The Flagler Beach City Commission Wednesday evening cleared the way for a 39-unit, two-building apartment complex on 3.2 acres between Leslie and Joyce streets, off of John Anderson Highway and just south of State Road 100. The property is owned by Bunnell-based Alt Homes and Terry McNitt of Flagler Beach.
The 4-1 vote followed insistance from commissioners that the development’s recreational amenities be more enhanced as such. Commissioners Jane Mealy, Rick Belhumeur, James Sherman and Scott Spradley voted for it. Commission Chairman Eric Cooley voted against.
The complex, called Legacy Pointe, will add to a growing but still limited stock of apartments in the Flagler Beach-Palm Coast area, where one-bedroom apartments are going for $1,800 a month–if they are available: most apartment complexes have waiting lists. The development’s representative did not offer up a range of rental prices ahead, saying the developer is waiting to see how a much larger apartment complex coming to Roberts Road will play out. But affordability will be a priority.
“In the comprehensive plan in the housing element, it speaks about diversifying the housing stock,” Flagler Beach Planner Larry Torino told the commission. “This development is in concert with that, being multifamily.” The area is zoned general commercial, which allows for apartments.
The northernmost building would have 27 apartments, the smaller building to the south would have 12 apartments. The entrance would be from Leslie Street at the south end. An emergency access point at the north end, off of Joyce Street, would also be used by sanitation trucks. The city required the developer to add a second fire hydrant.
A plastic fence will divide the complex from the single-family homes immediately to the east of the property. The complex will have 79 parking spaces and 10 bike racks, two fountains, with an existing 1-acre borrow pit will be used for a retention standpoint and “recreation.”
“I can tell you on my own review of this development, I generated some 19 comments, each one of those has been addressed,” Torino said. The consulting engineer generated 14 comments as well, all of them addressed. For example, the sidewalk in the development was enlarged. Some architectural concerns were addressed, for example with the addition of windows
Trees are being removed–totaling 800 inches in diameter, as Torino described it, or roughly 60 trees. The developer will replant over 60 trees. Commissioner Jane Mealy wanted to ensure that “they’re not clear-cutting trees” (a dangerous phrase to use these days with developers: Ken Bryan, a former city commissioner, is still battling a defamation lawsuit by a developer for having allegedly used the phrase in a public meeting before he was elected commissioner.)
As for drainage, a recurring issue in that area, Torino described it as “the most sophisticated stormwater drainage system I’ve seen.” He said “it’s more than adequate to satisfy the 25-year, 50-year and 100-year storm levels.” (Whether it is enough to satisfy the kind of apocalyptic storms New England experienced last week or Ft. Lauderdale did in April is another story.)
The development has not drawn the standard opposition that usually accompanies the siting of apartment complexes anywhere near single-family residential developments. But it did draw criticism from commissioners in limited regards: the claim that the apartment complex will provide recreation, either by calling a retention pond recreational or using a sidewalk as a walking path, and the continuance of Joyce Street as an unpaved dirt road, though the latter criticism can’t be blamed on the developer. It’s a city issue.
The pond is about the size of a football field and averages 35 yards in width. There’s an area for kayaks and paddleboards, if the developer chooses to provide that, Torino said.
Flagler Beach regulations require developments of a certain size, including legacy Pointe, to devote space to recreation. Commissioners Jane Mealy and Eric Cooley, in a rare instance of paddling the same kayak in the same direction, thought calling a retention pond “recreation” a stretch, even though it could be used for fishing or paddling (though it isn’t every day, or every year, that you see locals kayaking in retention ponds.) Nevertheless, in Torino’s opinion as a planner, the pond meets the threshold.
Mealy was also critical of the sidewalk pretense as exercise: “For you to put a sidewalk in and call it a walking path, I don’t consider that adding recreation,” she told a representative of the developer. The representative said there’d been no plans for a loop-around walking path initially, nor benches. Now there would be both.
“You don’t see people walking and exercising on the sidewalks of New York City or Queens or Brooklyn?” Torino asked Mealy, referring to her former home. “A sidewalk isn’t just to walk on. A sidewalk serves a multipurpose, there could be children out there on tricycles, there could be people out there that are powerwalking.” But Mealy assured him she was not interested in holding the project up, either. Drew Smith, the city attorney, proposed “amenitizing” the sidewalk and the pond to make them look more like recreational amenities.
Mealy suggested a playground, but the developer’s representative did not embrace that idea. Instead, the development was approved on condition that the recreational areas be clearly delineate as “intended for and used as recreational areas,” in Smith’s words.
The development will generate an average of 259 additional car trips per day on surrounding roads, but the city is purposefully discouraging the use of Joyce Street.
Joyce Street–a dirt road in that stretch–will be improved as part of the development, reinforcing its base with six-inch-thick lime rock six inches of dirt. But it will remain a dirt road. “The idea here is to prepare the road to be able to accept emergency vehicles and to dissuade the public from using it as an ingress and egress into the development,” Lee Richards, a city engineer, said. That too raised concerns about drainage, which would be addressed with swales.
“So why are we trying to keep everybody stay on Leslie Street as opposed to using Joyce Street at all?” Commissioner Rick Belhumeur asked. “Because we have people in that existing apartment complex that are typically upper age folks, many of which don’t have vehicles and have to walk and up and down Leslie street all the time.” Torino’s answer: “I call Joyce Street an alley on steroids” as he requested that the developer should be compelled to maintain the street “for a period of time.”
“I personally don’t agree with the rationale of keeping a dirt road to discourage people from using a public road,” Commission Chairman Eric Cooley said. “To me that just does not sound like sound engineering or sound planning. If you have a population going to an area that requires a road to get to it and that population generates a lot of daily trips., then you build the road to accommodate the traffic the road is going to get. You don’t unbuild the road and hope people don’t use it.”
