- April 18, 2024
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The Palm Coast City Council approved a resolution on April 20 with the Florida Department of Transportation for a Local Agency Program Agreement regarding the construction of the Lehigh Trailhead Project off of Belle Terre Parkway. The project enhances the popular path by providing ADA compliant paved parking with more than 60 parking spaces, a restroom and water fountain.
The vote green lights an FDOT LAP Agreement of $1,583,738 in grant funding for the construction phase of this project. This amount covers the FDOT eligible items (trailhead) based off of the engineers cost estimate. The city will provide the required 10% match by funding the construction engineering and inspection services. The bid package includes alternates for the community gardens and dog park which can be included as part of the construction contract if city funding is available and if approved by City Council.
This project is consistent and in line with City Council’s goal to evaluate the evolution of the Palm Coast Recreation and Parks Facilities Master Plan.
It also a direct result of partnerships and inter-agency collaboration by Palm Coast, the Florida Department of Transportation and the River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization. City planners worked with staff from both organizations to amend FDOT’s 5-year Work Program and the River to Sea TPO’s 5-year Transportation Improvement Plan to be able to get working on the project earlier this year.
Residents and visitors to Palm Coast also help contribute to improvements at city amenities through spending locally, which is highlighted in the city’s Be Local Buy Local campaign. A portion generated through the small county surtax and the local government half-cent sales tax comes back to the community to pay for capital improvement projects. In general, having these funds available also keeps the city project-ready to be able to match for grant funding. This is another example of how shopping local helps not just the businesses, but also the community you live in.
In addition to sales tax, recreation impact fees are also utilized; this means every new dwelling unit constructed pays this impact fee that is used to pay a portion of recreation capacity improvement projects.
The city is expected to put the project out for bid and begin construction this year.
