- October 28, 2024
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Palm Coast's Public Works department will get a new home: Rather than building the city's proposed new Public Works facility on the site of the current one on U.S. 1, the city will instead build on land about 2.5 miles north, just south of Matanzas Woods Parkway.
City Council members came to that decision by consensus in a Feb. 9 workshop, giving City Manager Matt Morton and his staff their approval to move forward with the northern location, referred to in a city staff presentation as "Option B," which is larger than the current Public Works site and has more buildable acres.
"What’s really driving this site is the flat space for storage," Morton said.
The Option B site is largely already owned by the city government and is next to the city's Utility Water Treatment Plant #3 and Wastewater Treatment Plant #2.
The Public Works facility proposal has gone through quite a saga: The city began considering building a new facility in 2016 in order to improve staff safety. It created a master plan in 2017.
But the city then decided it wanted the new Public Works facility to also accommodate other city functions.
The current Public Works site on U.S 1 would be too small for that unless the city bought up adjacent parcels, and wetlands there would require potentially as much as $4.6 million in wetland mitigation credits.
Altogether, using the current Public Works site plus the adjacent parcels — "Option A" in the staff presentation — would require about $12 million for land acquisition and preparation, Palm Coast Stormwater and Engineering Director Carl Cote said.
The new northern site, Option B, will also require some land purchases. And, because it's farther north, city staff's regular trips in city vehicles will cost more in fuel. But since the facility will be large enough to accommodate the city's fleet services department, staff also won't have to drive offsite for fleet work, Cote said, so the costs and savings will roughly equal out.
"This Option B has the least cost impact and the least delay in moving the project forward," Cote said.
Vice Mayor Eddie Branquinho said he favored Option B but had reservations about the costs associated with the new facility. He asked if the adjacent parcels could be purchased later. Cote said that the price of the land would rise over time.
"Option B has the least cost impact and the least delay in moving the project forward."
— CARL COTE, Palm Coast Stormwater and Engineering director
Councilman Ed Danko agreed with Branquinho. "We may be biting off more than we can chew at the moment," Danko said. "And I don't have the answer, but I feel his same concerns on this whole matter."
Mayor Milissa Holland said that consolidating departments on a single, larger site will also bring reductions in operational costs.
"It allows for a lot more cross-training, a lot more team building out there, safety," Holland said. "We have to do something: To do nothing is not an option. We've said that from the beginning."
She suggested the city build in phases on the Option B site.
Other council members agreed.
