No bulls, no fluff, no stains

Neighbors and existing residents of Eagle Lakes, a development at the southern end of Old Kings Road near the border of Volusia County, are not excited about a proposed development because it will significantly increase the number of houses there and reduce Many of them are home to the land area. They took their stand at a community meeting hosted by the developer last week, mocking and opposing the project, with little room for compromise. 

The project was submitted to the county’s technical review committee in November and will be returned in January. It will be submitted to the County Planning Commission in February and then to the Flagler County Commission. 

Eagle Lakes is a long-term development project in the south of Old Kings Road, but construction is still limited: since the county committee approved 725 houses on 535 acres in 2005, the real estate bubble burst was in vogue and followed It was the Great Depression and only 111 houses were built. 

In 2018, there was a plan to develop a development consisting of prefabricated houses-when you call them mobile homes or trailer parks, the industry doesn't like it-but even after the commission increased the number of eligible units, the developers The application was also withdrawn. Part of the land. 

The Kolter Group, which has been developing residences, apartments, high-rise buildings, hotels and condominiums in the southeast, now intends to purchase the property and develop it further on a larger scale. Until then, it may not be called Eagle Lakes to distinguish it from the current development. The current subsidy is for a total of 824 families. Developers are seeking to rezoning and increase the number of allowed houses to 1,215. The property is now divided into two parts-the south and the north, with two sub-projects delineated. There will be age restrictions in the south. Not in the north. 

At the beginning of the neighborhood meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn Palm Coast last week—the Palm Coast government requested these meetings; Flagler County did not, so it was hosted voluntarily by the developer—said Michael Chiumento, a lawyer representing the developer A gathering of about two dozen people: "80% of the time your concerns or problems can be resolved by the developer. In the case they cannot do it, we can usually take some steps to compromise. Then sometimes there will be situations that cannot be resolved , Such as "Don't build anything." But please be honest and be confident. We have been doing this for a long time. So we have thick skins." 

The opinionated audience is that some people are more than others. 

The audience included Nancy, John and Andy Dance. The dancing family once owned the entire south of this land, and John and Nancy still live on a part of this land. (Nancy and Andy served on the school board for many years, and Andy served on the county committee, so he will hear more formal rezoning applications; John is a long-term member of the Florida Highway Patrol. Andy Dans did it. Do not speak. Or rather, the only time he heard his voice was when he told his brother to give other people a chance to speak.) 

"Scott Delanoy's original PUD," John Dance said, referring to the name of the unit development planned on the land, "to imitate sugar factories and plantations Oaks, single-family houses, custom houses, beautiful houses, a decent piece of property." He said, this is no longer a future development. He described the current ecology of deer, lynx, coyote, and space, showing that the ecology is now threatened. He called the plan for houses for 55 people or more as "BS", and said that older retirees would not increase traffic "a myth", and Old Kings Road "has reached its limit" (traffic research did not agree). He raised the possibility of flooding: "I looked at this," Dans said, looking at the oversized map, "I didn't see anything that would bring water from the north into the same ditch. It has been in the same ditch for centuries. Send it."

John Dans concluded: "I knew something was going to happen. I knew it when my father sold the ranch. But what he wanted was a high-quality, custom-built home with a beautiful tract of land. I knew something was going to happen. I don't know what it will be. But it can't be this." 

One of the concerns of the neighbors is the size of the plot. Chiumento shows pictures of proposed houses, 1,700 and 1,900 square feet in 40-foot lots, and 50-foot and 60-foot homes. These will include houses ranging from 1,800 to 2,800 square feet. The North District will include a 40-foot lot with houses ranging from 2,000 to 2,200 square feet. "They are narrower, but deeper," Chiumento said. 

When asked how these houses are priced, a Kolter official said: “The smaller 40-foot plot will be in a quadrilateral shape, which means that in the range of $400,000, “in the 50s [foot plot] will be in five In the polygonal shape, and the 60s will enter the 6s-now. But who knows where the market will be in 18 months. But this is our best guess. "

"We don't want to see another Grand Haven," another audience member said. "So the concerns I want to say to all of us are the adverse effects of noise factors, increased traffic, potential flooding, removal of deep-rooted trees, the greatest concentration of such small houses-in this case, they're not So small-it will have an impact on the family and surrounding communities. The property value of our house will drop. Sugar factory plantations are mostly high-end and expensive. Now we have to compete with all other houses across the road. The part of living in the plantation is attractive The power lies in the rustic feeling. I think the bottom line of all these monologues is that we don’t like the idea of ​​you coming in, you want a type of approval to build, and now suddenly, this idea disappears. What changed you Thoughts?" She said, why change from the original plan to a "grand event." Chiumento is not familiar with what the original developers thought more than a decade ago. "I can't answer you about what has changed," Chiumento said. He can only solve the current developer's vision. 

"Too many," the resident said. Or, as Jane Gentile-Youd, a resident of Plantation Bay and county committee candidate, said, “Why do we need people to flock?” Like the others in the room, she advocated building under the previous, more limited plan. "Where is it needed? I saw greed. I don't think it is necessary," she said later.

One factor that has changed since 2005 is that developers repeatedly mentioned in similar meetings and in front of local government committees—and what Kolter officials outlined at the Hilton conference—that consumers are looking for smaller houses and smaller houses. Land, smaller responsibility. 

