The commission took up a significant transportation cost allocation agreement tied to two large residential and commercial developments — Summertown and Veranda Bay. The County Attorney presented the agreement, explaining that it came out of dispute resolution proceedings under Florida’s Chapter 164 process. The agreement formally establishes how much the developers must contribute toward the impacts their projects will have on John Anderson Highway and sets terms for how that money will be managed.
Under the agreement, the developers’ proportionate fair share of impacts to John Anderson Highway has been calculated at $825,019.20 total. That amount will be collected incrementally as each property within the developments pulls a building permit, assessed at $338.40 per 1,000 square feet. The funds collected will be held by the county in a dedicated account and used exclusively for improvements to John Anderson Highway. The county retains sole discretion over how and when to make those improvements. The developers have no right to direct how the money is spent.
In addition to the road impact contributions, the developers agreed to install and maintain enhanced landscaping along the John Anderson Highway right-of-way over a 30-year period, with the county granting a license for that work. The value of the landscaping commitment was estimated at approximately $400,000. The agreement also extends the ‘willing seller’ evaluation period for the potential sale of up to 153 acres of preserved land within the development area from two years to three years, giving the county more time to secure funding for environmental preservation.
The item ran into a procedural delay early in the meeting when board members noted that the actual agreement document had not been visible in the publicly posted agenda materials, even though staff said it had been uploaded. Commissioners requested hard copies and voted to move the item to the end of the evening’s quasi-judicial proceedings to allow time to review the documents. When the item returned, copies had been distributed, the online agenda was corrected to include the agreement and exhibit, and Commissioner Dance confirmed the commercial square footage calculation was comparable in total impact to residential development. Commissioner Dance made the motion to approve the agreement. The vote was four to zero in favor.
Verizon Cell Tower Gets Green Light at Flagler Ag Museum — Karney Votes No Over Deed Concerns
The commission considered a request for a special use permit to allow a 195-foot telecommunications tower on the grounds of the Florida Agricultural Legacy Learning Center — the facility formerly known as the Florida Ag Museum — located at 7900 Old Kings Road North. Planner Simone Kenney presented the application on behalf of Verizon, which is seeking to fill a gap in cellular coverage along the US-1 corridor. The proposed tower would be a monopole with a ‘bent-over’ design, meaning it has a structural weak point in the middle that causes it to fold onto itself in the event of a failure, limiting the fall radius to just 90 feet.
The tower is proposed for a 50-by-50-foot lease area in the eastern portion of the property, with a 20-foot-wide access easement connecting to Old Kings Road North. The first 50 feet of the pole would be painted forest green per county code, and an eight-foot chain-link fence with landscaping would surround the base. The tower is located more than 2,700 feet from the nearest residential dwelling, far exceeding the 300-foot minimum separation required. The planning and development board recommended approval at its February 18th meeting, and no public comments were received prior to the meeting. Verizon has committed to making the tower available for co-location by other carriers, with capacity for four users.
The museum’s Executive Director, Cara Hoblick, addressed the board in place of the applicant’s representatives, who were delayed by travel. She explained that the museum relies on income beyond its core agricultural mission to survive, already leasing two billboards and renting its facilities for private events like weddings. The tower lease would provide the museum with $15,000 upfront, $3,000 per month in rent, and 40 percent of revenue from any additional carrier added to the tower. ‘We need to have several profit centers to be able to sustain ourselves,’ she told the commission.
The county’s Chief Information Officer, Matt Rivera, came forward during public comment to explain the tower’s public safety value. He told the board that all county public safety vehicles are equipped with cellular-dependent technology and that even the county’s radio systems have cellular backup. The tower would meaningfully improve emergency communications coverage in areas where radio towers have gaps. Commissioner Hanson asked whether the county could co-locate its own emergency radio equipment on the tower. Staff indicated that it had not been part of the current discussions, but suggested it was worth exploring.
Chair Kearney expressed reservations about whether a cell tower is consistent with the 1997 deed restriction the county placed on the property when it transferred the land to the Ag Museum. The restriction requires the property to be used as the state’s principal agricultural museum and for ancillary uses that benefit the museum. Kearney said, ‘I just don’t believe it meets the spirit of the restriction,’ adding that she was concerned about the property ‘morphing into something that is not the intended use.’ She acknowledged the revenue benefit but questioned whether financial gain was the intent when the deed restriction was written. Commissioners Hanson, Dance, and Richardson voted yes. Karney voted no. The special use was approved three to one.
