Relief is on its way for drivers navigating the stretches of hell along Town Center Boulevard near Imagine School, the intersection of Town Center Boulevard and Royal Palms Parkway, and the intersection of Old Kings Road and Town Center Boulevard.
The Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve the first step toward widening Town Center Boulevard from north of Central Avenue to Royal Palms Parkway and reengineering two roundabouts. The council approved the $675,000 design cost for both projects. Construction would be significantly more expensive and may not happen for several years.
The council also approved two other improvements that will cost less than $15,000, and will be completed within the next three months. Those involve transforming both intersections into all-way stop-sign intersections.
Traffic Engineer Sean Costello spoke one of the great understatements of the year when he said that “there were other concerns that have come up. One of them was the intersection of Town Center and Royal Palms.”
Council member Charles Gambaro corrected the understatement. “This corner, Royal Palms and Town Center, has been one of the biggest complaints that we receive consistently, especially with that new development going up there on the left side of Royal Palms as you approach Town Center,” he said, referring to Sabal Preserve, a new development of more than 300 houses on the north side of Royal Palms. “So everybody listening tonight to the council meeting, we hear you. This is our team engaging with the solution as we look to a broader solution for this area.”
If Alexa and iPhones were eavesdropping on listeners of the meeting at home, they’d have heard hosannas and alleluias.
Traffic at that intersection flows well enough along Town Center Boulevard. But for Royal Palms traffic trying to make a left onto Town Center especially, backups can sometimes stretch enough for Manhattan flashbacks. “In the afternoon especially during its heaviest times it’s close to 300 seconds per vehicle,” Costello said. Three hundred seconds is five minutes. “With queuing that at the longest, which is normally in the morning on average, is about 400 feet. That’s the average, and in the afternoon, it’s about 260 feet.”
Only Royal Palms traffic trying to turn onto Town Center has a stop sign, so that traffic must wait for an all-clear on Town Center traffic to attempt a turn.
The solution for now: three-way stop signs and flashing stop lights all around. Traffic studies suggest that wait times will drop to less than 60 seconds in the morning, and less than 25 seconds in the afternoon.
A roundabout at that location–the best engineering solution–would be too costly. Meanwhile, putting three stop signs at the Royal Palms intersection would only move the problem to the Old Kings Road traffic sign. “So this is really a two-part fix,” Carl Cote, the city’s director of stormwater and engineering, said. At least for the short term.
The traffic lights there will be replaced with stop signs and red flashers. Simulations Costello produced for peak-time traffic showed little to no traffic back-ups with the new stop-sign system. The cost for both intersections’ conversions to stop signs would be less than $15,000.
The long-term fix is what was projected at a $6 million reconstruction of the Old Kings Road-Town Center intersection, which could be either signalized or a roundabout. The city hoped that a legislative appropriation would cover that amount. It did not.
The future widening of Town Center Boulevard to four lanes, which will not happen for several years, is intended to eliminate chronic traffic back-ups in the morning and the afternoon at the entrance to Imagine School at Town Center, and to preempt further traffic crunches expected when the large apartment complex north of the school opens later this year.
The improvements will also reengineer the two roundabouts–one at Town Center Boulevard and Central Avenue, the other at Central Avenue and Landing Boulevard. When the work is completed, the roundabouts will force traffic to slow down before reaching the turns. It won’t be merely new striping. The roundabout changes are intended to improve safety rather than traffic flow, particularly to reduce sideswipes.
“The design for this is itself pretty hefty, so the construction is not going to be cheap,” Council member Theresa Pontieri said. She is cautioning about going forward with the improvements before they’re absolutely needed. “ I don’t want to get behind the curve, but just making sure that we’re putting monies in the right place based on current needs and the actual traffic conditions that we’re experiencing.”
Cote defended the city’s approach. “Those trees were planted to be median trees,” he said of the tree line along Town Center Boulevard, south of Royal Palms Parkway. “So it was already planned a long time ago to be a divided four-lane road and to alleviate the stop traffic on Town Center Boulevard.” He said the city has been trying to solve the traffic issues around Imagine for years.
It is true, however, that those issues are limited to morning and afternoon pick-up, when traffic snarls and becomes impassable. Outside those hours, traffic flows.
