In a blistering rebuke of Rayonier, the majority landowner of 20,000 acres slated for Palm Coast’s westward expansion, City Council member Theresa Pontieri called a new proposed development document for that area “garbage” and said she will not approve it if the developer does not shoulder more of the cost for roads and parks, as the developer had agreed to do in previous documents. (See the full text of the statement here.)
Those documents were the two Developments of Regional Impact orders, or DRIs, the City Council approved in 2010 when the western expansion was originally conceived through two enormous developments: Old Brick Township and Neoga Lakes. (See summary analysis of each development order here and here.)
Together, the two orders called on the developer to assume close to $100 million in road costs (in 2010 dollars; that’s close to $150 million in today’s dollars), including the Palm Coast Parkway extension now known as the “Loop Road,” improvements to Hargrove Grade and Otis Stone Hunter Road, and the building of public parks and a sports complex, including a junior Olympic swimming pool, ballfields and a public beach (yes, the developer was planning a public beach).
Pontieri’s lengthy statement at the end of last Tuesday’s City Council meeting echoed a similar statement she made from the dais in September 2024 when the Old Brick Township and Neoga Lakes DRIs were about to be replaced by a single so-called Master Planned Development order–and when she realized to what extent the legislature had subsidized the road costs Rayonier was supposed to have paid.
In 2024, Pontieri urged the developer to revisit its plans. “When you come back to me,” she told Rayonier, none of whose representatives were in the council room–though they got wind of Pontieri’s statement– “I don’t expect a $105 million check to the residents of Florida, but I do expect quite a bit in infrastructure improvements.”
They have now gotten back to her and the rest of the council with the new proposed order. Pontieri read it. She was even more upset than she was in 2024.
“What they gave to us is 117 pages of absolute garbage,” Pontieri said. “I can’t–I’m sorry–I can’t, I can’t hold back anymore on this. Not only do they add 10,000 dwelling units to what was previously in place, but they don’t pay for the sports complex. They don’t pay for any fire stations or police stations or schools.”
What had triggered her this time was a reference to the Matanzas Woods Parkway-Palm Coast Parkway “Loop Road” in a city presentation on future capital improvement appropriations. The slide had referred to the $126 million appropriated for the Loop Road.
“ I literally got sick to my stomach when I saw on one of the slides today, $126 million for the Loop Road in the form of appropriations, which is just a fancy word for taxpayer dollars,” she said.
She was also troubled by the elimination of a requirement that the developer build commercial spaces in the western expansion before a certain amount of housing was in place. “That requirement does not exist in the new MPD. There are phases, but there’s no teeth to those phases. There are more suggestions than anything else,” Pontieri said.
“It’s been two years and you haven’t fixed it,” she told Rayonier (whose representatives she would end up meeting with later that week.) “I feel like I’ve been talking to a wall for the past two years, and I feel this whole entire council and our residents have been disrespected because there is a known issue that we have a problem with–a lack of jobs, a lack of industry, a lack of infrastructure. And in exchange for an opportunity to help us flourish, we get 10,000 extra dwelling units and minimal infrastructure contributions.”
At the end of her statement–which was delivered at the end of a nearly eight-hour session of the council–her colleagues did not react, except for Mayor Norris. “This is that this is the most serious issue facing the city,” he said.
Pontieri will be off the council by November–she is running for a County Commission seat–as will be Dave Sullivan, who is not running for his seat, and Charles Gambaro, who is running for the congressional seat held by Randy Fine. The MPD, however, is due before the council for approval, well before the election.
“I am going to ask this landowner one more time, please, as a representative of this city who refuses to mortgage the future of our city on this MPD that I will not accept, please make it right,” Pontieri said. “Please fix it. You can and you have the ability to fix it. I know that there’s a good product that can come out of the westward expansion. I’m confident we can get it done. But I cannot be more clear about this. I will not accept this as it is. And if this doesn’t go through before I am off this council, I ask you members of the council that will be here, please do not allow this to be acceptable to the future of our city.”
Gina says
Yes , I was at that meeting in 2024 where she told Rayonier to FIX IT, she had read
over 200 pages of the plan on a holiday weekend and she was disgusted about how
the taxpayers were ripped off. Why the other council members had NOTHING
to say is quite disgusting too. Its been 2 years and no moves have been made and
it even gets worst????? No respect for residents, taxpayers, just another way to
show how much these land owners and developers care about Flagler County,
SHAME ON THEM!
Residents are on the hook says
This is a deal RIGHT on par with PC’s track record. Developer pays nothing and is invited to walk all over PC, infrastructure soon begins to suck donkey nuts, our taxes or fees go up to make up for the donkey nuts. It’s all just super dumb donkey nuts BS – but that’s how PC rolls. They roll right over. I have zero confidence this developer pays anything towards infrastructure.
