- December 4, 2025
Palm Coast is standing by its recent impact fee increases, according to a letter officially responding to an Intent to Sue notice sent by Palm Coast developers.
Palm Coast received the 19-page notice on Aug. 27 requesting the city repeal its recent impact fee increases or face a lawsuit. In a one-paragraph response sent on Sept. 10, attorney Jeremiah Blocker, an attorney at Douglas Law Firm, the legal firm contracted with Palm Coast, said the city disagrees that its impact fee ordinances violated Florida law.
“The City is prepared to defend the Impact Fee Ordinances in any future lawsuit filed against the City,” wrote Blocker.
Palm Coast received the letter from attorney Daniel Webster of Daytona Beach. Webster is representing the Flagler Homebuilders Association and seven other businesses and individuals in the potential lawsuit.
The FHBA chose to take up legal action after the city dramatically increased its impact fees in June.
During the lengthy process reviewing the increases, the city argued the recent extreme growth and increased inflation costs over the last six years qualified as the “extraordinary circumstances” required to substantially increase impact fees. Typically, Florida state law prohibits municipalities from increasing impact fees by more than 50% of the current rate and any increase must also be phased in over a two- to four-year period and the fees can not be increased but once every four years.
Though the impact fees vary for type of development, for a single-family home, the impact fees increased by $5,881 across all three fees: impact, fire and transportation.
FHBA Executive Officer Annamaria Long, representing the group who filed the lawsuit, declined to comment on the city’s response.
On Sept. 24, an email was sent out to FHBA members from Long asking members to pay their impact fees separately from other city fees and write “under protest” on the memo section of a check payment. The email said this was on the recommendation of the FHBA’s attorney.
“Doing so will make it easier to recover funds when the suit is over and we prevail,” the email said.
The Observer is a member of the FHBA and received the email directly from the FHBA email blast.
Long wrote that the FHBA has already put in over $50,000 into the fight on behalf of its members. She wrote the case will be filed "next week," the week of Sept. 29.
