- July 26, 2024
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The Palm Coast City Council has delayed a decision on the proposed 62-acre Old Kings Village development because of continued disagreement between the developer and residents in a neighboring community.
The council was scheduled to hold a second vote on a land use and a zoning application for Old Kings Village at its Dec. 5 meeting. On Oct. 17, the council had preliminarily approved plans that would allow for 210 single-family homes on the 62 acres.
Attorney Michael Chiumento, representing the developer, suggested that vote be delayed until Jan. 2 after hearing about continued concerns from Flagler Beach’s Polo Club West residents. Polo Club West borders the east side of the Old Kings Village development.
The council unanimously agreed.
“I would really like to get this put together so that everybody's a winner,” Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin said.
Polo Club West residents said at the Dec. 5 meeting that they want to ensure their privacy from the 210-home development.
The 62 acres — owned by Geosam Capital Florida, LLC — were annexed into Palm Coast from Flagler County at a Sept. 19 council meeting.
Because the development had been approved according to Flagler County’s land development code rather than Palm Coast's land development code, the developer must adjust to match the city’s land use and zoning designation requirements.
Between the Sept. 19 meeting and the Dec. 5 meeting, residents said, they have met repeatedly with the developer and Chiumento to resolve their disagreements.
Polo Club West residents are requesting that Old Kings Village allow a 25-foot vegetative buffer between Old Kings Village and Polo Club West. Right now, Chiumento said, the developer has placed a 10-foot vegetative buffer and a swale buffer along the east side, although the developer is not required to have any buffer between two residential properties.
Another sticking point has been a small plot of land that extends further into the east property at the northeast corner of the Old Kings Village development.
What could be developed on the protruding acreage depends on its subdivision master plan, which would require Palm Coast Planning Board approval, Tyner told the Observer. If the board approves a plan that shows that lot as undeveloped, and the developer decides later on to build on the lot, the developer would have to seek the city's approval again.
Before the lot can be developed though, Tyner said, the developer must show that the developer has access to it. But Secretariat Lane, which connects to the lot, is a private road Polo Club West road, and there is no room for a roadway along the north side of the property, he said.
So far, council meeting documents show that the land would remain undeveloped, but it does extend outside of the privacy fence and any buffers along the east side of the property, between Old Kings Village and Secretariat Lane.
There's really no safeguards that the developers [are] going to have to follow through with these promises.”
— DENNIS BAYER, attorney for Polo Club West residents
Regardless, any agreement reached between the developer and the Polo Club residents would be outside of the city’s purview unless the terms of the agreement were amended into the developer's applications and approved in a council vote.
Dennis Bayer, an attorney in Flagler Beach representing Polo Club West’s Homeowners Association, asked the council to include requirements like the buffer or keep the property's land use designation as the more restrictive Planned Unit Development designation the county had given it.
“There's really no safeguards that the developers [are] going to have to follow through with these promises,” Bayer said.
