Opinions on a new land-use category in the Comprehensive Plan divides council.
Knowing that their decisions will govern the westward expansion of Palm Coast, the new City Council members have used the normally routine process of the Comprehensive Plan update as a chance to find their identities with regard to development.
“We need to make a decision who are we going to be as council,” Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri said during a staff presentation on Feb. 18. “… We see the potential progress, but we also need to be gatekeepers.”
With a development-related lawsuit looming, and as Palm Coast grapples with an imbalanced tax base that relies heavily on residents, the discussion about the Comp Plan update was anything but routine.
MASTER PLANNED MIXED USE
A Comp Plan is a bird's-eye view of the city's vision for the next 25 years in many aspects, land use being just one. Included in the proposed revisions to the 2050 Comp Plan is a new land-use category called “master planned mixed use,” which was written “to assist in development of a mixed use community in the annexed areas west of US-1,” according to the city staff report.
Owned mainly by timber company Rayonier and its associated development arm Raydient, the 20,000 acres west of U.S. 1 is mostly in the city boundaries and is divided currently into two DRIs, or developments of regional impact, approved by the city more than 10 years ago. One is called Neoga Lakes, and one is Old Brick Township. There is also a “doughnut hole” of land that is not in the city limits yet, 500 acres of which could include a proposed $500 million non-residential economic development called Project Magellan.
One choice the City Council will need to make in the adoption of the 2050 Comprehensive Plan is whether to leave those DRIs alone — meaning, keep the current 2035 land use map — or to change the DRIs to the new land use category of master planned mixed use in a 2050 land use map. Doing so would mean the developers of the westward expansion would be able to redesign those communities under updated rules, as defined by MPMU.
That's risky, Pontieri indicated.
She doesn’t want to add the new land use category because she said it’s too vague and could allow a developer to use it “willy nilly,” undoing elements of conservation and assurances of industrial and commercial uses that already exist in the DRIs. The MPMU designation could “allow more crop dusting of our city,” meaning more uncontrolled growth.
She wanted several aspects tightened before she would vote for the MPMU category, regardless of how staff indicated that it would assist in developing mixed uses. To her, the wording needs to be more precise.
“I’m an attorney,” she said. “I go based on what the documents say.”
She continued: “I have been very vocal about my support of the westward expansion for the availability of commercial. … There is an opportunity out west to bring in a lot of commercial and a lot of industrial. It is up to this council, it's up to the planning board, and it's up to staff to be the gatekeepers and make sure that we use that land the right way to diversify our tax base and bring in good paying jobs and industry.”
The city doesn’t need a new land use category to ensure developers stick to their commitments, she said: “We can do that with the DRIs.”
Moreover, with state laws potentially changing, she said, “we do not need to do anything voluntarily to allow extra density right now, because it could get forced upon us.”
Pontieri said she is interested in promoting economic growth above all else. “We need jobs,” she said. “We don’t need more housing.”
AN ATTEMPT TO CANCEL
As the city staff presentation began on Feb. 18, Mayor Mike Norris proposed canceling the discussion altogether.
“I move that we table this Comprehensive Plan to a date uncertain,” he said. “I know the plan, and I don't think that our city is ready for what's coming with this Comprehensive Plan.”
The motion failed, as no one was willing to second his motion.
The proposed Comp Plan updates are the result of months of award-winning staff effort — “significant community engagement” was the previous council’s direction — including a web page, 24 pop-up events, social media and email campaigns, resulting in 86,000 engagements with residents, in one way or another, as well as City Council workshops.
Norris said he didn’t want to throw away the work of the staff, but he also didn’t believe the staff’s engagement numbers.
The state requires the city to review the Comprehensive Plan every seven years, and the deadline for this one is in early April. Other communities have recently worked on their plans, including a $1 million effort in Nassau County and
TWO VIEWPOINTS
Norris’ comments on Feb. 18 indicate his distrust of developers, aligning with Pontieri.
Meanwhile, City Councilmen Ty Miller and Charles Gambaro have shown something of an alignment to move forward with the Comp Plan to ensure the westward expansion — including Project Magellan — is not derailed.
“We talk about, ‘We don't need more rooftops and we're going to add commercial,’” Miller said. “Where are we going to add it? Talking to our economic development people, we have people coming to us that say, ‘We want to put manufacturing, and we want to do this, and we want to do that,’ and we say, ‘We don't have any land for you that you can do that on.’”
Gambaro went so far as to make a motion to adopt the 2050 Comp Plan on Feb. 18, with the 2035 land use map, but adding the MPMU. It was only on the agenda as a presentation, not for a vote, so he was told that making a motion was premature. He insisted on making the motion, but later withdrew it.
Still, he tried to reassure the City Council that the Comp Plan is “only a plan,” calling it a “living, breathing document.” In other words, any development will still need to go before City Council for approval.
Miller added: “We’re going to have to find a way to work with the owners that control some of this land to then be able to use it for commercial development and industrial development.”
As the council members appear to take a stand on the Comp Plan, the absence of Ray Stevens, the fifth City Council member — the tie-breaking vote — becomes more significant. Stevens, like Norris, Gambaro and Miller, has only been on the council for a few months. Due to his health, he has been absent more than present in the past month.
