The Flagler Beach City Commission has been eagerly cruising since late last year toward annexing Veranda Bay, the development on both sides of John Anderson Highway that would eventually have over 4,700 housing units and double the size of Flagler Beach by population. Until last week, the commission had been as if on Cloud Nine. There’d barely been any opposition. That ended last week when the commission adopted an annexation ordinance on first reading as a standing-room-only audience stewed. It got worse Tuesday evening as residents jammed City Hall’s chamber in a workshop specially designed as a listening session on annexation.
In a 90-minute segment, at least 28 people spoke out of an audience of 60. Until Veranda Bay’s Ken Belshe and his attorney Michael Chiumento spoke, not a single person had spoken in favor of the proposal as crafted, even though the city is halfway to annexation. The opposition was civil and respectful. Unusually for public interactions with local governments these days, but not so unusually in Flagler Beach–which has managed to remain an island of civil public discourse–there was no snark, no personal attacks or derision. All criticism was limited to the merits of the proposal.
Substance prevailed, emotions were rare, enabling Commission Chair Scott Spradley to take some credit on behalf of the commission as he summed up the meeting: “From my perspective, we did exactly what we set out to do tonight, which is to have the public’s input, which I very much welcome and value,” he said. “And I know it’s been a one-way conversation. A lot of you had questions. But that’s the way that a public comment goes. We will get answers.”
The meeting had achieved what it had set out to do, but the commissioners were likely surprised by the magnitude and unanimity of the opposition, contrasting as it did with a commission that, until last week, had been nearly as unanimously enthralled by Veranda Bay. On the other hand, some of the residents’ concerns tracked with questions commissioners themselves had raised last week, if not to the point of putting the annexation itself in question. On Tuesday, one commissioner was speaking as if Veranda Bay’s concept itself had to be revamped. That was not what the developer wanted to hear.
Chiumento and city officials had met following last week’s meeting to tally up the issues. Tuesday added to that tally. “What our plan was to do was to hear your issues,” Chiumento said, “hear the community’s issues, and then go back to the drawing board and basically what we call red-line the agreement, and start addressing those issues with specificity.” That will happen Thursday evening in a meeting with the commission.
“I am not opposed to annexation or development as a concept,” Commissioner Eric Cooley, who had been the lone dissenter last week when the commission voted on annexation, said again Tuesday. He was not closing the door so much as urging more negotiations. “I’m not okay with the product that has been put in front of us, and that’s part of this whole bargaining process.” To him, doubling the size of the city means an equivalent increase in amenities, which he doesn’t see in the development. “What is in front of us is a lot of rooftops with very, very light amenities,” he said, supporting what many residents had said: provide more commercial acreage and reduce residential density.
“I’m not going to say no to annexation, I’m not going to say no to development, but I’m going to say no to this particular product until it’s changed and made to where our city will benefit,” Cooley said. “The surrounding area as well.”
This time, Cooley got support from Commissioner James Sherman on that housing-versus-commercial ratio, while Spradley spoke of serious concerns about the protection of Bulow Creek and the lack of proposed parks and recreational amenities. But none saw any deal-breakers.
Commissioners Jane Mealy and Rick Belhumeur were least critical of the plan, focusing on details to be improved rather than concepts to be revamped. Mealy talked of her brother buying a property at Babcock Ranch, a 17,000-acre solar-powered community “in the middle of nowhere” off of State Road 31, north of Ft. Myers, that opened in 2018. The community dubs itself “America’s first solar-powered town” on the strength of an 870-acre solar power farm (almost the size of Veranda Bay). Three-quarters of the ranch’s original land was granted to the state for conservation. The development is built on the remaining quarter, and has been a model of urban planning. “It just proves that it can be done and it can be done right,” Mealy said. “It’s beautiful, and it’s still being built out.”
