neighboring resident described a new house rising on Perotti Lane “like it’s on an island. It’s a little cartoon house. It’s obnoxious.” (© FlaglerLive)
The Palm Coast city administration is pledging to residents that it is taking a case-by-case approach to address concerns about flooding on quarter-acre properties seemingly caused by new construction. It has created what it calls a “task force” to address the issue, while staffers also work on updating technical construction guidelines that may address the issue in a more systematic way.
But residents are skeptical, claiming their calls or emails go unanswered, or that the city’s response is to sue neighbors, or that they’re having to shoulder their own costs of drainage improvements.
For the past few months existing residents in increasing numbers have complained to the city and in media accounts about new homes rising adjacent to theirs–rising not in a metaphorical sense, but in a literal sense: the fill for those new homes is rising several feet higher than the elevation of existing lots. Residents are seeing their back yards or front yards fill with standing water as a result, which they blame on the elevations of new, adjacent construction.
There are no rules limiting how high the fill of a new home may be. That has startled residents, who assumed that such a regulation was in place. But Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo last month said the city is working on updating its regulations. One such regulation would require the fill to be no higher than the drown of the road in front of a property. But city officials have also argued that there is not necessarily a direct cause and effect between higher homes and flooded yards. Rather, those flooded yards may themselves be at fault for having poor drainage, they say–an explanation that has not sat well with existing residents who had no such issues before the new construction.
Week after week residents have brought their complaints to the council or filled out formal review requests, prompting the city on Tuesday to issue a release outlining next steps. Among them, city staff will work with residents who have issues to attempt to resolve them, and do so through lengthy site visits if necessary. And the stormwater department on Dec. 12 will summarize to the council where the matter stands, how many complaints have been received, and “outline a comprehensive plan of action to review all residential cases that have been submitted,” as the release put it.
“It’s really important that we hear from the resident, the owner and any adjacent owners that have concerns,” City Manager Denise Beavan said at the beginning of a City Council meeting Tuesday evening. “So it’s going to take us a little while to make sure we can schedule those inspections and we want to make sure we have ample time to listen to the residents so it could be anywhere from an hour or two hours on site.”
Moments later, Carole Brasfield, a W-Section resident–on Weymouth Lane–requested a building moratorium until a fill height limit is in place. “The builders and workers next door that are starting a new home told me that they would elevate the lot next to us from 4 to 8 feet higher than my home,” Brasfield said. “This particular lot has five houses on its perimeter and all five have a big chance of flooding. When I addressed this as wrong I was told ‘too bad, that’s what’s happening in Florida.’ My home was built in 1994, and it is full of memories I don’t want wet. The week we had 9 inches of rain flooded our yard front and back because the home to our south is elevated and we get the runoff now, and we have a home being built and it’s going to be elevated next to us, so we will be stuck in the middle of two elevated homes.”
Another resident, Jeff Dunn, said his family’s house was built in 1985 on Parkview Drive. Before 2022, there’d been no flooding issues in the backyard. Since then, adjacent houses have been built at higher elevation than his own. The yard flooded. Stormwater inspectors came out and, he said, suggested to him to sue his neighbors in civil court, because it’s not the city’s responsibility. (Council member Ed Danko said it wasn’t city staffers’ place to be encouraging neighbors to sue.) He was disbelieving. He said he’d spent $10,000 “on landscaping and drainage to hopefully solve this problem because we do not want to have to move from this city.” And he cast doubt on the task force the city is touting: ” my wife has sent them an email with pictures weeks ago. No responses.” The city is asking for patience.
“I’m glad they’re taking care of their property,” Danko said of Dunn, with whom he’d spoken last week. “But at some point, we all may have to figure out something to help everyone in our community that’s dealing with this unfortunate situation.”
Others spoke along the same lines, including a Perotti Lane resident who described a house on her street where flooding makes it look “like it’s on an island. It’s a little cartoon house. It’s obnoxious. You can drive by people are driving by looking at it. It’s that bad.” She said she sent several communications to the city before getting an email telling her city staff was not avoiding her emails, and that she’d been “connected”
Peter Johnson–who is running for mayor–spoke, he said, on behalf of one particular resident who could not be there and “on behalf of hundreds of other residents” experiencing flooding issues similar to those Brasfield described. Assuming that there are still 8,000 unbuilt infill lots in Palm Coast, he said (the number is closer to 9,000), and “if we take a conservative approach and assume that at least two of the three or four properties that are in direct proximity of the now-vacant lots will be affected, either to the side or located in the rear, then this flooding issue will have the potential to impact at least 16,000 existing homeowners who have built their lives here,” he said. (The rest of his remarks tended toward more conspiratorial allegations.)
Jeffrey Seib, referring to the part in the release that proposed modifications to stormwater regulations are circulating among “stakeholders for their feedback,” said “in other places the stakeholder groups are known as special interests.”
“City Manager, city staff and city council, you are looking at the stakeholders for the city of Palm Coast,” he said (the meeting had drawn an audience). “We residents that have come here to petition our government have more than just a business stake in our city. We have a life stake. I am here for the duration as are many.”
Dennis Talbot says
Same happened to me 4 years ago. The city really did not seem to care.
Ed says
Easy solution at hand. Adopt Flagler County’s Marineland Acres requirements.
All new homes are constructed with miniature swales in the yard that adequately keep the homes rain water contained in yard for drainage.
