- April 24, 2024
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Dear Editor:
Unfortunately, it's time to point out that the aesthetics have Palm Coast are degrading substantially and at an accelerated pace, due to things like litter, traffic and wanton development. If there is not better control, property values across the board will suffer.
This is somehow lost on the current City Council, and particularly the mayor, who, in my experience, is much less responsive than previous leaders of the city and is proving to be more a realtor than a mayor.
At a meeting last September, the mayor, appearing before an entirely welcoming clutch of about 55 local realtors, and asked what he was going to do for fellow realtors, reportedly replied, “The city within its current city limits has 27,000 additional unimproved acres of land or another 10,000 acres of land, which would naturally annex in to the city of Palm Coast for utility purposes. So this initiative I’m promoting would double the geographic footprint of the city of Palm Coast.”
Let that sink in. Let also sink in that he referenced what he calls "the frontier" — a vast swath of land on the west side of U.S. 1 — on track to add 12,000 homes and 3.15 million square feet of commercial space in two huge developments alone. This says nothing about all the lots being developed and projects planned or underway elsewhere in the city.
In short, the current government is looking to the short-term and dollar signs than long-term value, deadset, it seems, on making Palm Coast a sprawling little metropolis, with ever larger government and tax income — not the green gem that enticed so many of us here. "This initiative provides it and we are only one of four large swaths of land left on the entire east side of Florida that presents this opportunity," he intoned — unsurprisingly, to vigorous applause from the realtors. "We have a star alignment at the moment."
Mr. Mayor, you are not the "realtor in chief." You were sworn in as mayor of us all.
A "star alignment"— or a hoodoo star?
Michael H. Brown
Palm Coast
