See today’s related article: “Call for Building Moratorium in Palm Coast Retreats as City Says It’s Already Implementing New Construction Rules.”
Palm Coast had recorded 125 cases of flooded properties as of last week. This week, the number went up to 148, according to Carl Cote, the city’s construction management and engineering division manager, a number almost certain to rise further with today’s projection of severe storms and downpours.
The flooding is a relatively new phenomenon in Palm Coast as the boom in new homes in the city’s older sections–the sections platted of quarter-acre lots by ITT, or so-called “infill” lots–has also taken place on mountains of fill: many builders are opting to build homes much higher than neighboring lots. It’s a flood-prevention measure. It’s also a flood-causing measure for older, neighboring lots, whose water had until then tended to drain into the vacant, lower lots.
Residents have brought their complaints to individual city council members and to the council as a whole, with council members such as Ed Danko, Theresa Pontieri and Cathy Heighter championing the residents’ problems and pushing the administration to address the flooding issues as a top priority, as few matters have been before.
The issue has forced the administration to respond on two fronts. On one, it has rewritten building regulations to ensure that homes don;t vault higher than a certain height. Those regulations go before the council next week. (See: “Call for Building Moratorium in Palm Coast Retreats as City Says It’s Already Implementing New Construction Rules.”) On another front, it has reconfigured its staff assignments and designate a task force devoted to that one issue, with some results but no promises of a certain fix. Melissa Hill, a citizen resource and outreach coordinator in the stormwater division, is the point person and will eventually be dedicated to handling all such stormwater cases.
More recently, the issue has caught on among self-styled “loudmouth” but generally ill-informed and intentionally disruptive activists, among them Alan Lowe, the perennial, and perennially unsuccessful, candidate for city office. They don’t necessarily have flooding problems but their conspiracy theories about the city, such as the ongoing campaign or a “forensic audit,” are always grasping for ridable coattails. Those more stilted voices risk further muddying an already murky political issue for the city, though they appear to have no effect on the staff’s professionalism.
City staffers have visited 75 of the affected properties so far, Cote told the council today. They are hoping to have visited all 148 by the end of January, assuming the tally doesn’t grow much further. “It’s a process but is a priority to us and make that initial contact with the resident,” City Manager Denise Bevan said, with the permitting process now involving a more intense professional review.
Typically, a couple of city representatives go to a property to gather basic information about the flooding. From there, additional staff pull up records of adjacent properties, surveyors go to the property in question and rule out such issues as stormwater problems. Danko asked the logical question: are the visits helping? Are they fixing problems?
“We do don’t necessarily design a fix for some of the existing homeowners,” Cote said. “There are a couple where we were working with the builder of the new home and he made adjustments to his grading to help ensure that his water would stay his property. There was one that was an issue. His water was going on the property and he is fixing that.” The city is having some success either with new builds or with existing homes in identifying issues that may be resolved with some landscaping curbing or by addressing the flow of gutters and drains and other such mechanical fixes. “So we’ve been giving them some recommendation to things that they could do to help alleviate their issue,” Cote said.
The flooding problems have spawned a parallel problem for residents through the very system that Palm Coast uses to address concerns. Palm Coast Connect is the online platform through which residents communicate their concerns and work requests to the city. The city in turn keeps the resident informed through a real-time ticketing system. But once the city considers the matter dealt with, it closes the ticket, with no further comment. There’s been several such cases from residents with flooding concerns. The city has addressed them, then closed their cases, leading many residents to complain that they’re not being heard, or that they’re being dropped.
Pontieri said the city must improve the way it deals with those Palm Coast Connect cases. “When a resident sees that their case is closed, they don’t know what’s going on behind the curtain,” Pontieri said. “So it’s very discouraging. They feel like they’re not getting anywhere. They feel like they’re not getting any traction. They feel like they’re not being listened to. And that is not what we stand for.” She requested that the system be altered in order to keep residents “in the loop at all times” and have the same knowledge as do council members.
Cases do get closed, but only when several cases are open on the same property. “For these infill lots, we’re not necessarily closing them. We’re re-categorizing them, because [residents] may call in and talk about flooding, but they’re more concerned about the water in their swale. They don’t necessarily have infill lot stormwater retainage on their property.”
Pontieri’s request drew strong support from fellow Council member Nick Klufas, on whose first-term watch Palm Coast Connect was approved and implemented. Pontieri, Klufas said, “really struck a chord there where if cases are being closed, the level of communication is even that much more important for residents to understand where exactly in the process they are.” But he stressed that city staffers have been very diligent in addressing the issues.
Cote cautioned that until the administration submits a complete report on all flooding cases in February, by which time it will have collected all the necessary data and completed its analysis, it may seem to some residents as if nothing is happening. But it’s at that February workshop that, based on the report, the council will take the next steps on addressing these flooding issues from a broader, policy-oriented perspective, as opposed to a case-by-case approach.
