- December 4, 2024
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Palm Coast’s priority themes for the next legislative session revolve around infrastructure almost exclusively.
For the last several years, Palm Coast and Flagler County have enjoyed a strong partnership with key figures — former Speaker of the House and Rep. Paul Renner and Sen. Travis Huston — in the legislature when these state appropriation requests were sent in. The upcoming legislative session, which begins in the spring of 2025, has no such guarantee of support as the city’s elected representatives, Sam Greco and Tom Leek, are newly elected to their seats.
In 2023, Palm Coast received $55 million in appropriations and $82 million in 2024. During the last session, most of the appropriations Palm Coast received were for the city’s westward expansion project.
Most of the city’s infrastructure requests from the last legislative session never made it to a bill or were vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis vetoed many appropriations requests for water-related projects as he wanted local municipalities to seek grants from other sources first before requesting funding from the state, according to a press release the governor’s office sent out during last summer.
After the lack of success on infrastructure projects last year, Palm Coast’s has 12 legislative requests this year that almost exclusively focus on infrastructure needs: water capacity and supply, stormwater, and flood risk reduction.
Mayor Mike Norris said that he is hoping and “almost praying” the state will focus on funding the growth and water issues the state is facing.
“This is not just a Flagler County thing, a Palm Coast, Northeast Florida [thing],” Norris said. “This significant increase in growth is due to good governance and people wanting to come to Florida. So we shouldn't be punished for what the governor has pushed. They need to support us.”
Most of the requests are water related, including three projects meant to reduce flood risk in Palm Coast’s vulnerable neighborhoods: a dry lake and weir project in the Seminole Woods area, the stormwater capacity project for the Woodlands subdivision and a stormwater project on Burroughs Drive that would also function as a passive city park.
Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo did caution the council on how much funding the city should request for these items. Because of the damage several communities in Florida took during Hurricanes Milton and Helene, he said, it would be wiser to make smaller financial requests like for permitting and design for these projects.
A lower financial threshold is less likely to be turned down, he said.
“Because the state went through all those storms, we all kind of anticipate that a lot of money is going to go to those affected communities rather than less effective communities,” DeLorenzo said.
Vice mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri said she agreed it would be wiser to go that route.
“What I understand is, once you get your foot in the door, then the legislature is more likely to give more money in subsequent years to complete these projects,” she said.
Pontieri also suggested a proposed request for funding for the Phase III of the Old Kings Road expansion — stretching from Forest Grove Drive to Matanzas Woods Parkway — be delayed or placed lower on the priority list until Phase II of the project begins construction in 2025.
The only three items included that are not infrastructure related are requests for a YMCA, a request to refurbish the Frieda Zamba pool and a request for funding to convert the city’s historic Fire Station 22.
The list of city priorities will go into a legislative request booklet that the county organizes to send to state elected officials that compiles all of the requests from the Flagler County and its cities.
For now, the legislative requests do not have a dollar amount attached to them — that will come later in the process, DeLorenzo said. The next step will be for the city lobbyists, the Southern Group, and city staff to meet with legislators to review the items.
