- August 26, 2024
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Despite concerns from residents and the Flagler Beach city engineer about stormwater drainage problems in residential neighborhoods, a moratorium on using fill dirt on residential builds has been tabled while the Flagler Beach City Commission looks for more information.
The request for the moratorium at the July 11 meeting was made because the new city engineer, Bill Freeman, said that the city’s land development code allows for exceptions that are being used to get around the city’s minimum fill requirement. Builders are limited to “the minimum amount of fill necessary” according to the code, to not exceed six inches higher elevation than the neighboring lots.
In the LDC, Freeman said, there are exemptions that allow up to 50 cubic yards of additional fill. Fifty cubic yards, he said, is roughly three truckloads of fill.
“So what this is basically saying is that you can build a structure on a single family residence and you can fill it in … up to 50 cubic yards,” he said. “That’s almost the entire yard.”
The commissioners felt the call for a moratorium was preemptive — not only was the proposed ordinance presented ahead of an upcoming presentation from a stormwater consultant, but, the commissioners said, the city’s current regulations should be preventing the drainage issues, if it’s being followed correctly.
Regardless of the exceptions, commissioner Eric Cooley said, the LDC still requires that stormwater stay on its own lot and not drain to neighboring lots.
“There’s a whole bunch of protections,” Cooley said. “…But if you only read one section, you’re going to say ‘well, they can do whatever they want.’”
“I think we have pretty good language,” commissioner Rick Belhumeur said. “But somehow it's slipping by and not getting enforced.”
The Commission agreed to table to the vote on the moratorium for at least two weeks.
Flagler Beach — like its sister city, Palm Coast — has had a surge of stormwater drainage issues in recent years. Last November, Palm Coast residents rallied for moratorium on building infill lots because the regulations in place at the time allowed new homes to be built next to existing homes without a maximum on using infill dirt to raise the base floor level of the house.
Ultimately, the Palm Coast City Council rejected placing a moratorium while the LDC was adjusted and finished. Likewise, the Flagler Beach City Commission was uninterested in imposing a moratorium on using the fill dirt, citing a lack of enforcement of the current regulations as the problem.
“If we followed our own rules, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” Belhumeur said.
Flagler Home Builders Association Executive Officer Annamaria Long said that moratoriums, which impact the public sector and could scare off businesses, are never the answer. Most builders are doing the right thing, but there needs to be enforcement from the city, she said.
“We can fix the land development code and we can still build houses," Long said.
But residents in attendance wanted to know that, if the issue is people not following the rules or enforcing them, what is the city going to do about it?
Resident Kristina Shustack said she has been trying to get help from the city to address the drainage problems on her street — from clogged easements to new homes that are not following the rules — for years.
“This isn’t just hypothetical. This is my life,” resident Kristina Shustack said. “I have a 15-month-old son that can never use his backyard because it’s a swamp.”
