Though stand-alone parking zones are not allowed in the Hammock, the Flagler County Planning Board Tuesday evening voted unanimously to approve a special exception allowing Bronx House Pizza to operate a valet parking lot south of 17th Road to alleviate parking overflowing on the right of way nearer the restaurant. The county argued that even though the 18,000 square-foot parking lot is a distance from the restaurant, it is not a stand-alone lot since it’s part of the restaurant’s operation.
Planning Board member Mike Goodman abstained from the vote, since he co-owns Bronx House Pizza. He did not abstain from a personal and–in the words of attorney Dennis Bayer–a “highly inappropriate” tirade against Dennis Clark, a Hammock resident and the chair of the Scenic A1A committee that opposed the parking lot plan. Without evidence, other than that Clark was, like other Hammock residents, previously opposed to Captain’s BBQ expansion at Bings Landing, another restaurant Goodman owns, Goodman called Clark’s opposition part of a “vendetta” and started bad-mouthing Clark’s wife before Bayer intervened. That prompted Mark Langello, the board’s chair, to ask Goodman to limit his comments to the agenda item.
“It’s unfortunate they let Mr. Goodman slander my client,” Bayer said later, suggesting the matter will not end there.
Goodman was recently reappointed to a seat from which the County Commission had booted off a previous occupant for lying about a commissioner and responding poorly and rudely to a public record request. Though having a direct monetary interest in the matter, Goodman was not barred from taking part in discussions about Bronx House Pizza’s application for a special exception, only from voting on it.
County staff recommended approval of the special exception. Neighboring residents were opposed, as was the Scenic A1A Committee, which reviews all development applications in the Hammock’s scenic overlay, where regulations are stricter than in other unincorporated areas of the county. The state Department of Transportation will control the driveway connection to A1A, not the county. The new lot will not allow the restaurant to exceed its seating limit of 160.
“A1A had come back with their review and said traffic flow will create a real safety issue,” Adam Mengel, the county’s planning director, said. The group noted that stand-alone parking lots are not a permitted use in the overlay. The Bronx House lot would set a bad precedent there. “I feel instead it would set a good precedent,” Mengel said. “I’ve concluded my staff report saying I think we need more parking lots. I think we have to look at other beach-side towns like Flagler Beach and where they have public parking areas that promote public access. And I get it, this is not close to the beach, but it’s close to commercial operations that are supporting the beach activities.”
Robert Sprouse thinks otherwise. “I have the displeasure of actually being the neighbor of Bronx House Pizza,” he told the board. “I keep hearing about the infrastructure and development. Well, we’re not Flagler Beach. We’re not Daytona Beach. We’re not St Augustine. We’re the Hammocks. We’re a small, little community. We’re not asking for this infrastructure. We’re not asking for this development. We don’t need another parking lot, okay?” His property is so close to the restaurant that he’d forbidden his daughters from playing outside as drunk customers yelled into his backyard. “These are the people talking about community and neighborhood, yet they have shown complete disrespect and care for our community,” he said.
Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan said the parking lot is not stand-alone, in that it is not an operation set up as a parking lot “unto itself,” to make money as a parking lot. “There will be filed a covenant restricting its use as a valet parking lot for as long as the Bronx Pizza shall be a restaurant.”
Bruno DiFabio, who partnered with Goodman to open Bronx House Pizza, told the Planning Board that his intention was to resolve the parking problem on A1A even though, bewilderingly, he claimed “we haven’t created this problem ourself.” Moments earlier he’d said “we may have brought some of this problem on ourselves” with such things as charity events. The restaurant’s fund-raising, he said, has raised $120,000 for “homeless shelters around the area, just in this area right here.” (It wasn’t clear what homeless shelters DiFabio was referring to, as there are one in the county. The Sheltering Tree, a non-profit, operates a cold-weather shelter on rare cold nights, at Church on the Rock in Bunnell, an operation funded in part by the county and in part by the Sheltering Tree.)
