- May 26, 2026
The Palm Coast Planning Board has approved adding commercial space to a part of the Lakeview Estates development, while denying a development amendment that would have removed green space from its other areas.
Lakeview Estates, located north of Matanzas Woods Parkway along Highway U.S. 1, is the development under construction on what was once the Matanzas Woods Golf Course, which permanently closed in 2007. Since then, Matanzas GC Palm Coast, LLC has purchased the property and been approved to develop a maximum of 272 residential units across the 280 acres.
Multiple residents surrounding the Lakeview Estates development showed up to protest the proposed changes, specifically those that would remove green space buffer.
“You would not want this in your backyard. We bought our house with a premise — and we were told — that it was green space. You could not build on it,” London Drive resident Anne Doherty said. “And now that's being taken away.”
The development is split into 10 tracts. The majority of the 272 residential units are 221 single family homes that are already completed or under construction on Tract 1. Lakeview Estates only has the entitlements to build an additional 51 homes after the 221 in progress are completed.
Now, the developer is seeking to reduce some of its remaining entitled housing units for commercial space on Tract 9 as well as donating Tract 8 to Palm Coast for a future park, moving the remaining entitled homes to a different tract. Tract 9 runs along U.S. 1 while Tract 8 runs along the southwest side of the intersection of London and Londonderry Drive.
To do this, the developer has filed an application to adjust the land use for 20 acres in Tract 9 to mixed-use, leaving the remaining as greenbelt, and to amend the Lakeview Estates Master Planned Development.
Tract 9 is approved for around 260,000 square feet public/semi-public use, which allows for government buildings, libraries, churches, nonprofits and similar type builds. Attorney Michael Chiumento, representing Matanzas GC Palm Coast, said the requested changes to Tract 9 would only add additional types of retail and commercial uses to the area, but not increase intensity or add more entitlements.
Those new uses include restaurants, retail and grocery stores.
“The intensity stays the same, the traffic stays the same, but basically there are more uses, consistent with neighborhood retail, to that area,” Chiumento said.
Palm Coast senior planner Michael Hanson said changing the land use to mixed use would technically add more residential unit entitlements onto the tract and the overall development. But the developer and staff have agreed on two site-specific limitations that take that away.
The first restriction is to limit Tract 9 to cap the density at what is already approved for the MPD. Doing so, Hansen said, would actually reduce the number of remaining entitled units from 51 homes to 39.
The second site-specific restriction would be to limit the number of peak p.m. traffic trips to 1,800. That means any commercial that is built on Tract 9 could not generate more trips than that.
These restrictions are part of the land use application, not part of the MPD amendment.
Tract 8 in Lakeview Estates is the only property within the development that was previously approved for multi-family homes, and would be the site of the remaining original 51 residential units.
Chiumento said city staff first approached the developer in 2024 after Flagler County and Palm Coast created its Parks and Recreation Master Plan about creating a park in the northwest of Flagler County and Palm Coast. Through those discussions, the developer, he said, agreed to donate Tract 8 to Palm Coast to use as the site of a future city park.
Chiumento said the developer is asking to move the reduced 39 entitlements from Tract 8 to Tract 3, and allow for a change of the lot sizes to create large “estate lots” there: 60-70-foot wide by 200-300-foot deep single-family residential lots.
But Tract 3 is currently set as a “view protection zone,” a greenspace buffer. Approving moving the 39 lots Tract 3 would require reducing the view protection zone on Tract 3 to 50 feet from 100 feet, and allow development on the remaining space.
The MPD amendment would also reduce the view protection zone on Tract 10, which is between Tract 9 and single family homes, from 150 feet to 100 feet.
The PLDRB voted to recommend the Palm Coast City Council approve the changes to allow some commercial use on Tract 9, with the site-specific restrictions, but denied the applicant the MPD amendment. The former was approved 5-1, with Chairwoman Sandra Shank against, and the denial recommendations was approved 6-0.
The City Council is set to review these applications in June.
