Palm Coast City Council held a morning workshop meeting at 9am on November 14th, 2023. During the meeting the council heard multiple presentations including one about temporary signs, like open house signs for realtors.
During the workshop meeting, council heard multiple pleas from the public comment portion of the meeting with many people bringing their concerns, complaints, and pleas about the heights of new builds next to their existing homes and the flooding issues it is creating. Multiple residents also called for a forensic audit, stating that the city needed to have everything investigated. Klufas stated that those forensic audits are extremely expensive, and that he isn’t opposed to that but that the public should manage their expectations for an audit. Public comment lasted roughly an hour with people coming forward to talk about the issues they are facing, including the 5g tower, big trucks speeding on Florida Park Dr, preservation of natural vegetation and landscapes and more. One commenter stated she was edited out of the last meeting’s video on YouTube, and that the codes residents are forced to follow are ridiculous. She stated the builder next to her cleared the lot over a year and a half ago and the subcontractor encroached onto her lot by 6-8 feet. She says she has been in contact with the city and the builder and for 14 months nothing has happened. Her opinion was that when the city removed the ordinance requiring a 5 ft easement between lots, that is when the issues with encroachment and even elevated property building started.
Danko, Pontieri, Klufas and Heighter all stated that they understand the issues with the new builds and flooding are big issues and they are urging staff to come up with solutions at a quick rate, in order to take care of existing residents.
The first presentation was on the Utility Rate Study, and to read about that you can click here.
The council also heard brief presentations on the City’s Economic Development Program and the Community Cats Program.
The Council then heard a presentation regarding temporary signs on the right of ways. Many had stood up in support of those signs, most of them realtors hoping to be able to post their open house signs. The presentation however brought up concerns. A municipality cannot govern what content is on the signage posted for temporary signs, so if they allow temporary signs over the weekends for realtors, then any person, business or organization can post temporary signs in the right of way. That includes political and religious signage.
Council also heard a resolution to buy and sell land for the Matanzas Woods Parkway Extension.
