- September 25, 2024
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Flagler Beach residents had one main message for their commissioners on Sept. 24 about the pending Veranda Bay development: “We don’t want to be Winter Park.”
“In the 15 years I’ve been here, I’ve never meet one person in Bunnell, Palm Coast and especially Flagler Beach say ‘I wish Flagler Beach was more like Orlando,’” resident Matt Hathaway said. “Folks around here don’t really want that lifestyle.”
Flagler Beach residents took their turn at the podium during a special workshop meeting the Flagler Beach City Commission held to voice their concerns over the 900-acre development. Veranda Bay is applying to annex into Flagler Beach.
The Flagler Beach Commission were the ones who originally reached out to Belshe about annexing into Flagler Beach instead of Palm Coast. That was first discussed October 2023, and the actual annexation process began in January.
On Sept. 17, the Flagler Beach Commission approved, 4-1, the first readings of the annexation agreement and future land use application, with commissioner Eric Cooley dissenting. The zoning application was tabled until Thursday, Sept. 26.
The development is on 900 acres on the west side of the State Road 100 bridge, along either side of John Anderson Highway. Developer Ken Belshe said at the city’s Sept. 17 meeting that he is planning a 2,700 residential unit development, with a mixture of detached single-family homes, townhomes, apartments and condos.
The development with will include over 472,000 square feet of commercial use as well. He described the commercial area of the project as akin to downtown Winter Park, with upscale grocery shopping, farmers markets and entertainment.
But Flagler Beach residents don’t think the project is a good fit.
“I think Mr. Belshe has great, great vision of a city within the city,” resident Les Abend said. “But that's not why I believe the majority of us moved to this serene, peaceful community.”
Most of the residents in attendance at the workshop felt that the influx of people, even spread out over the 20-year project, would cause too much congestion and turn Flagler Beach into an area more akin to South Florida or Orlando.
Besides being too large, residents are also concerned about the impact a development of this size will have on their stormwater mitigation and wastewater treatments. Many residents pointed out to the commission that the city can barely keep up as it is, never mind if the city’s population were to double.
The development agreement does address that issue though, to an extent. At the Sept. 17 meeting, city attorney Drew Smith said the agreement “specifically says that if utilities and infrastructure are not available at the time you want to do them, you're going to have to hold” development until they are available.
Residents were equally concerned about how a development this large would impact the natural wildlife in the area, namely at Bulow Creek.
“When you choose to stretch your borders to Bulow Creek, you become the Creek's guardian,” Volusia-Flagler Sierra Club member and resident Brynn Newton said. “You take responsibility for protecting it.”
Residents weren’t the only ones who left the meeting with questions but no answers. When it was agreed to host the special workshop, the commissioners were under the impression that that they would be hearing from the developer and their attorney, Michael Chiumento, answers to some of the commissioner’s questions from the previous meeting.
Instead, Chiumento said his team has a list of running issues — including new ones brought up by residents at that meeting — and will go back to the drawing board to start addressing those concerns.
Despite the quick turnaround, Chiumento said they would be ready to address those issues in the Sept. 26 presentation.
Commissioner Jane Mealy said the vote on the zoning may need to be tabled again if the commission is not going to be able to review the documentation presented ahead of time.
“I, for one, will not vote on something that I see as I'm walking in,” Mealy said.
Belshe reminded the commission — and the residents in attendance — that Flagler Beach asked for the annexation.
“I want to remind everybody that I didn't come running over to Flagler Beach and say 'please annex me,'” Belshe said.
Cooley said this is the part of the negotiation process. Flagler Beach has enough quality-of-life amenities in it, relative to its size, that people do not want to leave the island — the Veranda Bay development similarly needs to increase the number of amenities it offers to match that, he said.
“I am perfectly fine with bringing a quality product into the city,” he said, “but what I don't want to do is build a version of Palm Coast and then annex it into Flagler Beach.”
