- October 10, 2024
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A gap in communication between the developer of the Margaritaville Hotel and the city of Flagler Beach has left the City Commission blindsided at a proposed closure of Central Avenue for the duration of the 18-month-long construction project.
The three-story, 100-room hotel is being built in the empty lot across from Veterans Park. The hotel’s developer, Sun Partners, LLC, and contractor, Welbro, submitted a traffic maintenance plan that included closing South Central Avenue between State Road 100 and South 2nd Street until construction ends in 2026.
At a Flagler Beach City Commission meeting on Oct. 26, City Manager Dale Martin said the MOT plan was developed in a collaboration between city staff — including administration staff, city planners and previous city managers — and the developer.
The MOT plan was not presented to the commission because the city does not have any formal policy or procedure to regulate such closures, according to meeting documents. The plan was approved by the Florida Department of Transportation, Martin said.
Martin asked the commission to temporarily approve the MOT plan and allow him to go back and negotiate with the developer for a few weeks until Martin can come back with an altered MOT plan for the commission’s approval.
“The project is less than a week old,” Martin. “Let me work on a compromise.”
Martin said that going forward, any lane closures exceeding five days will be brought to the commission for approval. The commission agreed to let Martin handle the negotiations.
Commission Chair Eric Cooley said FDOT may have approved the plans, but neither the commission nor the public have. A lane should only be shut down when it is necessary, he said, and for convenience.
“I’m only speaking for myself, but the only time any parking spot, any sidewalk and especially any street is closed is based on a high need, not on convenience,” Cooley said. “If you need a spot to dump your supplies to build your building, it’s not going to be a city street.”
The closed section of Central Avenue would be used to store construction materials, according to city meeting documents.
The plan also outlines plans to close the sidewalk along the lot and S.R. 100 and the S.R. 100 crosswalk near the lot. The construction crews would work Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and park in the empty lot south of the Flagler Beach Police station.
Cooley said he’s heard a lot of panic from businesses along Central Avenue that would be impacted by the proposed closure. There are at least 15 businesses along that route, he said.
“We can’t hurt 15 [businesses] to make it easier for one,” he said.
Commissioner Jane Mealy said that in New York, where she is from, a road is never shut down for the duration of construction, and that shouldn’t be needed here.
If the contractor needs to temporarily close the road while working on a specific part of the build, that’s one thing, she said, but the road should be reopened as soon as possible.
“There are ways of not messing everything up for long periods of time,” Mealy said.