RS&H, the engineering firm, is the hired designer. The money is not drawn from the city’s general fund, but from the Town Center Community Redevelopment Agency (or CRA) funds. Though the CRA has its own impact fees, those are tied up in the hoped-for improvements of the Old Kings Road-Town Center Boulevard intersection, though those improvements are still far off. “There’s just not enough impact fees to go around,” Cote said.
“Imagine that we don’t have enough impact fees from the builders. I’m shocked,” Pontieri said, if with misplaced sarcasm: the City Council increased transportation impact fees on builders and developers, among other fees, between 130 and 145 percent less than a year ago. (The Flagler Home Builders Association sued the city over the increase in October. The case is pending.)
Pontieri acknowledged that dollars were limited but urged the administration to use CRA impact fees “in the best manner possible to make sure we’re helping Town Center thrive from an economic development standpoint, while also providing for what we need with roads,” especially since the city can draw a loan based on future impact fee funds. “ I see the needs to invest in more things in Town Center, other than just roads,” she said.
The potholes in Town Center, which to Mayor Mike Norris “seem to be getting worse,” are a different story. The city’s streets improvement fund and CRA funds would be used to fix them, independently of the projects discussed Tuesday.
Really Annoyed says
Typical of Palm Coast! Please the developers first,then the infrastructure and the residents!
JimboXYZ says
Anyone without city planning experience can see that Palm Coast is a series of deeper interwinding residential sub divisions unto themselves, that have very few main roads to ultimately have to divert that traffic onto. Why the next generation of city planners fail to understand that is astonishing. What they did was space those entrances & exits into any given residential & far enough apart to be longer than standard city blocks. And instead of leaving enough of an opening to create a shorter city block for a road to enter & exit, that location became someone’s house.
That is why each residential has traffic gridlock & is backed up well into the residential sub division before even being steered onto, for example “Belle Terre Parkway”. That’s not genius by any stretch Anyone with a GED can see that every day & figure it out. Yet we have $ 200K/year experts that can’t connect dots ? What traffic accidents & fatalities on Belle Terre are all attributable to growth & Alfin’s Vision of 2050 for irresponsible growth approval of unfunded & grossly underfunded projects for any infrastructure. Yes the Tennis Center expanded, look where they did that ? If your answer was right at corner of Belle Terre & Royal Palms Parkway (RPP) ! There’s the expert genius of City of Palm Coast poor planning. Who would expand that Tennis Center right next to one of the few Fire Stations the county has ? Increase traffic volume to become gridlock at Belle Terre & RPP. We’ve all sat in that traffic, so this is back on Alfin era leadership. I still don’t believe that he garnered 18% of the votes to be re-elected in 2024 for another term after the first stint.
For better or worse the road infrastructure is what anyone has to work with. It won’t change, save the buyout & demolition of housing for a East-West access point of a street. Who is going to be the victim of an “eminent domain” land grab to be forced to relocate ? That’s the only way to get a shorter city block for residential overutilization & overpopulation. Daytona’ Beach’s boardwalk isn’t immune, the arcade owners have systematically been forced out of business for the condominium lifestyle that is going to replace that. Bike Week & Spring Break will happen in front of & at their residences every year, that circus of stupidity. Daytona turning into Miami’s South & North Beach, Ft Lauderdale’s strip. As Bike Week has evolved, it’s moving away from Main Street for Tomoka Estates (Destination Daytona) & any other place that will spread & thin the herd for an event. That’s another overpopulation problem altogether Flagler may have to deal with as Bike Week has relatively expanded into Flagler Beach.
The point of bringing Volusia County up ? It will compound the growth issues we already are facing. Like it or not the East Coast of FL is turning into one big residential that has been filling in. Over a lifetime 4 lane I-95 has become 6 lanes. The Federal & State Governments will have to widen that some day in the future to 8 lanes. What problems are I-4 Daytona to Tampa are I-95. South FL has toll lanes in major cities. What started as Miami to North Miami, has become Ft Lauderdale. It’s also happening in Jacksonville, FL at the South end, and it’s also happening as far North as the Fernandina Beach/Yulee interchange, East to the beaches West to Hilliard at SR-200. Rayonier is behind that with the Wildlight residential city. Disney was behind several like that, Country Walk in Kendall/Miami & Celebration in Orlando. It’;s bigger than anyone can imagine it would have ever been.
Ft Lauderdale ?
I-595 (Port Everglades Expressway) features reversible express lanes, allowing traffic to flow in one direction during specific times of the day, but it is not a one-way road overall. The main lanes of I-595 operate in both directions.
