- September 17, 2024
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The Flagler County Commission has agreed to give a Flagler Beach pier boardwalk project the full $745,000 of a county tourism grant, despite concerns about the project's timeline.
The grant is from the county's Tourism Development Council's Capital Projects Grant fund. The Flagler Beach project — which Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin called the city's "beach walk project — was one of three that were considered for the grant.
The Flagler County Commission voted 3-2 to give Flagler Beach the full grant funding, with commissioners David Sullivan and Leann Pennington voting against it. Both commissioners worried the pier renovation project would cause delays to the beach walk project.
“I think this is a great project, I just don't think they can get it done in the time frame,” Sullivan said.
Pennington said she also felt the project proposed by Palm Coast — a project to add more lighting at the Indian Trails Sports Complex for evening matches and tournaments — would bring "heads and beds" to the county sooner than the Flagler Beach project.
The TDC ultimately recommended the Flagler Commission apply the grant's full $745,000 toward the Flagler Beach project. Flagler County Tourism Director Amy Lukasik said the project particularly appealed to the TDC in light of the city's beach renourishment project, pier renovation project and the new hotel.
"So, it's [going to] have all these new assets and infrastructure, and then a 40-year-old boardwalk and bathrooms," she said.
The Flagler Beach project will be three phases, totaling over $3 million. The first phase, costing approximately $1.3 million, would be renovating and expanding the pier's bathrooms, surf radio station and bait shop.
Phase two would be the addition of a promenade area on the south side of the pier, which would be available for leasing for private events, Martin said. That uncovered promenade area would be 4,200 square feet, about two feet higher than the boardwalk, seat between 200-300 people and cost roughly $1.4 million. Phase three would renovate the boardwalk area in front of the pier and promenade, costing around $1.1 million.
The grant would be applied toward phase one of the project to keep with the TDC's time requirements, Martin said. The TDC requires projects begin within a year of receiving the grant and finish within two years.
When asked about parking during the promenade's private events, Martin pointed out that many people already manage to find parking during events, like that of July Fourth.
Despite concerns about the expense of the project, the Flagler Beach City Commission unanimously agreed at its Sept. 12 meeting to match the grant for the project.
The Flagler Beach commissioners said several design aspects were too expensive, like a proposed rock wall for the bathrooms.
But agreeing to match the grant of $745,000 does not lock the city into the expense of the project, Martin said. It only commits the city to match the grant and to expand the service buildings at the pier, he said. The design details — and expense — could still be changed after an official design is worked out.
Commissioner Eric Cooley suggested that, instead of tying the grant to the service buildings, it is tied to the promenade expansion. That way the city can perform value engineering on the service building side of the project without risk of changing the project enough to lose the grant.
“What I'm worried about is if we value engineer the project and make it more palatable and more sensible for us, we might inadvertently change the project enough where it could put the grant at risk,” Cooley said.
Commissioner Jane Mealy pointed out that doing so could cost them the grant anyway. She said she did not want to miss out on another TDC grant because the work can’t begin for over a year.
The promenade section cannot begin construction until after the pier renovation trestle is removed, towards the end of the pier project, which is slated to complete in June 2026. Martin told the Flagler County Commission that work on the promenade would begin before the two years are out.
The timing is one of the reasons that the grant funding was tied to the work on the service buildings, Martin said. While the pier is under construction, the city could still begin work on the service buildings.
At the Sept. 16 Flagler County Commission meeting, Sullivan suggested splitting the grant funding with the Palm Coast project.
Both Chair Andy Dance and Commissioner Greg Hansen said splitting the funds wouldn't give either community enough funds to work with on their projects. Commissioner Donald O'Brien supported giving Flagler Beach the full grant.
Dance pointed out that the project benefits one of the county's iconic buildings.
"Every picture that you see for Flagler County, more than likely has a picture of the green roof and the pier in it," Dance said.
