The City meeting started off with with Councilperson Stapleford’s presentation on the Annual Intracoastal Waterway Clean-Up. The event was on September 9th, and the cleanup consisted of canals, the Intracoastal waterway and Parks and trails, as well as educating the importance of cleaning up after yourself. The winners from that event were Karolyn Whitney, who won most unique find when she found a telephone line marker; Girl Scout Troop 2413 who won the group category of most trash collected at 1,100 pounds; and Christopher and Sofia Harrison who won the individual category of most trash collected with 80 pounds.
Following this presentation, the floor was opened up for the first section of public comment. Residents made their voices heard on a variety of subjects such as: protections from environmental dangers, and on Mayor Alfin discussing affordable workforce housing among other council members via emails. Cathy Heighter spoke up to state that yes Alfin did email about the subject however she did not discuss anything with him, and told him she would not discuss the subject unless approved by the City Attorney. Heighter stated she wants to keep everything in the sunshine.
Palm Coast City Council moved on to read in some proclamations. The first was read in by Councilperson Pontieri where the City named October of 2023 as Breast Cancer Awareness. The Pink Army was there to receive the proclamation, and plans to turn Flagler County Pink in October.
Mayor Alfin went on to read in a proclamation naming September 15th, 2023 – October 15th, 2023 will be designated as Hispanic Heritage Month. The Hispanic Business Alliance, an alliance that was formed within the Palm Coast – Flagler Regional Chamber of Commerce, was there to receive the proclamation.
Cathy Heighter then stood up to read a proclamation naming October, 2023 is designated as National Domestic Violence Month. Family Life Center was there to receive the proclamation.
Moving on from the proclamations, the Council heard about appointments for the Code Enforcement Board which has four regular members and two alternate members. The Board must have an Engineer, a Realtor, an Architect, a Business person, a General Contractor and a Subcontractor. Currently the board has a Businessperson and an Engineer on the board. The Council heard a little bit from each applicants and the council voted on who they wanted to sit on the board.
An ordinance was read about the voluntary annexation of the Old Kings Village. This would include this property and area, 62.1 acres roughly, that would then be included in the corporate City Limits. This was the second read on the ordinance. Public comment on the subject was opened up and one resident stated that the Council should slow down, and land is being erased and we will not be able to get it back. Another resident also stood up and stated that there should be more discussion on the matter before decisions are set in stone. The council passed the motion 5-0.
The council also heard the first read on an ordinance that would rezone 375 acres of land into residential and conservation. This would be the in the area of Seminole Woods. Currently the land is zoned for residential, conservation. The proposed future rezoned map would include more conservation areas, with similar zoning, and plan would be limited to 850 dwellings. Public comment was opened up on the subject and residents stated they are not in support of apartments, while townhouses were tolerable, residents are not in agreement with apartments as multi-family dwellings.
Pontieri and Heighter were both very concerned with the change in the plans by the developer to include apartment buildings in the community, because they stated it will impact current residents in the area. Mayor Alfin stated that we are experiencing growth and that each development will be different but that the council can’t put a limit on growth.
Council ultimately passed the first read of the ordinance 4-1 with Councilperson Pontieri being the only no vote.
Council moved on to the last of the agenda items which were changes made to the special events ordinance 2010-01, which passed; as well as a resolution on a potential 300 apartment development on 27.14 acres in Town Center, which passed as well.