Saddest part of this is ? I-95 in several counties backs up at every off/on ramp anymore. FL will become South FL for traffic and it’s just not ready for that in the smaller cities like Palm Coast. Palm Coast is larger than any of the cities that comprise the Greater DB area for population.
Richard Wielder says
This could be one of the worst takes of all time. Total waste of 3 minutes
Joe says
The Old Kings Road-Town Center intersection had crosswalk signals put in a few years ago. At that time they should have installed turn lanes before they built the crosswalks. Now they will have to demolish the signals to improve the intersection. Wasting taxpayer money on a foolish mistake!!!
Who made this decision? They need to be called out for wasting taxpayer money!!!
tina olive says
What’s hilarious is you add 300 + houses to and already busy 2 lane road(s) with a school and they act surprised that traffic is backed up…..The road issue should of been addressed waaaay before houses were added to the already cluster….mess….but as usual putting the cart before the horse…..
To late says
If it was addressed before construction the developer would have to pay…… Now our city officials wouldn’t want to hurt the developer would they ?
They know the taxpayer will cough it up
Callmeishmael says
So, in reconfiguring the Old Kings/Town Center intersection with stop signs, the pedestrian crossing signal will be removed. This is concerning.
Perhaps more signage can be placed at the approaches to this intersection to urge motorists to use caution due to hikers and bicyclists crossing at the Lehigh trailhead.
Pedestrian and cyclist safety should ALWAYS be a part of ANY traffic management initiatives in this city.
I did not see this in Tuesday’s presentation.
CJ says
This is fear as well. The change to stop signs will endanger cyclists as they try to cross, now we will need to look 3 ways and dodge cars to cross the road. Probably means I will no longer ride the trail.
Florida Voter says
I fully support your comment, especially about the Lehigh.
This is the only comment that I saw that mentions the Lehigh Trail, which has pedestrian traffic at both intersections. At the Royal Palms Parkway / Town Center Boulevard intersection, drivers coming Royal Palms turning right onto Town Center are a HAZARD. They look left, then turn right, with many not even glancing to see if there is a bicycle or pedestrian in or near the crosswalk.
I find that intersection far more dangerous than Old Kings / Town Center. That light (along with the pedestrian crossing) needs to be kept and something similar needs to be put in at Royal Palms / Town Center.
John says
It seems like removing a traffic light to put in stop signs is going backwards. I don’t see how that is going to improve things. Maybe just giving a little more time to the green on the Town Center side would help.
JimboXYZ says
Welcome to Alfinville, FL End of the day, they will overpopulate & build more and it won’t matter whether there’s a traffic light or All/3 way stop there. The new residential development there (Sabal Preserve) isn’t even built & close to full capacity as populated. Regarding Sabal Preserve for it’s contribution alone, the entrance closest to RPP (Royal Palms Parkway) & TCP (Town Center Parkway) is a right turn onto RPP to exit & a right turn into Sabal Preserve to enter onto Turnstone Cirle. 10 gallons of poop in a 5 gallon bucket never worked out well. And when that residential is populated with homes & more people with cars it’ll become 15-20-25 gallons of poop in the same 5 gallon bucket with everyone having to stop & restart to leave the mess that has become Alfinvile for a Vision of 2050 for his flawed Mayor-ship. I’m on record for pointing this out. Same issues only now we can add that not only will more fuel be consumed, wear & tear on brakes will be an additional cost to motorists. The traffic will still back up & the stretch from OKR (Old King’s Road) to RPP will back up to that point.
This is not a fix, it’s not a traffic improvement, it’s at best trying to further mismanage the gridlock created by a pathetically retarded Vision of 2050 that never made it much past 2025. And some have the nerve to ask why so many are leaving Palm Coast ? It’s a revolving transient renter community of duplexes at this point. Tenancy is over-utilization of 2/2 & 3/2 dwellings of unaffordable housing. I have seen several U-Hauls for those moving out in the immediate streets surrounding my residence End of March & beginning of April for the Spring migration of a transient population. Who knows what neighbors replace them. I can honestly say there are very few exceptions where the new neighbor replacing the previous one was what anyone would classify/consider as an upgrade. And I’ve seen enough of the downgrades arrive & depart, good riddance, but the next neighbor in has been a learning curve to see what next stunts they pull to infringe & devalue homeowner’s properties as City Ordinances that are in place are also being relaxed to lower that standard of living. They’ve even evolved into a City Charter group to move those goal posts to lower the bar going forward. Lowering bars is not a quality of life upgrade, never has been, never will be. And there will always be the next residents that will try the boundaries of the moved goal post & lower bar just the same. That’s just human nature. I went from sounds of nature in this residential, to not understanding the languages the next wave of diversity that arrives. Can’t thank Open Borders Joe Biden enough for that too, sarcasm intended.
