- March 9, 2025
Despite disapproval from City Councilman Bill Lewis, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday approved with a 3-1 vote to apply for its own liquor license and approved establishing Central Park, in Town Center, as a civic center.
Lewis, who said he surveyed residents on their feelings of selling hard liquor at city events, said he couldn’t support the vote.
“I just wanted to bring that to your attention — that it’s not necessary to have the hard liquor to have a successful event,” Lewis said. “I’m not sure we are moving in the right direction in terms of turning our parks into a bar. However, it appears that we’re not going to be building a city hall there, so we might as well be using it as a bar.”
Mayor Jon Netts took exception to Lewis’ statement.
According to Capt. Mark Carman, of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, there have been “very minor” issues in regard to excessive consumption of alcohol at any of the three city-sanctioned events each year.
By declaring Central Park as a civic center, the city can apply for its own liquor license. Doing so would allow vendors catering events at Central Park to sell alcohol under the city’s license, which would allow more money to stay local, said Lisa Gardner, the city’s events coordinator.
The cost is $250 annually for the license and then $25 for the permit. In total, the city would pay about $325 per year for the license compared to about $1,550 for an unlimited retail license, which typically comes from out-of-area vendors.
Toward the end of the discussion, Netts said if the City Council wanted to have a discussion about having alcohol at a city park, “that’s a different discussion, and we can certainly entertain that.”
