- October 21, 2024
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The Palm Coast City Council is considering expanding the number of colors homeowners can paint their home exteriors.
Since a state law changed in 2017, Palm Coast no longer requires a permit to paint home exteriors, but residents do have to fill out a color change form with the city and use an approved colors. Approved colors are either pastels or earth tone colors within a specific Light Reflective Value.
The LRV of a color is a measure of visible and usable light that is reflected from a surface when illuminated by a light source, zoning supervisor Tracey Doak said. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is black, the least reflective color and 100 is white, the most reflective, she said.
Approved pastel colors must be in the 80-100 LRV range. Earth tones — including shades of brown, brown-taupe or sandy-taupe, beige, terra cotta, olive, sage, and gray — must be in the 25-100 LRV range.
"Many of our local stores do a great job assisting the city," Doak said. "Some provide the city's allowable colors in books, or have a wall of city approved colors, and will assist their customers from Palm Coast in detail with the city's code."
Deputy Chief Development Officer Ray Tyner said the LRV was a way for the city to remove the subjectiveness out of the color approval process.
The restrictive colors are a hold over from when Palm Coast was being built by the developer ITT. ITT sold the Palm Coast lots with certain deed restrictions, Doak said, which included aesthetic restrictions, like allowable exterior colors, to preserve "the values and amenities thus established or to be established in the Palm Coast Community.”
The color ordinance also regulates building color combinations, roof color, faux building features and repainting, according to the presentation.
The city does have a list of specific prohibited colors, including fuschia, magenta, purple and orange. The city's regulation does not on colors does not include residences inside master planned developments and colors on gutters, mailboxes, front doors — excepting the listed prohibited colors — and driveways.
Council member Cathy Heighter, who originally requested the presentation said she would like to see more colors available for residents, but also could not see why residential driveways could be painted any color a resident wanted.
“I don't understand why that would be allowed, that they would allow you to paint your driveway any color at all, and not allow you to paint your house a color that's not offensive,” she said.
Expanding the colors for homes could simply be a matter of expanding the LRV range allotted for pastels and earth tones. All five council members agreed to see more presentations on expanding the color options and potentially limiting driveway colors.
Mayor David Alfin said that he would go along with the majority about limiting driveway colors, but did not like the idea of adding another restriction.
"I must tell you I'm very uncomfortable with adding yet another layer of deed restriction to the process," he said.
Tyner told the council it could take some time for staff to return with options for both limiting the colors of driveways and for expanding the colors available to homeowners.
This story was updated to correct an incorrect spelling of Tracey Doak's name on June 13.