Hammock Restaurant Parking Fight: Commission Splits Decision, Sends Developer Back for Better Numbers
The longest and most contentious item of the evening centered on a request for parking waivers for a planned new restaurant at 5949 North Oceanshore Boulevard, at the corner of A1A and Milwaukee Avenue in the Hammock. The property — which previously housed Mad Dog’s restaurant and most recently operated as 386 — was purchased with plans to tear down the existing non-conforming structure and build a modern restaurant. The applicant, represented by investor Michael Goodman and contractor Jeffrey Latiman of Lads Coastal Construction, came before the board seeking two parking waivers: one to use compacted shell instead of asphalt as a parking surface, and a second to reduce the required number of off-street parking spaces from 41 to 33.
The proposed restaurant is just under 3,000 square feet, with 1,800 square feet designated as a seating area and an estimated 90 seats. Under the county code, the required parking is calculated at one space per every 50 square feet of seating, plus one space per employee on shift. With 1,800 square feet of dining and five listed employees, the total required spaces came to 41. The applicant proposed 31 regular spaces, two ADA spaces, six bike rack spaces, and a shared parking agreement with neighboring Deborah Jean’s Coffee shop, whose lot would be available to restaurant employees during evening hours when the coffee shop is closed. The planning board had already approved four significant variances on the property at its February 10th meeting, including reducing the front buffer from 40 feet to 15 feet, reducing the south property line buffer from 25 to 15 feet, reducing the required separation between the restaurant and the adjacent residential property from 50 to 25 feet, and increasing the fence height from six feet to eight feet.
Hammock Community Association representative Ed White was the first public speaker and set the tone for the evening. ‘This is the first business new development that’s going to hook up to the sewer. So this will set a precedent for other businesses coming in,’ he warned. White argued that the building is simply too large for the lot, noting that the variances already granted were far outside the norm. A second speaker, Jody Bollinger, raised a specific concern about elevation plans, pointing out that several restaurants in the Hammock have added seating to porch areas after opening without adjusting their parking calculations, creating overflow parking problems on A1A, where the speed limit is 50 miles per hour. She asked the board to stipulate that no outdoor seating be added unless it is included in the declared seating area and off-street parking count.
Dennis Clark, representing A1A Pride, calculated that the restaurant would need at least 46 parking spaces and submitted a 15-point document to the board laying out his case. He also noted the restaurant is 26 percent larger than the existing structure and said he believed it could realistically seat 150 customers while requiring 10 to 15 employees, well above the five listed in the application. Dr. Lynn Bravo-Rosewater echoed those concerns, telling the board: ‘Someone’s gotta be cooking. I hope someone’s washing dishes… Someone has to be setting tables and unsetting tables. Someone has to be taking orders. If there are 90 seats, how are five people? It’s not even feasible.’ She also questioned the shared parking agreement with Deborah Jean’s, pointing out that there is nothing in the documents addressing liability if an accident occurs in that lot.
During his rebuttal, applicant representative Latiman argued that the existing building — which had only eight approved spaces and 64 seats — had already been generating far worse parking problems for years, with cars spilling onto Milwaukee Avenue and A1A. He said the applicant has gone through 36 different building renderings trying to maximize parking while preserving trees, and emphasized that a specific large oak on the property was the reason the building was positioned where it is. He offered a pointed warning: if the board denied the project over parking, the applicant would simply move the building further back to pick up six additional spaces, which would require removing that oak tree. ‘If the commissioner’s plans are to deny this project over the parking spaces, our plan is to move that building back to our setback limit, removing the tree, picking up six more parking spaces,’ he said.
Commissioner Dance said he had a ‘math problem’ he could not get past: the employee count of five does not align with any industry standard he could find for a restaurant of that size. ‘Everything I’m reading says that for the 120 seats, 1,800 square feet, there are 10 to 15 employees required. And I can’t approve this until I get verification from the applicant that references an industry standard,’ Dance said. Commissioner Hanson added that she wanted to know how many legal on-street parking spaces exist along A1A near the property. Chair Kearney said the board has been ‘hornswoggled every single time on the parking of these restaurants’ and said it was time to make applicants comply. The board chose to split its decision: the waiver for compacted shell parking surface was approved unanimously, four to zero. The waiver for the reduced number of parking spaces was continued — meaning postponed for more information — to April 6, 2026, at 9:30 a.m. The continuation vote was four to zero.
