- December 13, 2025
Infrastructure and resiliency is the name of the game as Flagler County and Palm Coast are preparing their priority projects to bring to the Florida legislature.
Assistant County Administrator Holly Albanese said the appropriation requests “need to show an impact.”
“It needs to be like a good return on investment,” Albanese said.
At the Aug. 18 and 19 meetings for the Flagler County Commission and the Palm Coast City Council, the respective boards reviewed and, in the case of Palm Coast, approved their lists of priority projects to send to the Florida legislature for funding consideration. The sentiment shared at both meetings is that funding could be limited.
Flagler County submits a booklet with the summary of all of its and its municipalities’ legislative requests and priority policy items to its representatives in the fall, and the counties and municipalities will be discussing how to approach legislative appropriations at the Aug. 27 joint municipality meeting.
Albanese said in discussions with Rep. Sam Greco and Senator Tom Leek that infrastructure and resiliency should be the focus.
“I guess resiliency was a big term last year, specifically storm resiliency,” she said.
Flagler County has a short list of policies and projects it intends to ask Greco and Leek to continue to support. For policies, those include policies that support home rule, affordable housing and infrastructure supportive programs for roads and wastewater.
Only three projects have been selected to send for funding consideration, as of the Aug. 18 meeting: a $5 million request to expand the Florida Governmental Utility Authority for underserved areas along Highway U.S. 1 into Volusia County, a $2.6 million project to construct the Black Branch North Drainage system along Old Haw Creek Road; and $548,000 to help create disaster resilience staging sites on the west side of Flagler County.
The FGUA project would provide service to current and future businesses and homes in the area, Alabanese said. This is through a public-private partnership the county has with FGUA, and is utilizing a phased-in approach at the suggestion of Greco, she said.
“We've included this in the past because we just have always seen this project as the only way to bring industrial,” Albanese said. “So this is just a different approach at it because our ask before was very large and almost unattainable.”
A fourth project that is in the works to upgrade the stormwater capacity of MalaCompra Canal in The Hammock was considered but the price tag – a minimum of $13 million – and a concern about phasing in funding possibly delaying the project put it on the back burner.
In Palm Coast, the city has eight projects it plans on asking for state appropriations for. Three of the projects are non-infrastructure related: a funding request for a Flagler County animal shelter, in partnership with the county, a request for funding for the saltwater canal dredging and a list minute request by Mayor Mike Norris for funding for the old Fire Station 22 to become a cultural center.
Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston said the city is seeking additional funding for Phases II and III of the Old Kings Road expansion and to fund three additional stormwater capacity projects.
The first stormwater project is also the highest priority item on the city’s list. Palm Coast would like to add a stormwater park along some undeveloped land on Burroughs Drive, near Bird of Paradise Drive. Johnston said it would function similarly to the London Waterway project and absorb the water that spills over onto the streets during storms.
Councilman Ty Miller said he knows the area frequently backs up with water.
“I think that would immediately improve hundreds of homes' experiences during storms,” he said. “Especially with the hurricanes, the ones where we receive a ton of water.”
The other two projects are to build up stormwater capacity in the Woodlands neighborhood and to add a dry lake along Seminole Woods Boulevard. A lane of Seminole Woods Boulevard had to close temporarily due to flooding during Hurricane Milton, Johnston said.
Meanwhile, the Woodlands project would expand the stormwater capacity for Graham Swamp.
“All of Palm Coast storm water is draining that way towards Graham Swamp,” Johnston said.
The county will finalize its priority items at its Sept. 3 meeting, while Palm Coast approved theirs on Aug. 19.
