Even as cities’ unhappy reactions have forced Flagler County quickly to retreat from a proposal to create a new tax for almost all residents and businesses in the county, Flagler County Commissioner Donald O’Brien is encouraging his colleagues on the commission to consider a special taxing district that would target just the northern 10 miles of the barrier island in the unincorporated part of the county.
O’Brien’s thinking was changed on the matter after conversations with two barrier island residents, both of whom addressed the commission last week, both of whom delivered a seemingly counterintuitive plea to the county: Tax us, they said.
“From Jungle Hut north, there is a threat of dune breach causing inundation and velocity intrusion into large neighborhoods, flooding large parts of the neighborhoods,” Steve Davis, a resident of Oceanshore Boulevard, on the ocean side, said. “All of the houses in the north benefit from the dune beach restoration. There are many places where the oceanfront properties stayed high and dry during [Hurricane] Matthew, but the inland properties flooded. I hope that you’ll consider assessing all properties in an MSBU equally, and I hope you consider an MSBU in the north of only the unincorporated property on the barrier island.”
An MSBU is a municipal service benefit unit. It would consist of a levy on residents. Unlike the property tax, it would be more universally applied, and can be more flexibly applied. For example, the county could choose to levy a base fee on all property owners, plus an additional fee calculated on the value of a property, or on the geographical location of the property, or both.
Flagler County government is belatedly launching a beach management plan to rebuild the county’s 18 miles of beaches and keep them “nourished” with sand over the years. Think of it as an extension of the 3.2-mile Army Corps of Engineers beach-renourishment project about to start in Flagler Beach. That project is funded. Most of the remaining renourishment needs are not, nor are the county’s future shares of renourishments of the Army Corps project. That’s why the county is looking to raise at least $7 million a year, indefinitely.
The existing tax structure will not allow that. An MSBU might. But for the levy to be affordable, it would have to be imposed as evenly and universally as possible. Flagler Beach and Palm Coast balked, but not necessarily because they are opposed to a new tax. Rather, they were not happy with the way the county rolled out its proposals, without involving the cities in discussions first. That made imposing an MSBU this year almost impossible–until O’Brien had conversations with Davis and David Eckert, another barrier island resident who supports a localized MSBU.
“The largest achievable this year MSBU may be the northern 10 miles of the barrier island,” Eckert said. “If Beverly Beach and Flagler Beach wish to join, they would be welcome.” Eckert called the proposal “easily attainable,” as it would lower the needed revenue from $7 million to $4 million. Property owners would be responsible for $2 million. The county would match it, with revenue drawn from the tourist surtax pot, and from the general fund.
“It could show equal benefits for all parcels as floodwaters have extended across the barrier island north of Malacompra Road in recent storms,” Eckert said. He calculated that 7,000 property owners would be on the hook for an MSBU. “The best county outreach program possible is to send to each of the 7,000 Parcel owners in the northern 10 miles an estimate of their assessments on their specific parcels. each parcel owner would study the alternatives and assess the amounts they would be willing to accept or reject to gain the benefits of the shoreline maintenance program.”
Eckert and Davis made their proposal at a County Commission meeting last week. “Quite frankly, it’s kind of changed my thinking to the fact that it can be achievable in hopefully maybe within this year,” O’Brien said. “So I think they have a viable suggestion.”
O’Brien calculated that out of 7,000 parcels, there are some 5,700 units, of which almost half are in homeowner associations. “If you think about it, we would be negotiating and working with a smaller pool of people,” O’Brien said. “That’s a small enough manageable group that you could actually go direct to.” He asked his colleagues for approval to “redirect staff” to analyze the proposal and encouraged them to consider it, with possible implementation later this year.
Others with significant influence on the barrier island have already lent their support to a special tax. “I applaud your efforts in moving forward on the local funding initiative,” Greg Davis, president of the Hammock Dunes Owners Association (which includes Eckert), told the commission when it first unveiled the countywide plan earlier this month. “I would highly encourage the board not to delay this process.” He added: “I’m excited about this. We want to work with you on it, understand this. It’s a tough problem. I think the staff is doing a great job in moving this forward. But again, I would encourage the commission not to have any delays in moving this forward.”
Days later, the delays began as the cities recoiled from what, until then–and still now–has been a unilateral county approach.