Not Gina says
Gee, I wonder how I ever predicted this back under the Biden-Harris growth era. Alfinville, FL, like Yulee & Fernandina Beach, this will escalate to become a litigation of no value added. Nassau County went thru it 2018-2023. 5 years to arrive at a settlement of slimy contracts & the vagueries of wording. Pretty much the same concept ? That’s how it works, any Westward expansion should have been contingent upon a State grant paying for STF expansion. See what Biden-Harris & growing pains are going to cost every taxpayer. Look at your water bills inflating up every year at 8%. Property taxes going up. Can’t repave a road for all the traffic caused by growth, but they can micro resurface that damaged roadway that years of Biden-Harris unaffordable & unsustainable growth & inflation have taken it’s toll. The Biden soft landing ? That bill came due/is coming due & it’s a hard crash. I’ve never seen Biden so happy for losing a re-election ? We don’t hear much from Biden these days, not that it would make any more sense than it ever did. Belle Terre was last repaved under Trump-Pence, 6 years of that road being abused for growth that never paid for itself, it’s back under a sectional construction to address the worst potholes again. Still going to be a lumpy patchwork of a road surface. They’d have to fabricate another Covid fraud to repave that road again. That 2020 mass layoff wasn’t coincidental. Lied to once, figure it out. We should all have Trust issues by now, if they have a plan, interpret that to be a scheme.
https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2023/feb/09/raydient-and-nassau-county-settle-lawsuits/
https://www.news4jax.com/news/2019/02/08/rayonier-suing-nassau-county-manager-over-conflict-of-interest/
Deborah Coffey says
What the state legislature does and the city council does gets blamed on Biden-Harris? Please get real news…you know, the kind with FACTS.
Sherry says
Thank you Deborah!
Gina Weiss says
This is not my comment, the first Gina comment is me Gina Weiss, IDK who
this Gina is, just need to clarify, and I agree with you WTH does Biden have to do with this?
Tired of it says
This county has been run by Republicans all along. Nohing to do with Biden/Harris. So busy trying to rationalize Republicans poor governance and ignoring facts. I guess you are going to find some way to blame the Epstein War ,that is costing more than a trillion, the lack of a healthcare plan, trump’s statement that the country can’t afford to pay for Medicare or Medicaid but we can afford a big ballroom, a useless trump arch and a wrestling stadium.
Tired of it says
“Flagler County, Florida has been predominantly under Republican control for over a decade.
The political landscape in Florida has shifted significantly, with the state moving from a swing state to a Republican stronghold. This transformation has been particularly evident in local governance, including Flagler County, where the Republican Party has maintained a strong presence and influence in local elections”
Edith Campins says
We do hear a lot about Biden these days…trump fails to take responsibility for his own mismanagement and blames Pres. Biden for everything, Some actual facts about the “big beautiful bill”. ◾ Extension of the 2017 tax cuts: This is the biggest item, costing about $3.7 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the non-partisan Tax Foundation. That’s money the federal government won’t collect.
◾ Cuts to health care and food programs: These proposed reductions would save about $1.3 trillion, based on a June 17 report from the Congressional Budget Office.
Sherry says
@not gina. . . What in the hell does President Biden and Vice President Harris have to do with current local development and potholes in Florida?
You do know that your lord and master trump threw a huge monkey wrench into the entire, nationwide infrastructure plan passed by Congress during the Biden Presidency, right? Now, trump is putting “his” name on any of the infrastructure projects that survived:
The New York Times reports that signs emblazoned with the words “PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP” and “REBUILDING AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE” are popping up across the country at improvement projects financed by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (perhaps better known as Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), which passed against Trump’s best efforts in 2021.
As Trump was seeking to derail the legislation, he called it a “loser” for the country.
“Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill is a disgrace,” he said in August 2021 before a Senate vote on the bill, warning that Republican lawmakers who supported it would be committing political suicide. After it passed Congress, he referred to it as a “terrible Democrat Socialist Infrastructure Plan.”
Now, Trump appears happy to claim Biden’s achievement as his own. The only indication on the signs pointing to the truth is smaller text noting the project was “Funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act”.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Who,s their lawyer…… I rest my case
Greg says
Laugh my ass off. I would expect nothing less from the developer. They know the city is a push over and approves almost any development. BOHIVA is the name of the have. (Bend over here it comes again )
Pig Farmer says
We will miss Theresa Pontieri when she leaves her current role. She has been the one politician that seems to take her role seriously and works for the best interests of Palm Coast. The others should be ashamed of themselves. Either by incompetence or malfeasance, they are not representing the Palm Coast residents.
Buck says
Flagler County is on a paste to destroy the whole county to look like Miami. Why on earth can’t they leave any green Woodlands alone?
Villein says
Our state representatives, current and former, work for the developers. Anybody know who Sam Greco was before he moved here and ran for office with the blessing of the local republican party? Former senator hutson, comes from a developer family. All these guys are crooked. Over $100 million dollars for a road the developers were supposed to pay for? That’s fraud waste and abuse! Where’s state CFO Ingoglia on that one???
Only vote for grass-roots candidates, no party affiliation. That’s the only way.