Is The City of Palm Coast Over Building? YES and NO

 

FLORIDA  
Opinion by:  
E. Eugene Webb PhD 

I recently read this article: From the Palm Coast Observer By: Greg Blose, MBA, IOM, President & CEO, Palm Coast-Flagler Regional Chamber of Commerce: HYPE TRAIN: Is Flagler County, Palm Coast Over-Building? No.

From the Article: “This isn’t a plea to build more housing, though it may sound that way, because our region does need to build more housing.”

True. Some historical background may be beneficial.

Palm Coast was conceived in 1969 when ITT Corporation bought several thousand acres of land in Flagler County to develop a massive retirement community. Palm Coast Became a City in 1999.

For more detail Check out GoToby.com, The History of Palm Coast, Flagler County, Florida.

The answer to Mr. Blose’s question, “Is Flagler County, Palm Coast over building?” Is both yes and no.

In 1969 when the ITT corporation begin to consider developing their large purchase in Flagler County, the concept of urban design was significantly different than it is now.

My wife and I recently moved here, within the last two years, and besides the fact that we have family here, we were deeply impressed on our initial visits to Palm Coast with the layout and the design, the beautiful streets, and roadways and how seemingly efficient they are given their age.

In the 60s,70s and even into the 80s open drainage for stormwater was an acceptable approach to stormwater management.

While the initial ITT Corporation design anticipated large scale development, it did not have the foresight, nor practically speaking, the ability to predict the effect of development and the reduction in land mass to absorb water on the open drainage system.

Today, Palm Coast is faced with miles of open stormwater swales and drainage canals that are slowly turning into open sewers. The City is already struggling to keep up with the maintenance of this massive stormwater system. And as the number of lots in the ITT designed plan continues to be stripped and developed the pressure on the open drainage system increases.

I would expect the Chamber of Commerce to come out heavily in favor of more development. After all, they are a Chamber of “commerce.” Quality of life only becomes an issue when it affects the “commerce” of selling houses.

The real consideration here should be, in the ITT design area, should building and development be restricted if not halted? At least until a reasonable plan can be developed to manage and pay for the growing stormwater and runoff problem.

In the development areas to the West where large pieces of land are being newly developed with roads, streets water, sewer and stormwater sewer with underground infrastructure, development should be allowed to proceed at the market driven rate.

Slowing development in the ITT design area will allow the retention of undeveloped land and forestation to absorb rain, hold water and reduce the stress on the existing stormwater system. It will also allow time to figure out how to fund the massive cost of resolving this problem.

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