- January 30, 2026
The Palm Coast City Council and Flagler County Commission are leaning towards creating a $2.1 million animal shelter, with plans to expand Palm Coast’s animal services across the county.
Palm Coast Community Services Director John Zolper, on behalf of a task force presented several options for locations and different types of shelters to the joint Flagler County Commission-Palm Coast Council meeting on Jan. 29. The boards all leaned toward building a hybrid option with a brick-and-mortar main building and modular kennels.
This option would be around 9,480 square feet in size, with 3,000 square feet being the brick-and-mortar reception and medical office building and the remaining space set aside for the modular kennels. It would have space for 96 dogs and 80 cats and cost around $2.1 million to build, though that would vary depending on the site selected.
The other building options included just prefabricated modular kennels and brick-and-motor options. The modular units, Zopler said, have attached outdoor runs where the dogs can be let out into for an efficient way to clean the kennels.
The new animal shelter would offer intake and housing services for lost and stray animals, triage care, adoptions, outreach and education, with an anticipated operational hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week.
"Although the task force envisioned the shelter to be operated by a nonprofit, its daily operation will function more like a municipal animal control shelter," Zolper said.
Voluntarily surrendered animals should still be taken to the Flagler Humane Society, he said.
The task force also researched possible locations, which included expanding the current Flagler Humane Society building, a county and a city lot on Highway U.S. 1 by the State Forest Rangers Station and the city-owned lots at 13 Commerce Blvd., Parcel Tract 17, 2 Utility Drive and the Public Works Facility on Highway U.S. 1.
Because there was no county option the County Commissioners supported, the commissioners agreed to support the City Council members' selection of a site. The Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri, Mayor Mike Norris and Councilmen Ty Miller and Dave Sullivan felt upgrading the Public Works Facility for an animal shelter to be the best bet. Councilman Charles Gambaro was absent.
The boards also asked to see more information on 13 Commerce Blvd., which, Assistant City Manager Lauren Johnston said, would be the fastest shovel-ready site.
The Public Works Facility will be moving to a new location with the completion of Palm Coast's new Maintenance Operation Center. But the task force did not have a cost estimate for what it would take to retrofit the facility as an animal shelter.
Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri said she would like to see a more in depth analysis on the actual costs.
"What I don't see on any of these...[is] what the actual cost is going to be per site, once those are narrowed down based on what we know our needs are," she said.
The task force had imagined an Oct. 1 groundbreaking, but elected officials were skeptical about being able to make that deadline. For one, public works will not have moved into the new facility at that point, Johnston said, if the boards selected that option.
Funding would be another concern. The county has committed $500,000 to the project, but Commissioners Greg Hansen and Kim Carney were skeptical of being able to provide their share of the funding, when the county recently had to cut its adult day care services because of the costs.
"We're going to pay for the dogs, we're not going to pay for our senior citizens," Hansen said. "I don't think we have $500,000 that we can commit until we pay for the seniors."
But, Chairwoman Leann Pennington said, that was an issue of ongoing, yearly losses.
"The goal here is to get a facility built that will be able to be maintained by a nonprofit, financially with limited support and take care of the needs of a growing community," Pennington said.
Mayor Mike Norris said several residents were willing and able to fundraise as well, once a property is identified.
Among the next steps will be sending out a request for information for nonprofits interested in running the animal shelter. Pontieri said she felt the new shelter should not be run by the Flagler Humane Society but by a different organization.
"I don't feel it's appropriate to put any further resources into an already established 501c3," she said.
The potential cost of services was another area where the boards felt they needed more information.
Zolper said Palm Coast animal controls services currently cover an estimated 93 square miles in the county with three animal control officers and administration technicians. With the expanded services, it would increase overage to 485 square miles and need an additional five animal control officers, plus the cost of specialized equipment.
Animal control services costs would more than double for all municipalities involved, including Flagler Beach and Bunnell, as they contract animal services through the county.
Palm Coast's current budget for animal control is $712,000. The task force estimated that would go up to $1.4 million, but, Zolper said, that included costs for operating the shelter. If the shelter is run by a nonprofit, that would lessen the estimated costs.
The task force and Palm Coast staff will continue to gather more information on the actual costs of building the shelter and estimated animal services costs to the budget, without the addition of running the shelter. At the joint municipality meeting on Feb. 5, the county and Palm Coast will also approach Flagler Beach and Bunnell about the new shelter, as they contract animal services through Flagler County.
