- November 27, 2024
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Palm Coast is inviting residents to provide input as the city undertakes its comprehensive plan update, which will take a full year to complete.
The project — called “Imagine 2050: City on the Rise” — began with a joint meeting between the Palm Coast City Council, the Planning Board and contracted consulting firm JBPro to review the comprehensive plan. Mayor David Alfin called the process “historic.”
“To our knowledge, no prior city council and staff have opened up the entire comp plan for every resident that will step forward to participate,” he said.
The joint meeting, held at 1 p.m. at City Hall on Oct. 10, was the kick-off event for Imagine 2050. On Wednesday, Oct. 11, the city was scheduled to host Imagine 2050’s first public engagement event from 4-7 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center.
“It’s a very weighty process ahead of us,” Alfin said. “I beg you all to engage today and stay with us, and invite everyone to please participate in any way they can or feel comfortable.”
When the city incorporated in 1999, state statute required cities to create a comprehensive plan — the 2035 comprehensive plan — which the city adopted in 2004. JBPro Director of Planning Kathie Ebaugh said a comprehensive plan acts like a guideline and roadmap for how a city grows and develops.
Updating the comprehensive plan will take around 13 months. Once a comp plan is updated, it can take a city 20 or more years to fully implement it.
“This is our long-term goal,” Ebaugh said.
The rest of the process is split into four phases: Mobilizing for Success, Background Data and Analysis, Public Outreach and Participation, and Comprehensive Plan Update.
The first three phases of the process are intertwined, Ebaugh said. The phases span from October 2023 to August 2024, with the final comprehensive plan update being written, reviewed and adopted between September and October 2024.
The city also launched an interactive website, palmcoast.gov/imagine2050, where residents can leave comments and get information about the process and upcoming events.
A key part of the process, Ebaugh said, will be community involvement. City staff and the consulting team are planning in-person and virtual community outreach events to hear from residents. The goal is to reach as many people as possible, she said.
Ebaugh said the teams want to hear what concerns residents have and what kind of vision residents want to see for Palm Coast’s future.
“When you do a vision-based planning effort,” she said, “it takes ownership of the community. It becomes a part of a community.”
Principal Planner Silvia Vargas, working with JBPro, said it’s also the responsibility of the public to participate and share ideas.
“You cannot force people to participate,” Vargas said, “but we’re going to go out there and do our darn best to be where people are.”
Several members of the public who did show up listed roads and growth as their main concerns. Kathy Austrino, a candidate for the District 1 seat on the City Council, encouraged residents to come out and participate in the process.
“You don’t get your steak if you don’t come to the table,” Austrino said. “The more participation, the better off we all are.”
While brainstorming the city’s expectations and potential challenges to the plan’s update, ensuring community involvement was a major concern for the board and council members.
In a press event after the meeting, Vargas said state statute does not require public involvement in the process: The city is choosing to make it a priority. Ebaugh said the comprehensive plan update will be the combined work of the consulting team, city staff, the council, Planning Board members and the public.
“This will be done from day one to the end of it in collaboration between us [all],” Ebaugh said.
