Andrew Werner has launched his campaign for Palm Coast City Council District 3. “I have always had an interest in public service. I have over 20 years of public service experience, not as an elected official. My real desire is to serve the community. I have been following the City Council quite a bit and I really just think I could bring a servants attitude to the City Council.” Andrew Werner explained in answer to why he is running for council.
We asked what Werner felt were some of the biggest issues facing the city. Werner explained, “It’s a good question because. There’s a lot of different things that you could look at. I think anybody that’s been paying attention can see that the fact that 93% of our Ad Valorem taxes are residential property tax. So if you look at that, that’s a fairly an unbalanced algorithm. When you’re looking at a city, most cities are kind of in the 60/40 even 55/45 in a sense, to where there’s more businesses. Those different kind of taxes that are helping alleviate the tax burden on the people that live here. So I’d say, if you’re looking at something as far as longevity, I think that’s something that you really have to be concerned about, and it needs to be addressed. Now, I will say that I think that we are trending in a good direction there’s more jobs that are coming into town.”
Werner also brought up other issues that he has noticed, like the flooding of homes next to new construction. Werner praised the city staff for their efforts in categorizing the cases, getting staff out to the homes to see the issues first hand, and looking at properties. He continued on explaining his hope in the new committee to bring problem solving solutions to the table. “The important thing is to get results for the people of Palm Coast, right? That is what the city government is here to do. We are here to enhance the lives of the people that live here. The focus has to be on getting results, so there should be things like timelines in place. There should be pretty detailed agendas.”
The strategic plans of the City are another area of concern for many residents. Issues of rezoning undeveloped areas of the city often result in large crowds of residents at city hall during meetings. Werner explained that, “When you’re rezoning something, part of Palm Coast’s strategic plan is that, that has to be a benefit to the community, right. So I think we should really put our due diligence together when looking at rezoning because it really does need to be a benefit to the community. We need to hear from the community, what is it that they feel is a benefit to the community as well, right. We are going through the 2050 plan right now, and I think we should hold to our promises made when it comes the the LDC, which is the Land Development Code, and we make changes to these kinds of things. There’s a time to do that, when it makes sense, so I think it is situational. Some places it might make sense to change the development code, other times we have to recognize the fact that there are people that bought in this neighborhood, in a city that was planned and they understood that this was going to be this and this. The things that we do as a city affect the values of those properties, so we should really be taking those kind of decisions very seriously, doing our due diligence to make sure, that situationally it’s the right decision to make and a benefit to the community. When I walk around town, what I hear a lot of people concerned about is them building a three story apartment building in a residentially zoned neighborhood, and they have concerns about that. I think the community has the right to have a voice in decisions like that; yeah I would be tough on those kinds of things.”
Elaborating on the multi-family that Werner mentioned above, he continued, “With our housing prices where they are now, not everybody can afford to buy a single family home, Especially if you are a teacher, firefighter, police, a lot of those professions can’t afford that if you are entry level. I think it is important to have opportunities for people to live in all phases of their life. So I do think there is a place for multifamily, But like I said about the LDC, I think we need to be very cognizant about where these things are going. What areas are most suited for that kind of stuff? It has to be a benefit for the community, like what they are building in Town Center, I am excited about that. There is a level of retail, and then above that we will condos, apartments, things like that. I think Town Center is a great place for that.”
Werner expressed his desire to bring transparency, through town halls, meetings with residents and being interactive with constituents. He expressed his desire to see elected officials continue their accessibility beyond the election into their time served, expressing that if elected he would not stop being accessible to his constituents.
To learn more about Andrew Werner and his campaign, visit his website here.
