- July 11, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council will now be going forward with repealing all color restrictions for residential houses.
The council was reviewing a second read of an ordinance to expand its restrictions on house colors when Mayor Mike Norris motioned to remove the restrictions altogether at the July 1 meeting. The motion was approved in a 4-0 vote, with council member Ty Miller absent from the meeting.
“I don’t think we should be dictating what people’s house colors are,” Norris said.
The Palm Coast City Council approved the first of two votes to expand the color restriction ordinance on June 17 in a 4-1 vote, with Norris opposing. That ordinance would have expanded the color range from those with an LRV of 80 or higher to those with an Light Reflection Value of 65 or higher. An LRV is how much light is reflected by a color, with a higher LRV equally a lighter color and lower LRV a darker color.
The change would have included the approved pastels, beiges and greys and added light Bermuda colors, including blue, but still prohibit dark colors, sage and olive green and any shades of purple, fuchsia, magenta and orange with an LRV less than 65.
Norris felt that the changes were not enough. At first he wanted to motion that all homes that are out of compliance be grandfathered in or allowed an eight-year grace period. Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri said that the LRV functions as an objective measurement where otherwise deciding what colors would be allowed is subjective.
“That’s my point,” she said. “Who are we to say purple isn’t allowed?”
In order to keep from arbitrarily choosing which colors are not allowed, Norris instead motioned that all the color restrictions be removed.
“This is a silly ordinance,” Norris said. Norris said that people should be allowed to choose
Pontieri said the council needs to be consistent with the direction and policies it implements.
“We need to be reasonable with the policy decisions we’re making up here,” Pontieri said.
The change, if it is finalized, would keep the limitation on the number of colors allowed on a home - one body color and two accent colors. But first the process will need to start over.
“It has to go to Planning Board because this is a land development code,” City Attorney Marcus Duffy said.
It has to return to the planning board as a new ordinance, Duffy said, because that is how the city’s charter and approval process works.
The planning board did review and reject a previous rendition of the ordinance that would remove the LRV restriction but keep the banned colors. Duffy said that removing the banned colors makes this ordinance completely different.
Many members of the public present at the meeting supported Norris’ motion. Annamaria Long with the Flagler Home Builders Association said that, as an industry professional, she supports the change and the color of a house does not impact property values.
"If you don't believe me, Flagler Beach, or any beachside community, is a really good indicator of that because they have color. They have murals," she said. "Think about how much more pride would your neighbors take in their home if they got to do a little bit extra with it?"
Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston pointed out that this would be the 12th time the house color ordinance was reviewed and revised.
“When we talk about government efficiency and spending a lot of time on things, this now requires three more public hearings,” Johnston said. “So, just letting you know that’s more staff time and cost on this particular item.”
