- December 4, 2025
Updated Aug. 8, to correct the proposed rezoning address to 11 Hargrove Lane, and one owner at 15 Hargrove Lane to Brett Snider.
The Palm Coast City Council has approved the first of two votes that would allow a proposed concrete batch plant to be built next to the light industrial park on Hargrove Lane.
The council voted 3-2 to amend the zoning at the 11 Hargrove Lane property from Light Industrial to Industrial 2, which allows for heavier industrial uses, like the proposed concrete plant. Mayor Mike Norris and Councilmen Charles Gambaro and Dave Sullivan voted for the zoning change, while Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri and Councilman Ty Miller voted against it.
Pontieri, who has in the past advocated for more industrial within Palm Coast, said the city should exercise caution in approving the zoning change.
Approving this application, she said, would make it that much more difficult to turn down other incompatible heavy industrial applications.
“That is a slippery slope,” she said. “If we now allow more Industrial 2 in, where we already allow light industrial, we are getting away from the original intent of this industrial park.”
The application came before the City Council without a recommendation from the Palm Coast Planning Board. The board had reviewed the application on June 18, but, with six members present, the board tied in two 3-3 votes, one to approve the application and one to deny it.
This is the second time since 2024 the property has come before the City Council with a proposed project. In January 2024, the previous council approved a site plan for a luxury car condo facility on the site.
That development order is set to expire next year, but the applicant is now proposing to build a concrete batch plant, city planner Michael Hanson said.
The property is a 36-acre lot that is comprised mostly of a lot of wetlands. The proposed project would use 10,000 gallons of water per day, Hanson said, though the backup data the applicant sent over stated a maximum use of 14,000 gallons per day, Pontieri said.
SRM Concrete business development manager Brian Hercules said the intention is only to develop around five acres of the land for the plant, which will operate with a maximum of 12 cement mixing trucks.
The water would be used to wash the trucks daily and to keep the aggregate wet and help with dust particles, Hercules said, and the plant’s filtration system would also capture 99.5% of dust particles. The used water would be recycled and reused on the site.
As far as generated traffic goes, Hercules said the site would have trucks traveling in or out once every 10 minutes.
While the proposed project is still conceptual at this stage in the application, Hanson said, staff recommended the council approve the zoning change. If it is approved after a second vote, the item will return to the council for a technical site plan approval down the line.
Multiple business owners from 15 Hargrove Lane showed up at the Aug. 5 meeting to urge the council to reject the application. Many argued the area is not suited for heavy industrial work as it would negatively impact the surrounding businesses.
“While I support responsible growth, this proposal is incompatible with character and function of the existing businesses that are already there,” said Renee Hunter, representing Auto House, located at 15 Hargrove Lane.
Brett Snider, another business owner at 15 Hargrove Lane, argued that the road there would not support the heavy trucks going back and forth. The road already has issues, he said.
“It’s already difficult as it is dealing with the traffic that is already there,” he said. “Keep it the way it’s designed to be.”
Pontieri argued that the council needed to consider if all IND-2 uses would be compatible in the area, and not just in a vacuum of the proposed use.
“We have to look at it as an Industrial 2 use, and what else are in the Industrial 2 uses, and are all those compatible in this industrial park,” she said. “And the answer is: Hard no, they are not.”
The approval of this project would also set the precedent for future, similar zoning applications, including one, Pontieri said, that would be reviewed by the Planning Board in August. The council needs to consider not just the positive impact the business could bring to the city, but also the potential negative impact it could have on the existing surrounding businesses.
“I agree that this could, this one development could provide economic vitality,” Pontieri said, “but what, at what cost?”
