“Do you want me to be diplomatic or be Mike Norris?,” the Palm Coast mayor this morning asked the three dozen people gathered for the groundbreaking of the $125 million “loop road” that will connect Matanzas Woods Parkway to Palm Coast Parkway through thousands of acres set for the development of 22,000 homes.
The question answered itself. The only filter Norris favors is on his cigarettes.
“I don’t support this project, and I’m going to fight it all the way,” Norris said, discarding the speech city staff had written for him and looking at a stone-faced audience. “For the representatives from Rayonier, don’t think that you’re going to do what was done on this side of the railroad, on that side of the railroad. We’re not going to stand for it. Pringle Branch is part of the Pringle Branch Forever forest out there, and we’re going to cut a line right through it. I understand the state’s priority as far as putting corridors in, out to 2209. I can understand that. But when you cut through and you drain the swamp, I don’t agree with that. I grew up in a swamp, and this is not something that I can support.” (Listen to the full speech here.)
Norris is not a fan of the so-called “western expansion” west of U.S. 1, all on land owned by Rayonier, the timbering company, and to be developed by its real estate arm, Raydient. The 6.2-mile “loop road,” so far entirely funded by taxpayers, is to eventually connect with State Road 2209, itself connecting I-95 south of Jacksonville to Orlando and planned as an additional hurricane evacuation route, though the plan is conceptual for now. It hasn’t gone anywhere past verbal references in government meetings and at events like today’s.
There was something almost admirable in Norris’s willingness to upend the norms of typically staid and scripted ceremonies with a shot across Raydient’s bow even as–if not because–Raydient and city staff are in the midst of negotiating the gargantuan order that will define and control the development over the next three decades. So there may have been at least some strategy behind Norris’s brusqueness.
Council member Charles Gambaro didn’t see anything admirable about it. “What we saw today was an absolute lack of leadership,” he said. “It’s disgraceful, and quite frankly, it just shows that Mike Norris continues to be an embarrassment for our community.”
Gambaro had all but jumped from his seat to take the mayor’s place after the smattering of applause that accompanied Norris off the podium after his three-minute speech. Gambaro wasn’t part of the lineup of speakers (only City Manager Mike McGlothlin had preceded Norris), but he said he had to speak.
“Going to jump in here and end on a positive note,” Gambaro told the audience. “Everybody’s done a great job. Everybody’s worked hard. This project is important for our community for a lot of different reasons, but I want to end on a positive note. There’s no reason to be negative here, okay? Everybody has their own opinions, but this is a time to celebrate a major achievement for our community. We must remain positive. Our residents want us to remain positive as we move forward.” The applause he got was noisily louder than Norris’s.
Mike Hahaj, Raydient’s director of commercial development and operations, was in the audience and spoke with officials before and after the ceremony, but did not address them from the podium and declined to respond to Norris’s remarks.
Norris was somewhat contradictory: he has spoken supportively of the eventual connection to State Road 2209 from his council seat and again at today’s ceremony, calling it “great for connectivity and getting us out to 2209. We need the transportation corridors. I understand it.” But he said he did not understand how “you can go and lobby for money from the state for a road for a total of $226 million and leave the residents of Palm Coast on the hook for $330 million for infrastructure improvements. That’s not the way you do business. We can’t, we can’t survive like that.” He said he will oppose the coming annexation of thousands of acres that are part of the expansion.
The state appropriated $125 million. Palm Coast has contributed a little more than $6 million in design and other costs.
The groundbreaking today begins extending Matanzas Woods Parkway west, with what will be a four-lane bridge over the Florida East Coast Railway lines. The road will then narrow to two lanes all the way to Palm Coast Parkway, where it will again “fly over” the railroad, though in the distant future it is designed to accommodate six lanes. The project is expected to employ many dozens of laborers, peaking at around 90 at certain times, according to the contractor.
