The Palm Coast City Council held their morning business meeting, at City Hall, and 9 am on May 20th, 2025. Mayor Mike Norris was not present, nor was he present digitally for the meeting. Moving right into the meeting, the council appointed four new members to the Housing Board. The four applicants chosen were the four applicants who attended the meeting and spoke to the council directly. The fifth candidate was not present.
City Council moved on directly to an appeal on the Hill Pointe Way Self Storage Special Exception. This appeal was a quasi-judicial hearing, to which all members of the council stated their ex-parte communications, and stated they would have no bearing on their decision. The Storage facility project is asking for an exception to build their self-storage in the area of Pine Lakes Parkway and Belle Terre, near the multi-family developments and single-family developments in that area. Staff stated the project met all of the criteria to justify the exception, stating facts regarding traffic trips of roughly 144 trips a day, which would be less than any other commercial business, like retail, in that area. Staff also explained that a self-storage facility would use less of the utilities, than any other commercial plan. Staff continued explaining the conditions that would need to be met including, hours of operation, walls, no business signage, limited storage for vehicles with a lengthy list of rules, etc. The Planning Board voted to deny the special exception, stating they found the storage facility does not align with zoning and public interest, additionally, the Planning Board said that an additional facility would contribute to the over-saturation of storage users in the area. The Planning Board also cited incompatibility with the Comprehensive Plan and community character, and a failure to meet special exception requirements. The applicant is appealing this decision to the City Council. After hearing from the applicant, the Council voted unanimously in a 4-0 vote to reverse the Planning Board’s decision.
Next, the Council heard an amendment to an ordinance to prohibit all smoking from City Park’s, excluding unfiltered cigars. This amendment would prohibit all smoking, including all tobacco products that are smoked, and vapor-generated devices as well. This would include the parking lot of parks. The ordinance would prohibit smoking of any kind on all parks on City land, including the parking lots and other areas. Public comment was in support of this ordinance, and the City Attorney did speak to the question as to whether or not medical marijuana would be prohibited as well. The ordinance would also include prohibiting medical marijuana, and all other substances that can be smoked. The motion passed unanimously 4-0. This ordinance needs to be passed through two readings, so it will be back on the agenda.
The City Council then heard an ordinance of the first read for the 49 and 51 Pine Crest Lane Rezoning request. The owner of the lots is Flagler Habitat for Humanity, and the request for rezoning is to rezone from Single Family 3 to Single Family 2. The request would not increase any density. The Planning Board did approve the request, and along with staff, recommended that the City Council approve the rezoning request. The zoning changes are necessary due to the lot sizes being 9,000 sq ft., and SFR 3 requires a minimum lot size of 10,000, SFR 2 allows for a minimum lot size of 7,500 sq ft., which would allow them to build homes on these lots. The council voted to approve the rezoning request unanimously 4-0.
The council voted on a resolution to remove the option for residential developers to pay their impact fees on a payment plan. The Vice mayor suggested that whoever motions to approve do so with an amendment to allow the City to provide payment plans to commercial developments that are going to bring jobs and bolster the City’s economic plans. The May 27th, 2025 workshop meeting will delve further into impact fees for developments. The motion passed unanimously.
During the final discussion on the dais, Gambaro read a statement regarding the lawsuit filed by the Mayor. He outlined that his appointment was done legally and within guidelines of the City Charter, and stated that this lawsuit was divisive and disruptive to the city. He made mention of the investigation against Mayor Norris that was previously done, spoke about the Mayor’s removal of his belongings from the shared office, stated that Mayor Norris has not been doing his mayoral duties, and spreading conspiracy theories. His statement appeared to be the same letter that was sent to many news outlets earlier this week, however the Flagler County Buzz did not recieve a copy of that letter from Councilman Gambaro. Pontieri followed Gambaro’s statement, thanking the council and the mayor for keeping city business the main priority at the city meetings recently, allowing the council to move forward through the issues without additional distractions. Vice-Mayor Pontieri passed the gavel and made a motion to remove the ACH fees and auto payments for Utilities. Sullivan made a second, and it was opened up for discussion. Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston requested direction to have staff pull the contractual language, and ensure they are allowed to make changes, before passing the motion. Johnston said she could have the information presented to the council on this subject at the next Tuesday meeting, which would allow them to make the decision before the fees go into full effect on the 1st. Miller and Gambaro both stated they agreed with Pontieri on the fees, however they wanted to see the data before making a decision. The motion was pulled until the next meeting, where the details could be talked about in more detail.
