- December 26, 2024
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A proposed 55+ multifamily development off Old Kings Road at Oak Trails Boulevard will move forward in the city approval process, as will a proposed single-family development between Whiteview Parkway and Pine Lakes Parkway.
"We have asked our law enforcement professionals within the Sheriff’s Office ... and there is zero correlation between crime and multifamily housing."
— MILISSA HOLLAND, Palm Coast mayor
The Palm Coast City Council at its Sept. 18 meeting approved a zoning map amendment for the proposed 74-home multifamily development and a rezoning for the proposed 210-home single-family development. Both proposed changes were on their second and final vote before the City Council, and both passed 4-0 Sept. 18. Councilwoman Heidi Shipley, the council's fifth member, was absent.
The 6.3-acre parcel of land slated to be the site of the multifamily development is being switched on the zoning map from neighborhood commercial and estate-1 to multifamily development, while the 116-acre parcel that would contain the proposed single-family development off Pine Lakes Parkway is being rezoned from commercial-2 to master planned development.
Of the two proposed developments, only the development off Old Kings Road generated significant opposition, with Woodlands-area residents attending Planning and Land Development Regulation Board and City Council meetings to say they were concerned that a multifamily development could increase traffic, bring crime, impact drainage or affect their home values.
Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland addressed some of those concerns at the Sept. 18 meeting.
"We have asked our law enforcement professionals within the Sheriff’s Office to identify those questions that oftentimes come out of a discussion like this, and there is zero correlation between crime and multifamily housing," she said. "And that's important to note, because we have a lot of multifamily housing that’s currently in existence in our single family neighborhoods due to the fact that we don't have a lot of multifamily housing in our city."
As to traffic and drainage, she said, experts conduct traffic engineering studies and drainage studies that are directly tied to later stages of the development approval process.
The proposed single-family development off Pine Lakes Boulevard would be bounded by Whiteview Parkway, White Mill Drive, and Woodbury and Woodborn Lanes.
It would include a 9-acre neighborhood park in its northeastern corner and potentially a multifamily site and small commercial site in the southeastern corner. The multifamily site would have to undergo a technical site plan review before approval.
The single-family lots would be 45 feet or 50 feet wide. City staff and the Planning and Land Development Regulation Board had both recommended that the council approve the rezoning.