- December 26, 2024
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Because of the state of the county’s dunes, Flagler County has declared a continuous state of emergency since Hurricane Matthew landed in October 2016.
The Flagler County Board of County Commissioners has updated and reconfirmed that state of emergency 180 times since then, County Administrator Heidi Petito said, mostly because of the state of the county’s shoreline. Though repairs have been completed or are in progress in the south of the county, that isn't the case on the north end.
“The emergency in the north part of Flagler County really only has been responded to by a couple of emergency or sacrificial dune projects,” Petito said. “The county's beachside remains fragile in some places, vulnerable everywhere else.”
Flagler County is in the very early stages of putting together funding measures for the beach management plan, specifically for the northern stretch of shoreline that needs fixing. The plan proposes a combination of funding sources to move it forward, specifically for fixing the northern section of shoreline.
“Really, the only path forward for Flagler County to be able to exit the emergency condition would be to put in place some sort of local funding ordinance,” Petito said.
The management plan is divided into four areas or “Reaches,” according to Flagler County documents. Reach I is the south county line to the North 7th Street of Flagler Beach. Reach II extends from the north end or Reach I into Varn Park to the southern edge of Washington Oaks Gardens State park.
Reach I was addressed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, and the Florida Department of Transportation’s secant wall at the south of the county. The county is currently working on modifying a permit to dredge sand from the offshore sand source for repair the shoreline along Reach II, and funding has already been set aside for this work. Construction is likely to begin sometime in 2025, if approved.
Reach III is Flagler County’s focus. Of the area’s estimated $40 million price tag for initial construction, only $2.5 million is estimated to come from state resources and $37.5 million from local funding.
Petito reviewed the beach management plan at a Nov. 21 workshop meeting meant to catch the two new Flagler County Commissioners up on where the county is with the beach management plan and address any concerns from any of the commissioners.
The management plan, Petito said, is how the county plans to remove itself from the constant state of emergency it has been in since Hurricane Matthew.
The plan is not without its criticisms, like the western barrier island residents who are more concerned with flooding from the Intracoastal Waterway than from the ocean. Commission Chair Andy Dance pointed out that a dune beach would provide a compound flooding effect when combined with storm surge, rainfall and the Intracoastal, and impact more than just flooding properties.
“A dune breach of that magnitude impacts all the facilities, the infrastructure that's feeding the entire barrier island, water, sewer, the septic systems and the roadways,” Dance said.
Another criticism has been the use of the county’s Tourism Development Tax — known as a bed tax or revenue generated by tourists coming to Flagler County — for funding. In an October Flagler Beach Commission meeting, several commissioners were critical of the tax revenue being used for the beach management instead of other areas, like in Flagler Beach.
While the county does not receive a breakdown of how much bed tax revenue stems from each jurisdiction, the reports the county receives from the tax collector are broken down by the type of rental lodgings and the number of accounts in each jurisdiction, Tourism Development Director Amy Lukasik said in a phone interview with the Observer. An account equals one taxpayer — like a hotel or property owner — who could have multiple rooms or properties for rent.
According to a report from October 2024, unincorporated Flagler County had the most individual accounts, with 820, Palm Coast had 581 and Flagler Beach was in third place, with just 202 accounts. But, Lukasik said, the number of accounts isn't necessarily a direct correlation to revenue and the number of accounts can also fluctuate with an increase or decrease on a month to month basis.
The collected bed tax revenue is then divided into three buckets, Lukasik said. Operational, marketing and advertising costs for tourism development accounts for 60% of the funds, capital projects and grants 20% and beach management activities the final 20%.
That equals to around $900,000 a year for beach management funds, Petito said. Over the several years the money has sat and accrued, she said, which is why the county had over $2 million in the fund that was budgeted toward the beach management plan in the 2025 fiscal year budget.
Still more residents are confused over who could potentially end up paying a property assessment to help fund the management plan. Only those residents in unincorporated Flagler County on the barrier island would be subject to it.
But the Flagler County Commission has not settled on a particular funding method. A Nov. 4 approval of a resolution about the property assessment is just a document that notices the intent to levy the assessment.
The resolution still needs to be approved again in a vote on Dec. 2, followed by multiple other legal and procedural steps. If all that is approved, the MSBU still wouldn’t be implemented until the 2026 fiscal year budget, beginning Oct. 1, 2025.
This story was updated at 11:26 a.m. on Nov. 27 to correct an error about which jurisdiction generates the most bed tax revenue.