Meanwhile, Danko said, “I would just ask everyone here to keep in mind, we have a lot of folks that have been affected by this. And that continues obviously to increase and at some point, we’re going to have to take care of those folks in one way or another and offer some support. And I would ask everyone on staff and on this Council, to keep that in their mind and start possibly coming up with suggestions on how we can help those folks in our community that have been affected by this.”
Danko has been repeating that plea almost weekly, at times making–or testing–proposals of his own, such as devising a financial aid system. But for now, beyond the technical fix it has worked out through its building regulations and required its builders to follow, which will help reduce future problems, the city does not have a comprehensive, retroactive fix for existing residents who see their yards turn to ponds after rain events.
HayRide says
ooh, I should have gone to the meeting I missed it,
any way to get on the tally of properties to examine
Dennis C Rathsam says
WOW, this could be one hell of a law suite for the city. More too come.
Wobie says
I filed a case on October 3, 2023. Have not hear from anyone, had no visits from stormwater workers, or any other form of contact. I called and got sent to voicemail with no return calls or visits. After yesterday’s rain, I ONCE AGAIN have a full-blown lake in my back yard. Guess I need to get the pump out AGAIN! Ridiculous. Looks like nothing is ever going to get done. Since the flooding tends to affect my property value, maybe I could get a reduction in property taxes? :-P
I’ve given up on this city government looking out for its citizens and their concerns. Vote ’em out.
Russell Sinski says
Maybe a $100 reduction of your assessment and having your neighborhood reclassified as a flood zone mandating flood insurance is what I would expect.
TR says
Sorry to hear about your situation. But unfortunately that is every dept. of the city. Never call back or come up with a solution to a problem. They don’t care until they want something from it’s citizens. Your situation should never have gotten to the big problem it is today if the city would have listen to the first time a problem was called in and then come up with a solution to prevent it from growing instead of sweeping it under the rug. Now they have tons of residence that have the same problem as you and the city doesn’t know how to fix it or won’t. I think the only way this problem as well as a number of other major problems that have been ignored for years is a class action law suit. But people don’t want to spend the money, or which lawyer will take on city government to represent the little people.
I wish you luck, but for me as soon as I retire (which will be soon) I’m out of this hell hole which use to be a paradise. But thanks to this city council and previous ones as well, they have ruined it.
Herbert says
Yesterday during the storm, I saw a squirrel , cat, and a opossum sailing down my swale in a Ark.
TR says
That’s hard to believe, when all the animals in the real ark were in pairs. They must have bin is a dinghy. LOL
Celia Pugliese says
The alleged invented justification for the latest homes and yards flooded is not that ITT built the houses with intended drainage in adjacent vacant lots…that is the biggest frivolous statement since the wheel invention, as ITT’s most important goal was to sale vacant buildable lots not to flood them!! Lets stop the blame and look at facts! Its time to stop accusing ITT for this county and city MPD, PUD, rezoning’s and oversight of proper enforcement. All of these problems would have been resolved at once if our elected officials would hear and resolve ours, all residents complains and issues brought to them from the start and instruct staff to resolve them. We residents bring to you the living daily proof of our issues and even the potential solutions but they get ignored for years in favor of builders, consultants, contractors and only city staff at times incorrect perception!
The real newly homes flood problem is that the builders are allowed to do as they please to maximize greed given the fact that our city departmental responsible staff has not enforced its own city ordinance Chapter 24-156 (c) Lot 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.
Also city needs to consider a new ordinance to be drafted if the “outdated” Florida Statute allows it, that NO MORE burning of downed trees, brush or vacant parcels debris intended to clear for new construction within city limits!. They need to pay for transport out to prevent our breathing contamination and also prevent crashes that have taken place in our major Hwy’s or collectors given the smoke as well. Ms. Darlene Shelley was correct in yesterday’s meeting describing the nuisance they in Hidden Lakes and Toscana had to endure this week that even still visible and smelled while I drove back home OKR after yesterday’s meeting. Its time that the over 102,000 Palmcoaster’s in the largest city within Flagler and Volusia county are seriously heard!
Also heard and strongly represented at the District 5 TPO meetings so we start getting fair more equitable Fed and State road funds needed for our city and not so much less than Volusia county as still happening. Palmcoaster’s need to organize better and vote better, because if we do not ask, someone else’s does like other counties, cities and “stakeholders do” .
Resident says
The flooding will get worse as Mayor Alfin and Commissioner Nick Klufas work for the developers and push thru all the extra density.
James says
Perhaps it’s just me, but I think this is going to end in another $100K “study.”
Just an observation.