Goodman, he said, told him to “stop with the with the bands” and “stop with booking events in the back” to cut down on the parking problem. The restaurant had operated a beer garden until around June, when the music acts also stopped. Residents fear both will resume with the added parking lot. (Nearby Bartletts, what used to be a wine and cheese shop, has long had music and a beer garden, a member of the Bronx House team said, yet no one says anything about it.)
Goodman and his operation bought the four parcels at the end of May for $430,000. “What did I do for my family after investing all my money in this, my life savings in this, now, I have to postpone my gratification for how many more years until we replace that $430,000, and what for?” DiFabio said. “We tried to solve a problem here again, that that wasn’t solely created by us, but what it is, is it’s a net benefit to the entire community, to the entire business community, that’s what this is going to end up being.”
Neighboring residents and businesses did not see it DiFabio’s way. Leah Groom, a Sanchez Avenue submitted a petition reflecting “a collective concern” and “strong opposition” to the special exception. “Our community has always valued the integrity of our zoning laws and development codes which have been crafted to ensure balanced growth and preserve the character of the Hammock as well as safeguard our shared quality of life,” she said. “The proposed exception not only goes against the ordinance, but also sets a potentially harmful precedent.” She spoke of unauthorized tree removal at the proposed lot.
“The power dynamics at play are real and significant, and they cast a shadow of the fairness of the decision making process, as well as real fear for retaliation or harassment of the residents,” Groom said. “The disregard for existing codes and the lack of meaningful dialog with residents highlights a significant issue decisions are being made without consideration of those who live and work here, I resent the fact that business owners have been characterized as real community members trying to better the area. There has never, not once, been an effort made to engage with the community. We are not anti-business. We are for responsible and respectful growth.”
Clark, when it was his turn to speak, swiftly contradicted DiFabio’s claim that the parking problem was no the restaurant’s doing. “Bronx House is attempting to solve a problem they created themselves by creating a worse one. A worse one,” he said, citing the restaurant’s original approval by the Planning Board for 750 square feet and four employees. “Since opening, they have doubled it with the front patio and tripled it with with the beer garden, without providing more parking spaces. The traffic patterns from the valet parking lot create an extremely dangerous condition.” A diagram he provided illustrated his claim, including the prohibition on left turns coming out of either Bronx House or the prospective lot. “What happens when the valet is not there to pick up the car wherever the cars queue? How does a valet unlock and lock the security chain on the overflow lot every time?” Across the street, vehicles are exiting the Publix and SunTrust parking lot, making it an “especially dangerous precedent for the National Scenic Byway and All American Road.”
Chris Herrera, until 2016 a partner with Goodman in the Captain’s operation, was the only public speaker, other than DiFabio, to speak approvingly of the proposal, describing how the big truck he drives makes u-turns in the restaurant’s parking lot impossible.
Bayer, the attorney representing the Hammock Community Association, stressed the prohibition on stand-alone lots, wondered about the whereabouts of an apparent agreement Mengel had referred to, and cast doubt on the county shrugging off the lot’s interaction with A1A to the state transportation department since the county isn’t responsible for the parking’s driveway. He proposed a limited experiment with the lot before decisive approval. “It just seems like there’s a lot of questions that need to be answered before you can take it to the next step,” he said. “The final point I’d make too is, how do you monitor that five months from now, 10 months from now, that it is only being used for valet parking? It just seems like there needs to be some more safeguards put in place, as far as that part of it’s concerned.” No such safeguards are written into the exception.
Goodman had nearly the last word. He rejected insinuations that he was felling trees indiscriminately, or was an inconsiderate neighbor. “If anybody knows me, realizes that we preserve the trees that are on our property. We preserved all the huge oaks on the back of the Bronx House,” he said. “We preserved all the big oaks on the piece of property that we purchased. At the end of the day we’re trying to be good neighbors. We’re trying to do the right thing, and for people to come up here, some people, not all, and cast us as bad neighbors, I’m sorry: that’s just completely wrong.”
Board members applauded the business’ efforts and moved on to the approving vote. The matter ends there unless any of the parties opt to appeal the decision to the County Commission.
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