- March 17, 2026
The Flagler County Commission has approved a new cell tower by Verizon next to the old Flagler agricultural museum.
The lease of a 20-acre parcel at 7900 Old Kings Rd. North will garner the museum, renamed as the Florida Agricultural Legacy Learning Center, a needed source of revenue for operations. Upfront, the Learning Center will receive $15,000, and $3,000 each month thereafter. Additionally, Verizon will pay the Learning Center 40% of any additional client.
The tower will be on a 50-by-50 foot space and reach up to 185 feet tall, plus an additional 10-foot lighting rod at the top. The lot is 92 feet from the Old Kings Road right of way and will have a chain link fence surrounding it, with a 50-foot buffer for wetlands.
The bottom portion of the monopole will be painted green, per county codes, to help it blend in with the land. A break point will be incorporated into the design so, should the tower break, it will fall on the parcel, not on the road.
The commission voted 3-1 in favor of the cell tower, with Vice Chair Kim Carney voting against it and Chairwoman Leann Pennington absent from the March 16 business meeting.
“I just see this morphing into something that is not the intended use,” Carney said.
Carney said she understood the need for additional revenue and cell coverage in the area. But the property has a deed restriction, instituted by the county in 1997, that limits the use of the land as a museum and “related and ancillary uses from which the museum derives a continuing benefit.”
“I don’t believe this is an ancillary use for this property,” Carney said. “You go put your boat in the water, you might have a bait shop. You go to a marina, you might have a restaurant. So on and so forth,” she said.
The argument by the museum and other board members is the “continuing benefit” is the revenue stream this would provide to the museum. Additionally, the tower will provide increased emergency communications services and would potentially easier modernization of the museum, county planner Simone Kenny said.
County Attorney Michael Rodriguez said the decision is at the discression of the board, who were the ones to place the deed restriction 20 years ago.
"The quirk is that the county is the one that gave the restriction is created the restriction," Rodriguez said. "So, it's up to you either to wave the restriction or, if your action is to allow the tower to be built, then you have deemed that the tower is consistent with the language of the deed."
Commissioner Pam Richardson voted for the cell tower, but, she said, specifically for the health and safety benefit of residents in the area who may need additional cell service.
"When I think ag, I think of grass," Richardson said. "And then I think of the tower. That's sort of a little interesting for me. But I understand the need for it."
The Learning Center’s Director Kara Hoblick said the museum cannot survive without other streams of income. Already, the location leases two billboards and rents out the facility for events.
“We need to have other sources of income,” she said. “We need to have several profit centers to sustain ourselves.”
