- May 19, 2024
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The city of Flagler Beach has extended its moratorium on new building applications for an additional six months if the commission does not agree to lift it sooner.
The City Commission is hoping to have an informational joint workshop meeting with the city’s Planning and Architectural Review Board to review the city’s 35-foot building height maximum policy and its exemptions. The Flagler City Commission set a tentative date of the June 4 PAR board meeting for the joint workshop at its April 25 commission meeting.
The city implemented a six-month moratorium on new building applications last November to examine the policy, though that moratorium expires in May, necessitating the extension. The PAR board will review the June 4 date at its May meeting.
Commissioner Rick Belhumeur did ask City Attorney Drew Smith if the moratorium could be lifted sooner if the city makes a decision on the policy before the six months are up.
“It goes away as soon as we adopt the goal of the moratorium,” Smith said.
The main areas of debate on the building height policy has been its exceptions.
The ordinance limits buildings to 35 feet in height, with exceptions for “chimneys, cooling towers, elevators, bulkheads, fire towers, gas tanks, steeples, water towers, ornamental towers or spires, communications, radio or television towers or necessary mechanical appurtenances.” The exceptions cannot exceed 40% of the 35-foot maximum — which breaks down to a maximum of an additional 14 feet — and cannot be used as livable space.
Commissioner Eric Cooley, at a March commission meeting, said he would like to see the exceptions have clearer definitions, closing any potential loopholes. And both Cooley and Commission Chair Scott Spradley said at the March meeting that the 40% exception seemed a little high.
