- July 12, 2025
The Bunnell City Commission has rejected a proposed 8,000-home development.
The Reserve at Haw Creek was a massive, 2,700-acre development in the northwest area of rural Bunnell, near Daytona North, that has been in the public eye for over a year. When it was first presented to the public in March 2024, the proposed development had 5,000 homes planned.
Since then grew substantially, proposing between 6,000 and 8,000 dwelling units, including over 1,700 acres of single family and multifamily spaces and just 250 acres of commercial and industrial use spaces.
Many Bunnell residents packed the County Commission meeting room during the Bunnell City Commission’s May 9 meeting, Bunnell resident and business owner Chelsea Herbert said. Most of the residents were concerned about The Reserve project.
“It’s an intensity issue,” Herbert said. “That’s a lot of rooftops, and I’m not sure if our infrastructure, our roads, our city staff – I don’t know if we’re prepared for that.”
Bunnell Vice Mayor John Rogers wrote over text that Bunnell had never seen a development project like this before.
“The scale of this project is unlike anything the city has dealt with before,” he wrote.
The applicant, Northeast Florida Developers LLC, planned for Haw Creek to be a mixed-use community of residential, commercial light industrial, parks and other services, according to the city staff report in the May 9 meeting documents.
The city’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board reviewed the application at its Jan. 7 meeting, and did recommend the commission approve it – but with some adjustments, including reducing the overall density to a maximum of 5,500 dwelling units.
Rogers said that he could have supported a project of 3,500 or 4,000 rooftops. But the 8,000-home project caused a lot of concerns for residents and “their concerns are my concerns,” he said.
Residents who attended the meeting said they were concerned about Haw Creek’s impact on Bunnell’s infrastructure, Rogers wrote, among other things. There were fears that the large development could increase flood risks, strain already limited road infrastructure and the city’s “small town” identity would be lost to urbanization.
He said he worried the project moved Bunnell “too far, too fast without the thoughtful planning our community deservers.”
“My major concerns are the people: My constituents, my fellow citizens, my friends and my neighbors who live, work and raise their families here in Bunnell,” Rogers wrote. “A development of this size has the potential to change the entire character of our city.”
Ultimately, the commission rejected The Reserve’s application in a 4-1 vote.
Herbert – who owns several companies, including a construction company called 4C’s, and serves on the executive board for the Palm Coast-Flagler Regional Chamber of Commerce – has a strong understanding of how construction and developments affects the community.
“I think that a mixed-use project in the city of Bunnell that gave the opportunity for us to diversify our tax base a bit would be a great idea,” she said.
She said she believes subdivisions and homes are going to be a necessary part of Bunnell’s growth, and typically commercial will follow the rooftops. But a 2,000-home subdivision would be a lot more welcome than what the Reserve was proposing, she said.
Herbert said she would personally like to see a walkable art district with arts, culture and entertainment. Flagler County as a whole, she said, does not have a lot of walkable districts.
“The city of Bunnell has an incredible downtown district corridor that could really be some awesome businesses and commercial spaces,” Herbert said. “There’s already a footprint for [a walkable district] in downtown Bunnell. Culture and history aren’t something that you can recreate.”
