The Palm Coast Planning Board on Wednesday unanimously approved the construction plan for phase one of the city’s own Maintenance Operations Center on U.S. 1, a project a decade in the works that will consolidate public works, stormwater and the Utility Department’s administrative offices on the same grounds i what, over the next half century, will prove to be the new center of the city as it expands west. It’s not as if the board was in a position to object.
The city runs its public works operations from a site further south on U.S. 1–a site that the administration has since 2016 told the City Council it has outgrown. The council agreed then that a better, larger grounds were essential. The city planned the new facility on a 31-acre site is north of Peavy Grade, some 500 feet west of U.S. 1.
When Phase 2 is completed, it will almost border the Sawmill Creek subdivision, though with landscape buffers (20 feet on the north side, 35 feet on the east side, 25 feet on the south side, and 15 feet on the west). The Florida East Coast Railroad tracks border it from north to south to the west. But it’ll be some 100 feet away from any structure to the north.
“It’s going to be a great operation center and a very, very good key investment for supporting our high level of service for our citizens for the future,” Ray Tyner, the city’s chief development officer, said. “But just like any other project, we are the city and they went through our technical review process to make sure that the the operation and the facility meets our land development code.”
Phase one will result in a fleet-maintenance building of 50,000 square feet (triggering Planning Board review, since it’s over 40,000 square feet), a 6,600 square foot fueling canopy for the city’s fleet, and a $15,000 square foot washing facility. Phase two will include construction of the administration building and a connection from the plant to Matanzas Woods Parkway.
The City Council approved a $2 million contract with Pond and Company in May 2020 to design the facility, which was later amended to $2.4 million for additional services, including geotechnical work, a space needs analysis for the Utility Department and environmental data. In October, the City Council approved a $12 million construction appropriation from its capital improvement fund with contractor Gilbane Building Company to build phase one. The project’s initial phase, completed last year, included clearing the grounds and trucking in of 240,000 cubic yards of fill.
The site is part of the Palm Coast Park development of regional impact. The proposed use is allowed by right, so the city is not seeking–nor would it need–a special exception to site the facility there. The location will provide “ample opportunity for potential western expansion as far as fleet vehicles to respond to developing needs as the city expands westward and minimize things like fuel costs,” Hanson said. “This is absolutely the opposite of any kind of conflict with the public interest. The entire intent is to serve the public and the need for our city.”
