- April 19, 2024
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How should Palm Coast regulate future dollar stores: Use zoning to limit where they can locate? Make them stock fresh fruits and vegetables? Require that they maintain a certain distance from one another, to prevent clustering?
In a workshop March 10, City Council members expressed interest in using zoning regulations, but did not come to a firm decision on specifics, opting instead to extend a current 120-day moratorium on the stores for an additional 30 days in order to have more time to consider details and approve an ordinance. The 120-day moratorium would end May 13.
"They generally saturate an area or cluster in an area, which can cause difficulties for grocery stores opening in that particular area."
— JASON DeLORENZO, Palm Coast chief development officer
"We have one chance to get this right, and I want to make sure we’re evaluating it based on what our residents are saying to us, how important their quality of life is, how the market has driven certain stores to have a strategy to grow exponentially because they can," Mayor Milissa Holland said at the workshop. "I think it’s important that we evaluate it."
Holland had suggested in January that the city look into regulating dollar stores to keep them from crowding out healthier grocery options.
Palm Coast is now partway through a 120-day moratorium on the addition of new dollar stores.
One councilman who initially voted for the legislation-in-progress moratorium, Jack Howell, has since expressed reservations — and, along with Councilman Bob Cuff, voted against the moratorium when it came before the council as an ordinance on first reading March 3.
During the March 10 workshop, Howell said he didn’t want to create the impression that the city was out to ban dollar stores. Holland said that wasn’t the intent: The moratorium, she said, was “a pause, a moment to evaluate.”
If the council decides to regulate the stores, city Chief Development Officer Jason DeLorenzo said, it could pass one or more of the following regulations:
DeLorenzo said the stores have seen a rapid increase in numbers, and one of the larger retailers is planning for 20,000 more nationwide in the near future. Palm Coast has six: four Dollar General stores, and two Dollar Tree stores.
“We also have some studies that were done nationwide that suggest that these types of establishments can close grocery stores or eliminate jobs or erode the option for fresh food,” DeLorenzo said.
City Councilman Eddie Branquinho said he thought the clustering of the stores is part of the problem, but he wanted to do more research.
Councilman Nick Klufas noted that one option in the city staff presentation — requiring dollar stores to apply for a special exception in order to locate in certain areas — would mean holding public hearings at the city planning board, where members of the public could offer input.
“At least a special exception allows the opportunity for these individuals who feel passionately one way or the other ... to speak,” he said.
Holland addressed concerns that the city, in regulating dollar stores, would be implementing a solution to a not-yet-existent problem.
“Now is the perfect time to address the issue, before it becomes an issue,” Holland said. “... I’m appreciative of taking this time, and I want to look back on this moment and say to our residents that we took the appropriate amount of time, and this was a thoughtful discussion.”
