Here's what's next for the Florida Park Drive safety initiative

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are solely that of the author in his personal capacity and do not necessarily represent the opinions or the views of the City of Palm Coast or the Palm Coast City Council.

Question from Celia Pugliese: When are we going to see installed the two stop signs as Mayor Alfin promised, to slow down the speedy traffic in Florida Park Drive and provide some safety for pedestrians and adjacent residents?

Please know, Ms. Pugliese, that safety is the most crucial matter for our City Council to address. We take the safety of our citizens very seriously. Traffic concerns in residential neighborhoods have been designated as a high council priority and we’ve directed city staff to begin the process of selecting a consultant to prepare a speed analysis and scope of work on these roadways. Once this is presented to council, we’ll be better prepared to take all steps necessary to determine if, when and where additional traffic safety devices will be appropriate to install on these residential roads. This entire process will begin by the end of this year.

Question from Dw Ferg: Are you satisfied with the city’s current economic development efforts?

This is such an important question, especially because Palm Coast is experiencing its most explosive growth in years. Let me begin by saying I will always be striving for more sufficient efforts to build stronger economic development in our city. The status of our economic development remains fluid as we see more growth and more needs for more goods and services. Many new industries and businesses have moved to Palm Coast, some of which have had great impact on our economy. Those include AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway (bringing us more medical personnel and services) and the Jacksonville University/University of North Florida campus for medical studies in Town Center (educating students for personnel positions and services).

Our entire city is now in the process of participating in Imagine 2050 to share ideas for how we each envision our community to grow in the next decades. Economic development is successful only when an entire community has input in the process — contributing to what Palm Coast needs in our future to keep businesses growing, attracting more and better jobs, promoting our community’s assets and enhancing our already vivid quality of life. Please learn more about this Vision 2050 process at our city’s website: palmcoast.gov/imagine2050.

Question from Larry Hunt: Mr. Mayor Alfin, I would like to know, since you got all these new homes being built all over the place, how come they don't clean up the yards that they're building on? Weeds growing everywhere, sometimes (the) house not even being worked on for months on end, looks terrible. ... We can do better than this. Since we've got all of these homes being built, can't we get people to clean them up and make sure that the yards are up to date?

Our beautiful neighborhoods are one of the reasons we are all so proud to live in Palm Coast. I appreciate your question, Mr. Hunt, and I want you to feel confident our Code Enforcement staff is addressing your issue. On an average, they take care of about 1,650 work cases every month, often needing to follow up on many. I’ve reached out to the department about unsightly building sites, and I assure you they are managing this issue. Code contacts contractors on sites under construction, often about a variety of problems. Many builders are responsive to resolving violations, and some are not. We issue additional notices to continue to follow up when necessary. I urge you to contact the city via Palm Coast Connect if you have any specific concerns and I thank you for sharing in our appreciation to maintain a spotless community.

Email your questions for the mayor to Managing Editor Jonathan Simmons at [email protected].