Petito Hansen plan is problematic. Shouldn’t be, but then again the county librarian is running the county according to Petito on the radio this week. What can go wrong?
Someone wake the county attorney up, he may want to weigh in on this or not. He seems to keep quiet in the most opportune times, throwing Shawn under the bus.