Belshe, for his part, maintained his usual guarded optimism with understated cheer and the occasional, tactical caution. “We may have a lot more in common than many of them realize,” he said of the residents, addressing the commission near the end of the meeting. “We can all be civil and talk through this. And you’re right, this is the negotiation process. But I want to remind everybody that I didn’t come running over to Flagler Beach and say, Please annex me. I’d love to be here, and the invitation was wonderful, but I didn’t come over here doing that. You guys expressed an interest, and I expressed that interest back.” (Annexation will cost the developer substantially more in taxes.)
What Belshe was saying, what the commission has always understood, and what the audience was learning, was that he held the cards: he could himself reject annexation after all, retreat to the county (or to Palm Coast), and develop his plan regardless, which is what Flagler Beach is trying to prevent. The city wants to exercise some control on what is to be the largest development on its border–or within it.
“It’s not like any of this is new,” Belshe said, reminding the commission–and Cooley in particular–that the amount of acreage devoted to commercial development is already very large: 472,000 square feet. He even raised doubt about whether the community could support it. “In order to make that amount of commercial viable, you have to have rooftops, that’s a necessity,” he said. The new developments along Colbert Lane and State Road 100 will not be enough.
“I have agreed to a lot here. I really have,” he said: a pledge never to go above 35 feet (as in Flagler Beach), 40 percent of open space in the developed area, no extension from the development to Palm Drive. “We will say we won’t do burning,” he said, even though “no one ever called me and said, Ken, we got a problem out there.” He said he’d be all for a walkway around Bulow Creek, but his company doesn’t own land there. Beyond that, he said the development will produce about 1,000 jobs over time, it will stop pollution into the Intracoastal Waterway, and produce substantial tax revenue.
“This is not utopia. This is a lot of hard work, a huge amount of financial investment, a lot of brain damage and a long time, okay, this is a huge commitment by our organization to take on this project,” he said.
Residents’ Voices
Most of Tuesday evening’s special workshop was devoted, as designed, to public comment. An abbreviated summary follows.
Steve Noble, a John Anderson Highway resident, spoke of the road’s truck roar over the last half year. “It is imperative, if whatever you guys decide to do with this, that you keep the developer off of John Anderson highway,” he said, noting how the previous developer had been required to build a bridge over John Anderson–a condition the County Commission eliminated in 2020. Others raised similar concerns about the eventual traffic the development will bring to South Anderson, a Scenic Byway. The daughter of the longest-serving employee in Flagler Beach (Ken Williams, at the Flagler Beach pier) and the member of a family that’s lived on John Anderson echoed those traffic concerns and questions about the internal, “spine road” that the developer is planning for Veranda Bay (the road would connect to State Road 100).
A Flagler Beach resident read the city’s vision statement, which is focused on environmental maintenance and preservation, and contrasted that with the developer’s statement about the need for density to make money. “They knew when they bought that land what the [planned unit development] was, and why should we not use bargaining with people like this?” she said. “I’m asking you as local officials to stand up and push back at some of these unreasonable and they are totally unreasonable demands.” Les Alvin, another resident, said Belshe has “a great vision of the city within the city, but that’s not why I believe the majority of us moved to this serene, peaceful community. I think it’s a great vision for those of us that want to stay in South Florida.” After recalling the open burning that took place when the development was clearing land of trees and brush, Ken Bryan, the former city commissioner and a property owner on Palm Drive, which abuts Veranda Bay, called “ludicrous” county government’s request that the city take over ownership of John Anderson Highway, especially when the city’s own streets–such as Palm Drive–have not been properly maintained.
A Palm Drive resident wondered if the commissioners had read the hundreds of pages of the annexation agreement and its associated documents, and wondered who was to pay for the required new fire stations and other such services. “It’s going to be on us,” she said, though in fact development impact fees the commission approved earlier this year will defray a substantial portion of those costs. The city now levies police, fire and parks impact fees in addition to fees for water and sewer service.
