- November 26, 2024
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After a rehearing on the Cascades development in Seminole Woods, the property will still be limited to 416 units but the adjacent property, owned by a different developer, is no longer included in the policy.
The Cascades is a 330.8-acre development located on Seminole Woods Boulevard that was annexed into Palm Coast in August. The City Council voted to limit the development to 416 units — down from the proposed 850 — at its Nov. 7 meeting.
Attorney Michael Chiumento — representing both Cascades developer Byrndog PCP and the adjacent property, owned by JTL Grand Landings — said a mistake in the documentation incorrectly applied the policy limit to both developments. He requested and was granted a rehearing at the Dec. 19 City Council meeting.
On Jan. 2, the council unanimously voted to change the policy to exclude the JTL property.
Council member Theresa Carli Pontieri said there council and city staff did not make a mistake and even granting the rehearing in the first place set a bad precedent for the future.
“We are creating a slippery slope by granting this rehearing,” she said.
The crux of the problem stems from the 44.8-acre “hook”-shaped property owned by JTL Grand Landings that extends into the Cascades development. The hook piece, previously annexed into Palm Coast, already had its own residential land use designation and an approval for 98 units.
Applying the 416-unit policy limit to the JTL property was done without the owner’s consent, Chiumento said, and essentially removed JTL's previous 98-unit approval.
Pontieri said there was no misapprehension of the facts on the part of the council and that the rehearing was an attempt by the developer to revisit the decision after not getting its way in the Nov. 7 vote.
“We are creating a slippery slope by granting this rehearing.”
— THERESA CARLI PONTIERI, council member
She said Chiumento attended at all three meetings — a Planning Board meeting and two City Council meetings — where the application was reviewed. In all cases, she said, the documentation showed the inclusion of the hook piece in the policy limit and neither Chiumento nor the applicant ever moved to correct the documentation, even when she said she explicitly asked if it was correct.
Chiumento said the error was on everyone’s side. He admitted that he should have checked the legal description of the property, but that senior planner Jose Papa should not have included the JTL property in the legal description to begin with when the application was for the Byrndog property.
“It is unequivocal that the city does not have written authorization … that JTL consented to a change in land use,” he said.
Further confusion stemmed from emailed communications where Chiumento tells Papa the JTL hook piece is not included in the application, but Byrndog’s Jeff Douglas emails Chiumento and Papa that JTL wished to be included and sent over a form signed — but not notarized — by JTL property owner David West to that affect.
Chiumento said Douglas and West were referring to the zoning application, not the land use and policy limit. Pontieri said staff, Chiumento and Byrndog’s Douglas both referenced the hook piece as included in the Cascades policy limit multiple times throughout the previous City Council meetings.
City attorney Anthony Garganese, from Garganese, Weiss, D’Agresta & Salzman, P.A. law firm, said the council had to decide if it believed the signed but not notarized form and the communications from the developers constituted as permission from the JTL property owner.
“It is unequivocal that the city does not have written authorization … that JTL consented to a change in land use.”
— MICHAEL CHIUMENTO, attorney for JTL Grand Landings, Byrndog PCP
Council member Nick Klufas suggested the simplest solution to avoid a potential lawsuit would be to remove the hook piece from the 416-unit comprehensive plan policy limit.
Pontieri said she would normally agree with that but said the rehearing should not be happening in the first place.
Pontieri motioned that the council retain the Nov. 7 decision, including the hook piece. The motion failed 4-1.
Council member Nick Klufas then motioned to remove the hook piece from the previous Nov. 7 vote, but retain the 416-unit limit to the 330.8-acre Cascades development. The motion passed unanimously.
