- April 26, 2024
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The Florida legislature has earmarked around $150 million in state appropriations for Flagler County, Bunnell, Flagler Beach and Palm Coast.
The Florida Senate and House of Representatives passed a $117 billion budget on March 8, and it is now awaiting the line-item veto from Gov. Ron DeSantis. Even though the legislature has approved the appropriations in the budget, the funding is not guaranteed until after DeSantis reviews and approves the budget.
Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin said he believes the appropriations from the legislature, though still tentative, show faith in Palm Coast's and Flagler County's abilities.
"They had the confidence in our leadership and the experience of our staff," Alfin said, "that they are willing to invest ... enough investment to make Palm Coast and Flagler County a destination of regional impact in this region of Florida."
The county and its municipalities jointly filed for over $460 million in appropriations through Sen. Travis Hutson at the beginning of the legislative session, between October and January. Both Hutson and House Speaker Rep. Paul Renner, are in their final terms in their respective elected offices.
Online news service FlaglerLive.com originally broke the total appropriations for the county and its municipalities.
Among other requests, Palm Coast submitted three appropriation requests for building road extensions into the west side of Palm Coast, part of the city's planned westward expansion. According to the requests filed, the city asked for $83.7 million for a Matanzas Parkway extension, $64.7 million to extend Palm Coast Parkway and $39 million for a loop connector road, totaling $188 million.
The city only received $80 million: $25 million for each parkway extension and $30 million for the connector road.
"The engineering work is just about done," Alfin said. "So that would mean that you could see shovels in the dirt during this calendar year."
However other projects were denied funding — like the North Old Kings Road widening project. Alfin said the traffic count on that road has not tripped a minimum used by the Florida Department of Transportation, but that the city will keep applying for funding for that project.
"The city is trying to stay ahead of the curve," he said. "And we know that there is more development coming along Old Kings Road. We also understand that it is a potential evacuation route and becomes an access point when I-95 has congestion."
The legislature also approved a $6 million request from Palm Coast for developing a YMCA at Town Center. The Volusia-Flagler Family YMCA also requested and received $3 million.
The process for getting funding approved is difficult, Flagler County General Services Assistant Director Mike Lagasse wrote over email, crediting the county staff for their hard work.
"To make it this far in this process, these projects must show a strong chance for long-term success and benefits to our citizens," he wrote.
Among the items the county requested included several resiliency projects, stormwater management, flood plain mitigation and more.
Flagler County requested $10 million in conservation land acquisition and received the full request. Lagasse wrote that the money would be used to purchase identified sensitive lands from local landowners to " conserve, preserve, protect, and utilize existing natural floodways" to store and move water.
The county has identified multiple areas of land and landowners willing to sell already, he wrote. How the lands would specifically be used after the sale, would depend on the agreements made with the land owners.
Purchases could be made outright, Lagasse wrote, which means the county could then use the land for other approved projects — like creating a new park — or the purchase could just be a conservation easement, which restricts the usage.
Flagler County has a long history of land conservation, management and developing parks, he wrote, which is supported more at the citizen level.
"My hope is that these funds, if made available, will be used to help our farmers, ranchers, and other landowners achieve their conservation goals by providing financial incentive to conserve the quantity, quality, and location of water in it’s natural place," he wrote.
