- March 3, 2025
Changes are coming to Palm Coast’s European Village.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an amendment to the Planned Unit Development agreement that will now allow the former administrative office and welcome center to become a retail office. It’ll likely house a real estate agency, officials said Tuesday.
In total, about 3,365 square feet of office space will be changed, according to city documents.
“This is one small step in continuing the improvement at European Village,” City Manager Jim Landon said Tuesday before the vote was taken. “It still has some improvements that we’re working on with both the residential and commercial components.”
Sara Lockhart, a senior planner for the city, said the approved changes do not conflict with the public’s interest in and around European Village.
“The future land use map allows for this and actually encourages this,” she said. “It steers us away from the one-lot, one-use concept that Palm Coast was developed on.”
Dennis McDonald, a Palm Coast resident who routinely criticizes the City Council, said on Tuesday that he has no objection to the use of the property that is being changed.
Instead, he said the PUD is nonconforming to Palm Coast’s zoning regulations.
McDonald said there is supposed to be a perpetual easement for about 1.62 acres, but it’s nonexistent.
“As the property exists, it is nonconforming due to the city of Palm Coast’s failure to properly insure its authorization requirements,” McDonald wrote in an email sent to the City Council and media.
Bill Reischmann, the city’s attorney, has been involved in the process. He said there’s no wrongdoing, according to the research he has done.
“If the facts were correct, then it might be something worth talking about,” Reischmann said during the meeting, noting that he has looked at the easement agreement that was recorded in the county’s record book on Aug. 29, 2002.
The City Council unanimously approved the changes.
