Parking Capacity Will Double at Indian Trails Sports Complex, But Council Also Wants More Fields Lit Up Soon

The Indian Trails Sports Complex, notorious for parking congestion that often spills onto the south parking lot of Indian Trails Middle School, will be getting 136 new parking spaces as part of a $1.55 million construction project to be carried out by Palm Coast city crews. The new spaces will nearly double existing parking capacity. 

The City Council approved the project unanimously, but not before pressing the administration to accelerate its focus on lighting up additional fields at Indian Trails, the city’s and county’s busiest tournament destination, a lucrative source of tourist-tax dollars, and a venue heavily booked by local sports leagues.

“The project will aid in alleviating parking issues due to expanding Sports Alliance group rosters and the increase in year-round sports tournaments,” Stormwater and Engineering Architect Eric Gebo said, referring to the city’s local athletics groups, “provide for greater accommodation for local church events and serve as a potential staging area for emergency response situations.” 

Both Parkview Church and Indian Trails Middle School allow the complex to use some of their parking areas when church and school aren’t in session. The Sheriff’s Office used the complex as a staging area in the aftermath of the October 2023 tornado event that swiped through the city’s B-Section, though there were no parking issues in the deserted park at the time.

The project will also improve drainage, lighting, sidewalks and landscaping. Permitting is expected in mid-January. The project is scheduled to be completed in June. It will be paid for with parks impact fee revenue and money from the city’s capital projects fund. Impact fee revenue, which will account for close to half the project cost, may be used for expansion projects.   

By not assigning the project to an independent contractor, the city expects to save about $350,000, Gebo said, assuming it costs $1.5 million, a figure based on the parking project at Waterfront Park.  “We truly believe this is going to come in much less than the $1.5 million,” Gebo said. 

Council member Dave Sullivan had no objections to the project. But as a former member of the county’s Tourist Development Council, he hoped to see money spent on field lights, which would enable more night play and relieve the demand for playtime there. But the city has been adding lights there. 

The city spent over half a million dollars to install new lights at the complex–illuminating three more fields–in 2017, and $1 million for new toilets. The city lit up four additional fields at Indian Trails last year. 

“One of the reasons you need to do that is because you have a lot of events coming in, and people need to be there,” Sullivan said of the parking. But he wants additional lighted fields. “When will that occur?”

James Hirst, the city’s parks and recreation director, said parking has been “a consistent issue” that required a solution. The city’s five-year capital plan includes adding more lights on fields at two multi-use fields at the north end of the complex, at a cost of “over $1 million,” Hirst said. The city must also ensure that the local transformer can handle the additional load. 

A portion of the cost for lighting, as with parking, may be financed with parks impact fees. 

“If we’re going to invest–which that’s what this is, this is an investment in this complex so that we can have more tournaments, we can bring in more tourism dollars, all things that we know are great, and also more recreation for our community,” Council member Theresa Pontieri said, “then we should at the same time be thinking about how we can kind of speed up getting lights on those fields, because all of that works together to help the dollars to relieve pressure from [Ralph Carter] Park.  If we’re going to increase parking, we’re in, we’re increasing the amount of activity we can have there. So let’s try to get those lights on sooner.”

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