"They do like the backyard space for their grandchildren," he said. "The market is not only turning to active adults, they want this very high-end house, they want all the options, they want all the conveniences, but they don't want to maintain the big yard anymore. We learned from active adult buyers I've seen this all the time there. Then in terms of market prices, in other major houses, moms, dads and families, what we found there, the larger the lot, the more roads in front of the lot, the more expensive it is. As With the increase in housing costs and construction costs, it becomes more and more unaffordable.” So many are shrinking. In return, “they got these parks, these huge swimming pools, and these resort-style swimming pools and cottages. And this is where buyers are flocking.” 

The two real estate agents in the room said they did not see this trend locally. 

From a broader perspective, land use regulations are beginning to move away from the concept of single-family houses occupying large tracts of land—much slower in some places than in others. But listening to the opinions of the audience at the Hilton conference-these audiences are established residents of single-family homes built on the pre-recession model-this is not what they see, and it is not what they want to see. John Dans complained that he had to find "the smallest excavator on the planet" to do some work in his daughter's house in Oviedo, where he said, of course, for the effect to be exaggerated, you can reach out and "touch these two." The wall house on the machine," the lot is too small. In a 90-minute meeting, the public’s response has never been as confrontational or combative as such a meeting, even though a resident somewhat arbitrarily claimed that the developer “don’t care” about the environment. At the same time, neither party seems to be moving towards the compromise mentioned at the beginning of the meeting. The consensus of the crowd is not "don't build", but "don't build that development project, so many houses". This distinction may lack distinction. 

"A lot of things are in your backyard. That's how you feel. It's opinions. Some opinions are based on facts, and I understand that," Giomento concluded. "There are only a few things that I can’t solve right now. So, come back to the reason why we are here again, we write down all our opinions so that we can go back to the negotiating table and solve the problems that we can deal with, modify the plan to adapt or solve it, hopefully So, a win-win situation. If we can’t resolve your doubts, then the process is like this: you go to the planning committee, then to the county committee. This is the process. Sally and Robin are very familiar with it." 

Chiumento refers to Sallee Arnoff and Robin Polletta. They are the two main voices in organizations called Preserve Flagler Beach and Bulow Creek. This is a non-profit organization that aims to oppose the garden development project on the John Anderson Highway. Chiumento also represents this organization. Anoff and Poletta are in the auditorium. "They have a wonderful history on a project called The Gardens," he said. "I will not despise it. So we are here to hear your concerns." 

About two years ago, Chiumento spoke to different audiences in the same room—perhaps with some overlap—about a proposed development north of Eagle Lake, also under construction for a long time—expected to have 2,250 homes or The apartment unit has 1.7 million square feet of commercial area and office space on Old King Road south of National Highway 100. At the meeting, an audience member asked about the project. Chiumento says it is now shelved.

Eagle Lakes development application submitted to the Technical Review Board:

Click to visit eagle-lakes-trc.pdf

Click to visit eagle-lakes-trc.pdf

Just what we need, more traffic.

It's just me, but the 400-600K dollars are back in unaffordable housing? As a zero-lot line residence, 40 and 50 feet wide, isn't it even an 80×125 single-family residence on the Palm Coast? So these are essentially larger multi-storey houses, crowded on small plots like duplex apartments for retirees? Those duplex apartments always end up in the form of renting and 55+ communities, which are always open to anyone. Over 55 years of age are empty nesters approaching retirement age, and like everything else here, economic recession (or pandemic) is far from over-exploitation. Retirees will want accommodation suitable for empty nests, they will not want air conditioning/heating 3+K square feet or any of these suitable for husband/wife and furry puppies. If these are houses worth $400-600K, then anyone with 80×125 must sit on a property worth $1 million. And these houses, if they are not completely HOA, will they have some kind of mixed HOA? There is a demographic target market and can actually attract buyers in that target market. How are the sales of single and duplex apartments near Palm Coast? Because in the past 3 years, there are still model houses that have not been sold. After this mini real estate rises, due to the pandemic, everyone’s house is worth $90,000, and it only increases by one year?

40 feet lot! ! ! They can smell the neighbor's fart

Absolutely disgusting, money-hungry developers, they can’t even stick to their original plans, which tell themselves that this is happening on the Palm Coast and Flagler, destroying small green spaces and expelling the wild animal. What kind of nonsense is about people who don’t want so much land but want more conveniences, they can’t even install swimming pools or outdoor kitchens on these small lands, stop gas lights, if they use the money to buy those that are not worthwhile The same houses, they can certainly use more land space to do whatever they want. The people of the county must start calling for an external independent environmental research team to carefully study the impact of these crazy fund-hungry developer plans to find out the impact of such poor planning and growth. I urge everyone to take a closer look at who you voted for when FCBOCC seats appear, and who are aligned with the developers who drive these agendas and hold them accountable for their campaigns.

Going to the city, there are some balls that do not approve the rezoning of this property. Just enough.

Vote no, we don’t need more traffic, this will only make people leave the overpriced houses, and even not build well. Vote no

Follow the Matanzas Forest Group. They desperately stopped everything abruptly. Thank God. Those are small plots and small houses. Eliminate landscapes, eradicate parks like communities, and eliminate habitats for many species.

Chiumento seems to be attracted by all these money-hungry developers. Talk about who won't... It's Chumento. Maybe if his approach starts to lose customers, he is unlikely to continue to represent these people.

It's time to keep our government away from the Republicans, who have never been able to handle a dime in their pocket with the slightest responsibility in the history of this country since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Adding this number of houses on the two-lane Old Kings Road will definitely increase the number of traffic accidents and deaths on the already dangerous road between Rte. 100 and Palm Coast Park Avenue.

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