Covid 2020 to present has been a sad evolution of Palm Coast & Flagler County. The spin is always better service & quality of life & it’s just a more expensive version of lowering a quality of life.
Those that implemented Alfinville are methodically & systematically being removed from Government positions to be replaced by the next one’s coming in that are sandbagged by the Alfin era. The victims are everyone that bought a home in Palm Coast & Flagler County, because Bunnell & Flagler Beach are leaning towards their own versions of Alfinville, FL.
All of this is to resolve the very real peak traffic commute issues. At off peak traffic, there is really not an issue there, everyone is asleep or still at home preparing for gridlock. Now that middle of the night drive will be a required stop for zero traffic. That pathetic render of peak traffic is no where near accurate, it’s not even an average render of peak traffic. RPP & Belle Terre backs up from Belle Terre to the 1st residential entrance East of Belle Terre (Point Pleasant (Misery) Drive), every day for the traffic volume. Trust me, I’ve sat in that Alfin approved bullshit on more than one occasion.
With the last couple of days of rain we’ve had for this Spring Northeaster. I now have a bleeping moat around my property. The new residential properties on higher ground funnel water at the back end of the property, that channels to the front & into a swale that is full of water. Can’t thank Alfin enough for that.
Norris was so sandbagged by Alfin. Pontieri wants to talk about the increases for impact fees ? Doesn’t matter what the impact fees, more money doesn’t stop the forces of nature for over building & overpopulating. And tell, me how that money ever is distributed to the victims of it all. Boasting that Flagler County has grown like it has is nothing to be proud of when the funding for responsible growth just isn’t there. It’s not getting better, never will. every solution is just the next inflation of cost of living for a lower quality of life. Go ahead, convince me I’ve been wrong, that I’m wrong going forward ?
Round about needed says
Quick solution…… Round about …. Lol
Life flighted another on from Cody’s Corner last Saturday (a nearly weekly occurrence since they put that one in)
Not misinformation that that area has turned into a major wreck fest.
At least town center is closer to the hospital
TR says
These roundabouts that have been installed already are NOT the answer. They are way too small on the intent of how they are actually suppose to be used. Removing the traffic light at Old King’s Rd and Town Center Blvd is also a dumb idea. Just change the timing on them and add one to Town center Blvd and Royal palms. The problem at a lot of these intersections where there are traffic lights is that they are not timed properly for the amount of traffic that goes through them.
NJ says
When are “We the People” going to see the turn South lane length increased on Palm Coast Parkway to Pine Lakes Blvd COMPLETED? The Palm City Council PROMISED “We the People” that this project would be completed BEFORE the end of winter!! I should have demanded to know what YEAR!!
JimboXYZ says
Breaking news, as if what I just commented isn’t dire enough. FCSO dispatched 2 SUV’s to the duplex across the street for a domestic issue. I’d call it a dispute, but this outright\yelling & screaming that is the lower standard of living that Palm Coast is evolving into. The renters, they’re out there standing in the rain with that drama, that always comes to a head & escalates every 1-2 months. Next week it’ll be the transient renters a house or few away from that. I feel form the officers, they have to respond to this type of event, stand in the rain to deescalate a tense situation that has disrupted a tranquil lifestyle long since gone.
Nobody that ever bought property to live out their own life bought into Alfinville, FL. This is worse than Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, FL. My assessment, is that any of these new residents are the one’s that had problems elsewhere coming to Palm Coast with that baggage of the unknown to perpetuate it here from where they came. Leaving one area to relocate the same problems only spreads that disease. Only to separate those problems for the time it takes a U-Haul to drive & unload. St Johns & Volusia Counties are feeling the same growing misery & pains. There’s no where to escape this and the inflation makes it pointless to even try ? America became self funded prison under Biden-Harris. A more sane & civilized version of Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome, the only thing missing, the nuclear war. The brochure of the Vision of 2050 vs reality of the what is implemented is polar opposites of worse than anyone could’ve envisioned it. Anyone in America wanna live like those in the Middle East or China ?
head on over to SR-100 a& Belle Terre, see for yourself the land that was leveled to dirt. Whatever is going there is going to be a bottleneck for traffic & more gridlock. Another residential of commercial zoning right next to existing residential. SR-100 will become 17-92 in Daytona Beach or even SR-40 (OB, FL) or Dunlawton (PO, FL). We know who is driving & growing this overpopulation & cancerous growth. There is zero hope for any of it to matter for global warming or any of the other lies that will ever improve. Unsustainable & unaffordable. Planet Earth has cancer, & it’s us, the entirety of the human race. Arguably, God’s biggest mistake ?
