- April 19, 2024
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Palm Coast's City Council will vote Sept. 21 on whether to get rid of the city's restrictions on commercial vehicles in residential driveways.
The council discussed the proposal during a Sept. 14 workshop for the first time since Mayor David Alfin was elected. The council had debated the restriction for months before Alfin's election, but, divided 2-2, had opted to wait until the mayoral election was over and it had its fifth member present to hold a vote.
Alfin, after a city staff presentation on the existing ordinance and the proposed change — which would amend the city's ban on the overnight parking of vehicles with commercial signage in driveways, and allow for one regular passenger vehicle with commercial signage — asked his fellow council members for their opinions.
Councilman Ed Danko noted that the proposed amendment wouldn't allow for large commercial vehicles like tractors. Palm Coast, he said, isn't an HOA.
"People work for a living; there is nothing wrong with working for living," he said. "... I see nothing wrong with actually being proud of people in our community that run businesses. We should be encouraging them, and we should be business-friendly."
Councilman Victor Barbosa had been the one to propose that the city revisit the ordinance after he'd received a warning notice for his own truck, which bears the logo of his barbershop. He'd moved the truck to his garage and wasn't cited, but had since heard from other business owners who wanted the ordinance changed, he said.
Barbosa said that people are already parking vehicles with commercial signage in their driveways, they're just covering them up.
"They’re putting suction cups with drapes, mats up on their cars — it looks horrible," he said. Why would that be permitted, while signage isn’t, he asked.
Councilman Nick Klufas said he'd want to know that the majority of the city's residents supported changing the ordinance before he'd vote in favor of the change.
Palm Coast had tried to hold a survey to determine residents' opinions of the commercial vehicle ordinance. It appeared to show about a 50-50 split, but it wasn't a scientific survey, and there was evidence that people had voted multiple times.
Klufas favored putting the issue on a referendum at the city's next election.
So did Councilman Eddie Branquinho.
"Because it could adversely impact Palm Coast residents, I think this matter, being so divided, should go to a referendum," Branquinho said.
The soonest election that would allow for a referendum would be in November 2022.
Alfin proposed another option: adding a custom question to the National Citizen Survey, which will go out in October and November, to gauge public opinion.
But Barbosa pointed out a problem: The survey would be mailed to people in HOA communities as well as non-HOA communities.
It wouldn't make sense to ask HOA members whether they'd object to vehicles with commercial signage in their community — they're paying extra to get away from that kind of thing, and the ordinance change wouldn't actually affect them, anyway, since their neighbors would still have to abide by the more restrictive HOA regulations — and their responses could skew the results.
The council again discussed using a referendum, but that could become expensive if the referendum item adds a page to the ballots. The city wouldn't know if that would be the case until close to the election, after the other ballot items were determined.
The council opted to instead hold a vote at its Sept. 21 meeting on whether to change the existing ordinance.