Norris’s opposition is nothing new. He has long reflected grumbling antipathy by existing city residents against the western expansion, as the city manager hears at his own monthly town halls or the council hears during public comment segments at meetings. The antipathy is grounded in convictions that the city is all in for expansion at the expense of crying infrastructure needs on the east side of the tracks. The council wrestled with those needs as recently as Tuesday, whether it’s affordable housing or the city’s deteriorating road network.
And City Council member Theresa Pontieri has twice since September 2024 spoken even more pointedly, even harshly, about the dearth of Rayonier/Raydient’s investment in public infrastructure, the loop road included. Just last April she called a draft development order “garbage.” But Pontieri both times did so from her seat on the council, and would not have broken protocol at a ceremonial occasion. She took a different track. She did not attend the groundbreaking. “I think my absence can speak for itself,” she said.
Council member Ty Miller underscored the time-and-place element of the mayor’s attack. “I understand that people may have different opinions about the westward expansion and those things, but I don’t think this is necessarily that,” he said. “We have the opportunity as a council to negotiate those terms, in terms of the westward expansion, to protect the residents. I’m not sure what this rhetoric serves, except to vocalize an opinion, but I don’t know if it was necessary here today. That could be a conversation to be had at council, when we talk about these MPDs, and conversations that we had with staff about our positions on things to protect the residents.”
Communications and Marketing Director Brittany Kershaw sent drafts of the speeches prepared for McGlothlin and Norris to each man on Tuesday, asking each to review and edit if need be, and letting them know that no state officials would attend, since they’re in a special legislative session, “so the ceremony will be short & sweet.” Kershaw proved half right. It was short.
The speech prepared for Norris was not namby-pamby genuflexions to Raydient but sought to reflect the mayor’s skepticism. It reflected his support for “connectivity,” but went on with a pointed but: “But with opportunity also comes responsibility,” it read. “As Palm Coast continues to grow, we have to make sure growth happens the right way. Our residents want smart planning, protected neighborhoods, safe roads, and infrastructure that keeps up with development. I want our community to know that we hear those concerns loud and clear. This City Council is committed to making sure development is carefully planned and responsibly managed. We are not going to allow unchecked growth or a free-for-all approach. Every decision must be made with the long-term best interest of Palm Coast residents in mind.”
It went on along those lines, enumerating milestones with cautions, if not quite going as far as Norris’s blunt statements that he will oppose the annexation and, apparently, the development order itself.
The McGlothlin speech was more standard, with one, very notable absence: Raydient and Rayonier are not mentioned once. There is a reference to “partners,” but McGlothlin, who has quietly developed a reputation as a staunch advocate for his staff, focused his remarks on the project as a city project, if with state and other supports. “Most importantly, this project reflects our commitment to building Palm Coast thoughtfully, responsibly, and with future generations in mind,” he said, before turning the podium over to Norris.
Carl Cote, the director of stormwater and engineering, who is overseeing the project from the city’s side, said it may be three years before the first resident is able to drive the loop road, and even that is an optimistic timeline. The road is broken into four phases. The first two are funded. The last two are not. The current funding will take the road to around the area of Hargrove Grade, which will eventually no longer cross the railroad tracks. There will be a connection between the west end of Hargrove and Palm Coast Parkway.
Past that point, the road is still in design, and funding for it is still not secured, though officials expect–or hope–that state appropriations will pay for the rest. The road is going through significant wetlands, as Norris noted, which will be “mitigated,” meaning that whatever wetlands are destroyed to make room for the road will require the protection of an equal amount of wetlands elsewhere. The mitigation system creates the impression that there is no net loss of wetlands in the end. In fact, there is a loss, since “mitigated” wetlands elsewhere already exist, and only gain protection from future destruction.
The Raydient development order was to go before the city’s planning board this month. McGlothlin pulled it so it could be worked on further, saying it will not be rushed. Acting Deputy City Manager Kyle Berryhill today said the current timeline is for the order to go before the Planning Board in July, and the City Council in August, with a possibility that the timeline could be accelerated, if appropriate. But he said the timeline remains very “fluid” either way.
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