- January 18, 2025
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Old Kings Elementary and Flagler Palm Coast High School are over capacity, and the developer of a proposed residential community that would add more students to those schools will have to pay to offset the development's burden on the school district.
"I’m still not clear on why we would adopt or approve something when we know that there’s an error, when we have an opportunity to correct that error."
— COLLEEN CONKLIN, School Board member
But the district is still determining how much: The developer of the proposed 335-lot community along John Anderson Highway, called The Gardens, reached a verbal agreement with district staff to pay the district just under $720,000 to mitigate its impact, but School Board members at a Jan. 5 workshop, citing concerns over the methods used to calculate the total, have sent that proposal back to district staff for revision.
A School Board vote on the agreement had been planned for a meeting on Jan. 19.
The Gardens is expected to increase the elementary school's enrollment by 41, and the high school's by 12. (The middle school to which the development's residents would be zoned, Buddy Taylor Middle, is expected to have capacity for the 12 middle school students the development is expected to generate.)
Developers must pay local government bodies such as the school district to mitigate the expected impacts of their developments on local schools, roads, emergency services and public infrastructure, and different government bodies use different formulas to come up with how much those payments should be, in accordance with broad parameters established by Florida law.
Gardens developer Palm Coast Intracoastal had agreed with district staff on Sept. 18 to pay $719,960, spread over three payments as the houses are constructed.
But that total, district staff member Patricia Bott said at the Jan. 5 workshop, resulted from a miscalculation of the mitigation credits by district staff.
School Board member Colleen Conklin asked why the board was being asked to consider a proposal that resulted from a known error.
"If we are getting ready to approve this, would we not want to calculate it with the correct formula, numbers, credits, instead of adopting and approving something that's coming before us now with a number that may not be accurate?" Conklin said. "And I'm worried about setting a precedent for future development down the road that would come back to say to us, ‘Well, you gave them this calculation, why are we not getting the same calculation?’ It's worrisome to me."
Conklin added that she'd shared her concerns with the district's superintendent, Cathy Mittelstadt.
Bott said that the district has used different calculation methods for mitigation agreements in the past.
"Things were calculated in completely different ways on every mitigation agreement we've approved up to this date," Bott said. "What we're trying to do going forward, after this one, is to standardize everything, and to put everything out there so that there's no question, going forward, as to how it's done."
School Board attorney Kristy Gavin said the issue stemmed, in part, from when capacity numbers were calculated — they were different in September, when the district entered discussions with Gardens developer Palm Coast Intracoastal, than they were the following month.
Conklin wasn't satisfied.
"I’m still not clear on why we would adopt or approve something when we know that there’s an error, when we have an opportunity to correct that error prior to us adopting or approving it. ... As of right now, I’d be a 'No' on this because of that reason. And what’s the significant difference in value? Are we talking about $50,000? Are we talking about $500,000? It feels like we need more information."
Board member Janet McDonald agreed.
"Everything feels very nebulous, and at our disadvantage," McDonald said.
Mittelstadt agreed to send the proposal back to district staff.