Some of the concerns were more granular. Irwin Connelly, a Flagler Beach resident, disputed te developer’s claim that since Veranda Bay is providing 40 percent of open space overall, it’s met its obligation to provide parks. Another resident recalled the city’s recent history with the Margaritaville Hotel, which ended up rising higher than it was supposed to because of regulatory mistakes. “The terms of things need to be defined when the developer has can do minor changes,” the resident said. Another resident cast doubt on the developer’s and the city’s claim that Veranda Bay as it builds out will swell city coffers with tax revenue. “Don’t be fooled by how much money you’ll make,” another said. One raised the political implication of how “now you have people who live on the west side making decisions for the little city beach town of the city of Flagler Beach, for those people who live on the east side of the river.”
The proposal was being rushed, several residents said, with not enough time for deliberations. Some requested the matter to be tabled. Comparisons to South Florida were frequent, as was a comparison of the proposed development to Orlando and Winter Park, if a somewhat unfair one that Belshe called out: Speaking to Flagler Beach’s planning board at the beginning of the month, Belshe had in fact compared a section of Veranda Bay to be renamed Summertown as “downtown Winter Park without all the stuffy people.” But his description was of the commercial, retail, walkable downtown section of the development, which would resemble Winter Park’s more unique and sought-after aspects (as nowhere in Orlando does): entertainment venues, cafes and a hotel. The comparison did not pertain to the rest of the development. Still, the misplaced reference to Orlando recurred several times among commenters Tuesday evening.
“I’m from South Florida, and in my 15 years here, I’ve never met one person, not one in Bunnell, Palm Coast, Flagler County, especially Flagler Beach that I said, You know what, Matt, I wish Flagler Beach was more like Orlando,” Matt Hathaway told commissioners. His proposal to Belshe, however, was to lower the density of residential units and increase the commercial component. Others pressed the point about rezoning more for the sort of commercial acreage that produces jobs “instead of into mixed use for fun things.”
Elizabeth Hathaway recalled how commissioners have justified the annexation of the development as the lesser of two evils, since Veranda Bay would seek Palm Coast annexation if it did not get into Flagler Beach. “If it was that simple, it would have been done,” she said. “I won’t get into details, but the logistics of annexing into the city of Palm Coast don’t seem viable. And even if it was attempted, they would receive the exact same pushback that they’re getting right now from the community that is being received here.” She too proposed a decrease in residential density in favor of commercial acreage “to offer the local community more shopping, lifestyle, recreational and occupational opportunities, so that we don’t have to travel to other cities or even into Palm Coast.”
Hathaway urged the city to pursue buying–with local, state or federal funds–the southern portion of the property to protect Blow Creek. Brynn Newton, the secretary of the Volusia Flagler Sierra Club, outlined a series of steps the city could take to ensure that Bulow Creek is protected. “When you choose to stretch your borders to Bulow Creek, you become the Creek’s Guardian, and you should take responsibility for protecting it,” Newton said.
Barbara Revels, the former county commissioner, brought some perspective both as an elected officials who sat on negotiations in the early goings of the proposal and who is a contractor herself. “My biggest complaint, besides the density, is that I as a contractor, if I build a home in Flagler Beach, I have to turn in a site plan with trees located on it,” Revels told the commission. “I’m not really allowed to touch any trees in the building site, and the city has stuck with that, like they’re Tree City, USA. They have fined people hugely for trimming a large oak tree on Lambert Avenue. Trees are serious things here, and it shows when you drive down Daytona Avenue or Flagler and you have a canopy road. You can get on the top of the bridge and look north and south right now, and you will see what development does. Not just this developer. They all do. It’s just easier to clear because they’ve got to bring in a lot of fill. But it’s not impossible to save trees.”
Revels said the city has an opportunity to get a commitment from the developer to limit fill, provide park land and move or lower the density. “I was here as a child when Daytona Avenue was still a dirt road. I am telling on myself, but this is just unconscionable of a development that you’re going to annex at that kind of density. Please don’t do that to the citizens of Flagler Beach,” Revels said.
