- July 12, 2025
The Bunnell City Commission is preparing to review an application that would rezone an 1,800 acre property from agricultural to industrial, a project that has caused some controversy among local residents.
The land is located east of Old Haw Creek Road, on the north side of County Road 304 and the west side of Highway U.S. 1. The planning board approved the application at its May 6 meeting in a 3-1 vote, with member Lynn Lafferty, one of the landowners, recusing herself because of the conflict of interest.
Though the property is massive, the applicant is looking to rezoning the land into two types: 1,383 acres of heavy industrial and 459 acres of agriculture commercial industrial near the southwestern residents. The City Commission will review the application at its June 23 meeting.
One of the main issues residents said they were concerned with at the planning board meeting is that the applicant's team has not stated what is intended for the property. Bunnell Community Development Director Joe Parsons said the project has no proposed uses currently.
“There’s no plan at the moment,” Parsons said. “But it’s not a requirement to say what you’re doing.”
Even the developments that have presented plans alongside their rezoning requests - like the equally controversial Haw Creek Reserve, which planned for 8,000 residential units - are still able to change those plans after the fact, Parsons said, so long as it falls under the allotted land use.
But as far as he knows, he said, the owners intend to keep the property.
“Their intention is to keep the property,” Parsons said. “They have no intention of selling. They’re not locked into any agreement that says they can never sell, but that’s what their verbal intentions have been to us.”
Though the property is in Bunnell, it abuts the properties of Palm Coast K-Section and unincorporated Flagler County residents, too, on C.R. 304. Some Flagler County residents even showed up at the Flagler County Commission meeting on June 16 to speak out about the zoning and concerns about the heavy industrial uses so close to residents.
Deputy County Attorney Sean Moylan, who was at the planning board meeting, said the property won’t be allowed to have large amounts of hazardous chemicals.
“They’re not going to have a fuel depot,” Moylan said. “This is not Belvedere.”
Parsons reiterated the same: “Belvedere is not associated with this rezoning whatsoever,” he said.
Part of the issue, he said, is what some residents think of in terms of the word “industrial:” ideas of smokestacks billowing toxic fumes and pipes oozing green slime into creeks.
But in reality, Parsons said, that’s not what this project is.
“What we’re looking at is high-end jobs,” he said. “Possibly for building components for SpaceX or Blue Origin. Or maybe it’s an Amazon distribution center or a Walmart distribution center. I think we’re looking at something that is less ‘waste’ and more ‘opportunity.’”
When asked about residents concerned there will be an industrial site next to where their kids live and play, Parsons said that is a valid concern. But on the flip side of that argument, he said, the location of the site is surrounded by parts of Florida’s strategic intermodal systems: the railroad, U.S. 1 and C.R. 304.
“Location wise, this is where it should go,” he said. “Is that where the houses should have gone? Maybe not.”
But the houses are there, and so the city will be looking to make sure any development is cohesive as it goes in, like possibly requiring larger buffers.
“We all need to play well together and make sure it is cohesive,” Parsons said.
The fact of the matter is the development could bring in a much-needed supply of tax revenue and jobs for Bunnell, and Flagler County. Parsons said the city brings in under $6 million in ad valorem taxes and utilities as its operating budget.
Things like repaving the city roads cost significantly more. Just repaving the 24-miles of road Bunnell needs to repave would cost $1 million per mile to repave, he said, while the city’s road improvement budget of $15,000 is enough to cover the potholes.
“We can’t keep the status quo,” Parsons said. “We have to bring in development.”
Editor's note: This story was updated on June 19 to correct an error regarding Bunnell's road improvement budget. The city of Bunnell has a road improvement budget of $15,000.
