The Palm Coast City Council in rapid-fire succession Tuesday approved the final step clearing the way for four developments totaling 533 single-family homes, the final-plat approval that essentially means lots will be sold and homes built on infrastructure and according to plans that won regulatory approval several years ago. Some of the developments were more dormant than others.
All together, they would accommodate between 1,200 and 1,500 new residents–less than a third of the total net new residents who have been swelling the county’s population every year for the last three years.
Council members sought to underscore that the four approvals on Tuesday were not “new” developments per se, but merely the latest, and last, step in the developments’ regulatory journey, although this was the first time the council itself was stepping in. Previous steps were at the planning board level. Ray Tyner, the city’s planning director, called it final platting “technical exercise” that ensures the lot widths fit the zoning code, that easements are in place, and so on.
“These have been approved for quite some time, that density has been approved,” Council member Theresa Pontieri said. “It’s just infrastructures in the ground and now in order to sell the actual lots, they need this kind of final approval.”
Nevertheless, as far as the public is concerned, and next to land-clearing, this final step leads to the most visible evidence of a subdivision taking shape: homes getting built, people moving in, additional traffic driving by.
With that in mind, and as she has previously, Pontieri asked for a report from the city administration “a report of what development is coming before us in conjunction with road improvements so that we can make sure we’re facilitating traffic properly and trying to make the development and the street improvements kind of coincide as best as possible for the public.”
After listening to a planner outline the first project’s details, the council subsequently dispensed with the presentations and approved them one after the other in unanimous 4-0 votes (Council member Nick Klufas was absent due to his father’s death over the weekend.)
Only one resident addressed the council–to ensure that no clearing for future development would include burning the trees and brush cut down. In these four cases, the land is well past that stage, having been cleared for infrastructure previously. “Parcel burning,” as the resident, Celia Pugliese, called it, has been an issue on some developments.
Here are the four developments’ details, with greater detail in the document at the foot of the article:
Somerset Phase 1: 125 single-family homes on a 48-acre site on the west side of U.S. 1, about 2 miles north of Palm Coast Parkway. Somerset is part of the Palm Coast Park Master Planned Development. The city’s planning board approved the master plan for all phases in March 2022. At full build-out, Somerset will consist of 418 single-family homes.
The Planning Board was not too thrilled with the plan two years ago. Some board embers considered the project too densely packed with lots as small as 4,000 square feet and widths of 40 and 50 feet. But that’s been the trend of new single-family home developments, with homeowners looking for smaller lots to manager and more modest mortgages to pay.
“Our hands are tied on this one because it does fall within the guidelines and we can’t vote with our heart,” Planning Board member James Albano said at the time. “But at some point, we’ve got to start looking at some better products.” Another planning board member was disappointed by the skimpiness of the developer’s presentation, an considered the information too lacking. But she also acknowledged that the approval could not be held up.
The developer was the Matthews Design Group. The planning board’s comments may have had an effect: the smallest lot in Phase 1 is 4,800 square feet, with most lots falling between that number and about 6,500 square feet, and a few lots going into the 7,000 and 8,000 square feet. That segment of the development will consist of essentially four rows of homes parallel or curvingly parallel to U.SD. 1 along streets to be Called Camellia Street and Tea Olive Drive, connecting to Somerset Avenue, which itself is to connect to U.S. 1.
Matanzas Cove: 50 single-family homes on 17.5 acres on the west side of Londonderry Drive, just north of Matanzas Woods Parkway. While this is not a new project–the preliminary plat was approved in 2019 and its development permit was issued in August 2021–its emergence from long dormancy has mirrors the effect of a new development, though infrastructure construction started almost three years ago. The development is the work of Matanzas Cove LLC, a subsidiary of Coastal Atlantic Holdings, itself a subsidiary of Seagate Management.
The majority of the lots are 6,000 square feet, with a few ranging up to 10,000 around the development’s cul de sac. The street names will be Matanzas Cove Drive and Lakeland Way, with portions of the subdivision abutting the properties along Londonderry. The subdivision includes conservation wetlands that, once included in the total acreage, lower the density, though the lots themselves remain in close succession.
“There’s quite a lot of conservation,” Pontieri said. “I knew that’s been a concern for a lot of our residents. And this is one of those projects where we’ve really been mindful of that. So I’m excited to see this type of development.”
Colbert Landings Phase 1: Colbert landings is among the larger developments approved in recent years, with nearly 500 single-family homes at full build-out. The subdivision is the work of builder Taylor Morrison. Phase 1’s final plat consists of half that–248 homes. The subdivision is to sprawl on the west side of Colbert Lane a short distance north of State Road 100, reaching well into the scrubland between Colbert and Old Kings Road–land that has all but been spoken for with future developments. Further west, and east of Old Kings, is the future 750-home Coquina Shores subdivision.
The city’s planning board approved Colbert Landing’s overall master plan in 2021. Construction on infrastructure began in December 2022. The houses in Phase one will be tightly clustered in the south-central portion of the subdivision, with future homes planned for the northern portion. Lot widths are in the 50 to 60 feet range with some a bit larger. A year ago the City Council approved Colbert Landings as a Community Development District, what will be its own sub-government, limiting the city’s responsibilities–roads included.
The developer’s “Coming Soon” page projects one-story homes of three to four bedrooms, ranging from 1,764 to 2,300 square feet, with tennis courts, a park, a playground, trails and a clubhouse.
Flagler Village Phase 1: A planned subdivision of 110 single-family homes on 110 acres for Phase 1 (227 homes at build-out), at the northeast corner of Belle Terre Boulevard and Citation Boulevard. The planning board approved that master plan in December 2021, with infrastructure construction starting last May. Flagler Village’s lots will also be 50 to 60 feet wide, and mostly in the 6,000 square foot range, with 9 acres of conservation in the subdivision’s boundaries. The subdivision streets will be called Sandy Lane, Derbyshire Drive and Wandering Creek Way, the latter connecting to Citation Boulevard.
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