Closed for many years, the White Eagle Lounge on U.S. 1, which had a storied history as one of Flagler County’s oldest bars and was a biker favorite, will soon give way to gas station and convenience store.
The county’s Planning Board recommended the required land use changes last week and the County Commission approved the elimination of a nearly century-old plat. The deteriorated White Eagle building itself will be demolished.
“The final farewell to the White Eagle,” County Commissioner Andy Dance said.
“Yep. I know,” Commissioner Kim Carney said wistfully.
The White Eagle at the roundabout intersection of South US Highway 1, South Old Dixie Highway, and County Road 325 was the subject of litigation in 2019, the month the Covid pandemic struck. The suit was dismissed in 2021.
By then the bar had closed for good following its sale in 2020. Property owners Kim Tam and Jim Benninghove sold the property, which includes about 20 lots split between five parcels, to Roy Hinman of St. Augustine for $550,000, according to Property Appraiser records.
In grimmer days before the roundabout, the intersection was the scene of numerous fatal crashes. There has been only one fatal crash there since the roundabout was completed in 2020.
On Monday, the County Commission approved the vacating of the old plat covering the 3.56-acre property, which consisted of the 20 lots on either side of Trojan Avenue and the 50-foot Trojan Avenue right-of-way itself. It had originally been platted around 1929 “but never actually utilized in its intended purpose,” Simone Kenny, the county’s principal planner, said.
That clears the way for the expected approval of a rezoning, which the Planning Board recommended last week. Kimley-Horn and Associates applied for the rezoning on behalf of Hinman’s company, which is the land holder, 5530 US HWY 1.
Part of the land is currently designated as low density residential, a small sliver of it is designated as conservation, and the rest as high intensity commercial. The applicant is seeking to convert all 3.56 acres to high-intensity commercial, for a maximum of 62,029 square feet of allowable commercial space.
Kenny showed a conceptual rendering of the future property. “The proposed use would be for a gas station-convenience store,” she said, with entrances and exits on U.S. 1, just north of the roundabout’s northbound lanes, and off County Road 325. The county road will be improved. The back of the property would be filled with a retention pond. The property has no water and sewer connections, so it will be fed by a well and will have its own septic system. How operating a facility of that scale entirely on a well and a localized septic system presents potential environmental and regulatory challenges that Planning Board members did not challenge, and the planning division did not address.
The only public comment the proposal drew at the Planning Board was from a resident neighboring the property who worried about future traffic.
The county’s planning division determined that “the existing R-1 zoning district on the northern portion of the site is not consistent with the commercial nature of this roundabout intersection, and this rezoning will allow for the highest and best use of the property. Therefore, this proposed rezoning is a logical and compatible extension of the existing commercial zoning districts that front along the roundabout and along South US Highway 1, a principal arterial roadway.”
“It will be interesting in the next step to see the traffic management plan right near the roundabout, and how they handle that,” Dance, a landscape architect, said. He cautioned against excessive lighting. “These are notorious if not handled appropriately, and I know our land development code is severely insufficient in addressing lighting and spillover lighting into adjacent lots,” he said, requesting that recessed lighting is used to minimize any spillover into small residential plots.
Kimley-Horn’s Kristen Reed said that would be done. She had left no doubt about the fate of the White Eagle Lounge. “The intent is to demolish the existing building and to fully redevelop the property,” she told the Planning Board.
“I think it’d be beneficial for everyone for that building to go away,” Mark Langello said, citing its non-conforming uses. The building may also be encroaching on a right of way.
Sunny says
This is a nightmare traffic wise. You take your life in your hands on the circle of death EVERY TIME NOW! There is nothing but ignorance in this county anymore it is pathetic!
Also Carney when the Hell were you in the White Eagle? Great food had a lot of good times there. Flagler has changed not for the best just for yankee greed!
me says
Bring back the Eagle! Great times there!
Concerned Land owner says
The right of way encroached on the building!! A historical building in fact!
Sad says
So sad. This was one of the oldest bars around and has been there since the 40s. We spent many hours there and it’s sad to see it go and a gas station go in there. The one lone sweet gum tree that has stood there for decades and provided us with shade while we all sat around the picnic table will no doubt be mowed down because we wouldn’t want any living thing or shade in a parking lot.
TR says
Many great memories going there while the White Eagle was owned by Dave.(may he rest in peace) After Dave sold the property it went down hill and eventually the new owners were foreclosed against for not paying their vendors. When the round about was put in and some of the front property was taken away from the front parking lot, I had a feeling it was just a matter of time and the building would be taken down. But I can’t wait to see how many accidents (with fatalities) will happen there with the round about and people trying to enter and exit the new gas station. Dumb idea in my book. It would have been better to put a normal traffic signal in at that intersection instead of the round about. It would have been a lot cheaper and just as safe. There was already a flashing light, so why not replace it with a normal three colored signal and go to the control box that was there and set the timing. Oh wait I forgot. It was the D.O.T. that did this and it was against major disapproval from a lot of people including Sheriff Staly. but the D.O.T did whatever they wanted to do anyway and waste all that extra money.
Ed Corcoran says
The Cody’s Corner round about is also a nightmare
Here we go again, Flagler says
Just what the county needs, another gas station and convenience store. I wonder if this place will attract the same type of crowds from dawn to dusk like some of the others around Palm Coast already do?
TR says
It’s possibility being it’s out in nowhere land. I can see it being a hang out place and if anything should happen, by the time the cops got there there are two easy ways out of there fast heading south to I-95.
JimboXYZ says
Wonderful, the round-about slows traffic to a crawl there, put a gas station at the northbound exit of the round-about to make traffic flow even slower & create traffic build up there. Create another +/- <25 mph school zone on a 55-60 mph US Highway.
Damien says
That place was a shit hole with great live music, cheap cold drinks friendly staff and steak house quality ribeyes on Thursdays. RIP
Bob says
Not another freaking gas station and convenience store! We have one every quarter mile ridiculous !
R.S. says
I wish we would create more charging stations and get off our addiction to fossil fuels. We’ve definitely got our fill of gas stations in this county.
Callmeishmael says
Will it have a drive-through Island Doctors window, too?
I guess Hinman sees more profit in gas and beer than via the Medicare Advantage trough, these days.
Kelly says
Thats why the roundabout went in 2 years ago at taxpayer expense! So a developer got a fresh new access roundabout for free! This county is so corrupt!
TR says
I don’t believe the tax payers paid for it. US-1 is a state road and the D.O.T. put in the road about, just like the two north of Palm Coast Pkwy.
Jeff Parker says
Really?
R.S. says
Sales tax, property tax, and the lottery? Or where did it come from without the public chipping in?