- May 17, 2024
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County Commissioners have unanimously rejected a car wash company’s request to rezone parcels of land on State Road A1A in the Hammock for an unspecified commercial use.
Property owner Star Car Wash said it is not planning to use the properties on North S.R. A1A and Sanchez Avenue for a car wash. But the company also refused to tell commissioners what it does plan to build, and without that information, commissioners weren’t willing to approve the zoning change and associated land use map change from “Mixed Use: Low Intensity-Low/Medium Density” to “Commercial: High Intensity.” They also rejected the owners’ request to delay a vote until January.
“I think for us to consider this, we need to know what you're going to do,” Commissioner Greg Hansen said to the owners’ representatives at an Oct. 16 commission meeting. “It's too risky just to say, carte blanche, we're going to change it to C-2 (Commercial: High Intensity), and you can do it whatever you want. No! No. We’re not going to do that.”
Commissioner Andy Dance pointed out that even if commissioners knew the owners’ plans now and changed the zoning and land use map designations on that basis, they wouldn’t know what potential future owners planned for the property.
But, he added, “Without a site plan, we have to assume the worst possible scenario” in terms of the proposed business’ impacts to traffic and roadways.
It's too risky just to say, carte blanche, we're going to change it to C-2 (Commercial: High Intensity), and you can do it whatever you want."
—GREG HANSEN, county commissioner
Attorney Vincent Sullivan of Chiumento Law, representing Star Car Wash, said there is "no currently identified intended use of the project."
"The COM-2 (Commercial 2) designation is intended to allow for the flexibility of a different type of use down the road," Sullivan said.
But later in the presentation, he also said the undisclosed project would have lower square footage and lower park impacts, water demand and solid waste impacts than would be allowed on the site under the current land use designation.
Hansen pointed out the contradiction between Sullivan's assertion that Star Car Wash had "no currently identified use" for the site and its assertions that the future use would have lower impacts.
"How can you make statements about the impact of what you're going to do without knowing what you're going to do?" Hansen said. "And I've found that troublesome, and that was throughout your your responses to questions — they were disingenuous, at best."
Commissioner Leann Pennington said she was ready to vote.
“I'm comfortable voting on it as it was submitted, without a continuance,” she said. “I mean, take it at face value — an unknown entity, at the highest density.”
The Flagler County Planning Board had also voted to deny Star Car Wash's request, a fact that Hammock Civic Association members, wearing coordinated green shirts, noted when they addressed the commission during the meeting’s public comment period.
Attorney Dennis Bayer, representing the Civic Association, said the association brought in a botanist who found native vegetation, warranting protection, on the parcel.
He added that the fact that Star Car Wash said it isn’t possible to add a car wash on the parcel now, because it lacks central sewage service, doesn’t mean that it might not be possible on the future. And, Bayer noted, Star Car Wash is seeking high-intensity commercial zoning, not the lower-intensity residential-commercial zoning more suited to the kinds of businesses that would be most appropriate for the Hammock.
“C-2 zoning, and that more intensive classification … is for higher-intensity commercial uses,” he said.
The county’s code, he said, states that high intensity commercial areas should be clustered around I-95 and Palm Coast Parkway, I-95 and State Road 100, and I-95 and U.S. 1 — not in the Hammock or the Scenic State Road A1A corridor.
“We think the Planning Board made the right decision,” he said. “We think we're protected by native vegetation, and this is just too intensive a use.”