Richard Wielder says
If you think Palm Coast is worse than Jacksonville, you must live under a rock. Go walk around near north side Jacksonville for a day. I’ll pay for your gas to get there. You won’t need gas money for the ride back because best case scenario just your car gets stolen
celia says
Why our elected in Palm Coast even consider this non sense proposal by our ever damaging city staff costing us their pay and time in useless destructive proposals by individuals totally ignorant and arrogant trying to stop a hemorrhage with a useless band aid making it worse?
Further waste of our hard earned taxes having the audacity to propose removal the costly and life saving red lights! Do any in this useless city engineering or dais ever drive by those two locations and seat an watch the maniacs at the steering wheel waiting for the green to race on? Can staff and council even envision those in a 3 way stop? Probably NOT but as a city resident describes it next:
“City Council passed a 3 way stop at Royal Palm and Town Center, and Town Center and Old Kings’s Road!! Instead of turning lanes that should have been implemented decades ago, they think removing a traffic light and creating “who goes first” mystery three way stop situations are going to help traffic?
I cannot imagine how this will improve this current traffic problem that has existed FOR YEARS (since Imagine School opened without proper turning lanes) and I believe it will be far less safe and lead to “more accidents and pedestrian vs. vehicle incidents and injuries”.
Another Palmcoaster view of the proposal: “They have lost their minds!”
Please leave our costly and gained, after many years of mayhem, traffic lights and do not remove them. What is wrong with our city government can you concentrate in resolving issues other than causing more?
Dennis C Rathsam says
IMAGINE….the 3 or 4 hundred mothers waiting in line to drop off the kids, every morning, then coming back 7 hrs later to form another line!!!! Which Stooge, put the apt entrance & exit across from the schools driveway? This is gonna be accident central., deputies get ready…. This is gonna be a cluster fuck & a half.
PC is SSOOO dumb wow says
Really? The road in the middle of nowhere where.. we will widen that. But Old Kings.. that EVERYONE travels, even new Kings, one lane.
Koyote says
Hell, even a couple of left-turn-only lanes at the Old Kings Road and Town Center Traffic Light intersection – so a left turn driver doesn’t tie up the whole line.
PC is SSOOO dumb wow says
I agree! And it’s not like they don’t have the land or space to do it either. BUT … that would make sense now wouldn’t it? So no.
WHERE'S THE MORATORIUM ON BUILDING?? says
Over the last five years Flagler County added 25,000 new residents. AND Palm Coast inherited most of the influx. They’re packing us in like sardines. But can’t give us better roads to accommodate the masses. It’s coming, we’ll need mass transit to get around. Goodbye tranquility…More polution, less quality of life. Shame on those making the dastardly decisions that will change PC forever and sadly, not for the better.
Palm Coast’s latest residential projects include at least 1,600 homes. They approved Coquina Shores on Old Kings, among many other projects……
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/flagler/2026/04/06/upcoming-residential-retail-projects-in-palm-coast/89437793007/
Stop says
Removing the traffic light at old kings & town center blvd. Is one of the most asinine decisions the city council has made. Were traffic studies done? You can fix the problem at that intersection by adding turn lanes. Which should’ve been done from the getgo!! I travel that area almost daily. The traffic has gotten worse over the years and with the increased development in the close proximity to the intersection will be a living nightmare for all!!! While you’re at it, fix the lights on town center blvd approaching old kings. They’ve been out for a long time!!
Jay Tomm says
LIGHTS please not 4 way stops no one knows how to actually use them.
Seeing Red says
Speak up. Call or email the people who are responsible in making these decisions. Silence is consent.
Atwp says
Welcome to unprepared growing pains.
T says
They waste millions on palm coast signs,plants and trees,etc roads to be better because they aloud building and destroying palm coast they say nope no money in pockets no deal