RWS says
Those water run-off snails will let water receed back into ground so vegetation & lawn sprinkler system will not go dry
Dennis C Rathsam says
Where were the building inspectors? Why wasnt this addressed at the begining. Any moron can see the difference in elavation. Seems to me this whole city is run by incompatant fools, who dont care about anything but getting a pay check. Let the finger pointing begin….Will anyone have the balls to stand up and take the blame for this? We need people who know what thier doing. Everytime the city does something, its 1/2 ass. Then it has to be done again….Time after time, at the cost of tax payer money! Just look at Belle Ter, there once was a pothole, it was filled by the city, they did a terrible job and now the road has sunk. This has been going on for months, but instead of fixing it correctly our city in ruiens places a sign on the median that states BUMP! REALLY!!!! Mr mayor is that the best you have to offer? People of Palm Coast, we are being played by the folks we ellected, we deserve better than this… How much higher will are water bill get? How many more times will you raise our taxes, and give us nothing in return?One person lies…. & the other swears by it. The citys a mess, the board of Ed is disfunctional….Traffic is getting worse everyday, and now here come the SNOW BIRDS.
Mark says
“But city officials have also argued that there is not necessarily a direct cause and effect between higher homes and flooded yards.”
Hmmm, high school science class?
” …surface water flows downhill due to gravity, and the flow direction is defined by the topography. Water flows downhill because gravity is a form of potential energy – and the water, or anything that falls or rolls downward – flows in response to differences in potential energy (from high to low).”
KMedley says
Seems to me the city needs to establish a fund for those homeowners experiencing stormwater drainage, or lack thereof, and the subsequent damage. There should be an application process to allocate sufficient funding for the installtion of drainage systems that run to the swails, additional fill dirt to replace that which has been eroded due to standing water, and sodding to replace that which has been destroyed. For those seeking to open a stormwater case, here is the link: https://www.palmcoast.gov/stormwater
I would take before and after photos to depict conditions before storms and after storms.
Laurel says
There is no limit to how high a fill can be, which is normal. If the city tells someone they can only put in so much fill, and the house floods, that owner can sue the city. What a lot of people here are not getting is that the house on high fill CANNOT legally drain onto their neighbor’s property. Each property must retain all rain runoff from running on to the neighbor’s property. These new builds should NOT get a CO until the new build is retaining all runoff. For a city official state that there is no proof that water runs downhill is flat out incompetent. Where the city has failed is in the ordinances regarding COs requiring new builds not be allowed to runoff to other’s properties. The means of preventing this runoff should be submitted on plans, and enforced.
After the house is properly retaining all rain runoff, and gets the CO, then changes the topography somehow causing runoff to the neighbor’s property, becomes a civil matter.
The city should require stemwalls for new builds, without telling the developer/owner how high the fill should be. Paying for the concrete, etc., for a stemwall should discourage paying for a higher fill. Stemwalls are a neighbor friendly means of not only protecting the new build, but also retaining rain runoff allowing it to percolate rather than runoff. A win-win for everyone.
It also sounds like the city is not maintaining the swales properly. Water should be flowing to the swales, and both flowing away from the houses as well as percolating into the soil. What the city should be doing now is looking to other cities that have already dealt with this situation, done the research, and accomplished means and methods to prevent this from happening again with new builds, and how they have possibly remedied yards already pooling runoff.
TREEMAN says
Is this another example of the “EXCELLENT ITT Plan” for Palm Coast!! Palm Coast must STOP issuing building permits until the building height is coded!! Maybe a class action law suit would wake up the Palm Coast leadership!
CELIA PUGLIESE says
In the last few years with the new departmentral heads and the old ones in Planning, Engineering, Community Development Chief of Building and Manager = Land Use Administrator per our city charter, we the residents are being ignored, discounted and have to endure what mounts to ignorance geared to benefit stake holders or contractors. They are robbing us of our sleep in apparent… even vindictivness at times (5G tower wrong location). We never had these homes yards flooded under the original building of ITT and all houses were at the same grade and now and just lately city approved all these high mounds of very expensive truck loads of backfill in these new homes built? Why city allowed it?
Land of no turn signals says says
I did not go to engineering school but a picture say’s a thousand words.Kind of a common sense thing.But the city is involved soooooo.
Hjc says
I put a complaint in about the way the swale was graded by a home builder in march next door to me. I have never heard from the city. The only concern at city hall is the builders and realtors. Palm coast connect is a waste of time.
Larry Blankenship says
Save your ammo till we have 3-4 days of rainy weather and your lot has flooding and your new neighbors property is sitting high and dry. The damage is done. Take lots of pictures and flood city hall with them and request a response from the city building department as to why this is allowed to happen and what is being done to stop it.
TR says
Good idea, but I can answer the question as to why this is happening and what is being done to fix the problem? The answer will be lame in the sense that who ever answers will double talk to the people and then nothing will get done.
Atwp says
O the non caring Republicans and the people who vote for them. Look at the city and look at the State. The common denominator is the city and state is controlled by non thinking and non caring Republicans.
America says
You vote for a realtor for mayor? Thar ya go.
Peter Scott says
This is a ridiculous response by the city. A basic tenet of zoning policy is that new construction cannot negatively affect existing properties. That a new property could receive planning/zoning approval for this property shows either inexperience or incompetence on the zoning/planning board – or poor professional advice from their planner.
Old Man in Kayak says
My house was the first on the street in the F-section. After 31 years and now the whole street is filled with houses, my property floods in the backyard but also the swale. I put my kayak in the swale after a heavy rain and paddle around. Depth in swale sometimes can get to 3 foot deep. It does not run up to the corner anymore. My recent neighbors are now angry because their property is now flooding. My driveway has been washed out from underneath the concrete. Three years ago when a builder was building another house up the corner of street, an engineer from Palm Coast City had a laser out sighting the height of their new driveway. I asked him if anything be done about the lower heights of the older houses down the street. He said ” All the houses from corner down to you and your neighbors would have to be dug up and re-done.” Then he says, ” The City will NEVER do that”. I’m over being PISSED about my driveway destroyed and I just keep paddling around in my swale on a rainy day.