Some commissioners also favor having a sidewalk put in, accessing the development. But that’s not a requirement the city can impose on the developer. “The city can put a sidewalk there if the city wants to put a sidewalk there,” Smith said. “Can the city compel the developer to put a sidewalk there? Not as an off-site improvement unless you’re going to compensate them.”
A representative of Alt Homes addressed the commission about the development’s limitations. “When we started looking at this, we really wanted to bring something that was of beautiful quality in an affordable state,” she said. “When you have 39 units in a tight little spot, it gets financially very difficult to start adding the grand amenities, if you will, for lack of better term, with like the glorious swimming pools and the club houses. Ideally, we would love to do that, but developmentally and financially it doesn’t fit the bill unless we start raising the price of the rent and that’s not what we want to do.”
The proposal drew no public comment.
jim lang says
Shocker
MareWilk says
How predictable, and still disappointing, that the lessons learned from watching quaint Florida beach towns morph into something that destroys the character and draw of the area. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what happens to a paradise like Flagler Beach when aggressive development has created a free-for-all. This isn’t a NIMBY worry. Where has all of our green space gone in the last 2 years? Build more! Squeeze an apartment complex with *openly wink-wink yeah sure this will be RECREATIONAL SidewalkParkinglotRetentionPondPaddlingWithGatorsNATUREwalk-wink-wink*** into every available block. AND let’s pretend that infrastructure isn’t going to matter – let’s keep one of two access point a DIRT ROAD because, well, BECAUSE we’ll pretend no one will use it because THEY USE IT NOW…..
Hi, City Counsel – respectfully folks, what is going on? Have to seen the ruin that is happening already west of the bridge? Have you noticed the decrease of our quality of life? You all must do better. Your legacy will be how you ruined Flagler Beach’s character and Old Florida Charm. You are leaving it worse than you found it folks.
Laurel says
MareWilk: I 100% agree with you. The greedy find a lovely place and do all they can to screw it up and make it worse. They change it as fast as they can, and thumb their noses at the residents.
When we first moved here, to get away from South Florida’s congestion, people were friendly, smiled at us even though they didn’t know us. The now Island Walk shopping had beautiful Oaks, and there was no congestion. Today we went over the bridge :( to do some shopping and the street was packed with questionable drivers, the shops are stuffed with manner-less, clueless people who place their shopping carts in the middle of the isles and look at you with their mouths hanging open, and are generally rude and behave awfully. We couldn’t wait to get out of there and get back home. It sucks.
But you know, it’s not enough for the commissioners, the managers, the tourist bureau, the chamber of commerce, the realtors and the developers. It’s never enough. Take the money and run, and as one commissioner stated “…whether you like it or not.”
pete says
Very well put
TR says
These morons must be taking a play out of Alfin’s play book.
So much for a nice little area of Florida for me to call home.
This Land is our Land says
$1800.00 a month ! You DIRTBAGS can kiss my ass. I say We the Poor People of Flagler County start a HOMELESS camp on Rt.100.
Shark says
Alfin lives on a five acre lot where they won’t this type of cheap construction. This is what happens when you elect a realtor !!!
atwp says
They are saying 1800 a month. When finished am sure the rent will be much higher. Remember thus is fir a 1 bedroom. Bothers me not, I don’t live in Flagler Beach, thinking about selling our home to leave communist Florida. They are all things anti African American. This affects all residence in Florida, high home prices, high home owners insurance rates, low wage paying jobs. People are moving to Florida at a record pace, that will stop within the next 5 years if the Republicans continue to have their way. Just saying.
KB says
Since I have received numerous inquiries from people asking me who I am being sued by and to complete this article, the developer Flagler Live did not mention is Veranda Bay, formerly known as The Gardens off of John Anderson. They are being represented by local law firm Chiumento Law.
FlaglerLive says
The article linked to our original article about the defamation suit, where readers could read about the suit in detail, including the pleading.
Sandy Beach says
Remember the days, when we thought Bobby Ginn was such a horrible developer? His vision for Veranda Bay was much better than the current developer. The current developer is now planning small ICW lots that will be cleared to bring in the fill necessary to raise the elevation. The few trees in place now, while they are trying to sell lots, will not survive the final build out. Flagler County attracts the worst developers and national builders that ruin our unique pristine beaches, Hammock maritime forests and estuaries. Recent residential development in Bluffton, SC and longtime development on Hilton Head Island…show that nature and development can co-exist. Consideration for wildlife, transitory birds, natural flora and fauna is overlooked and ignored. Flagler county/Palm Coast elected officials do not hold developers to a high standard and I guess that as long as we “look better” than Daytona Beach… they are happy. It is obvious that these elected officials have not lived in or visited “well developed with nature included” resort areas and seen better. Very sad situation…you only get one chance to develop this land correctly.
Land of no turn signals says says
Come on now I’m sure if they grease the right wheels they could squeeze 100 unit project there.Their slippen.
Bethechange says
Yay! Plastic fence!
Joni says
What about the birds that nest in the tree in the middle of the pond? people come to the area every morning and evening to watch all the birds. I’m sure when they build their so called recreation area they will remove the tree from the center of the pond. I’m sure the developers don’t care that they are displacing wildlife. Also the elderly people that live in the complex on Leslie Street walk that street daily most of them with walkers. I’m sure bringing all the extra traffic to that street is going to cause the elderly to be in extreme danger as most people will speed in and out of the street regardless of posted speed limits.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Well, At least when U hook up, in the future, you wont have to do the nasty on the beach. You,ll be able to rent a room, & not get sand in your ass!