City Council can't turn back the clock

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

I’d like to take a moment to thank everybody who commented on recent letters to the editor, lamenting “change” in Palm Coast. We all know it is not possible to turn back the clock to the very day someone closed on the purchase of their house and freeze-frame the city to that moment. We’d like to think somebody, usually the City Council, can find a way to make it happen, but as a general rule, we can’t, and I’d like to address perceptions regarding what kind of power city government has, and doesn’t have, with respect to land use and vested rights.

In my district, four vacant parcels of land always come up for discussion: the Palm Coast Players Club, the Sheraton/Palm Coast Resort, Sesame Island and the forested canopy of Palm Coast Parkway. The question everyone asks, as stated in a recent letter to the editor is this: “Why can’t the City Council get a grip on what our people really need and miss and should have?”

The short answer is, the city doesn’t own the property, the property is very expensive to buy, we don’t have that kind of money without increasing your taxes considerably, and the people who do own it have a “vested” right and expectation to develop the land at some future time. This last point is important.

According to Wikipedia (the online resource), the “vested rights doctrine” is the rule of zoning law by which an owner/developer is entitled to proceed in accordance with the prior zoning provision where there has been a substantial change of position, expenditures, or incurrence of obligations made in good faith by an innocent party under a building permit or in reliance upon the probability of its issuance.

When a city tries to deny an owner’s right in a manner contrary to this, they both end up headed to court. If it goes to court, except as noted in a moment, the city invariably loses the challenge and possibly even the loss of attorney fees and expert witness fees to the prevailing party under either the concept of inverse condemnation, or a Bert Harris takings claim.

The city could go after any of these projects under eminent domain if: 1) you could demonstrate the needed public purpose, or 2) you had the money to buy the land. Coming up with a valid public purpose is not as broadly defined now as it used to be, making the first part of this test problematic at times. Road projects work, but just taking it because the neighborhood would like to have it doesn’t.

As for how much would it cost? The property appraiser’s website lists the Centex Hotel site (old Sheraton) as having sold in 1996 for $13.7 million and $38 million in 2005. The Players Club sold for $1.7 million in 2005, but the current asking price is either $4.2 million or $3.8 million, depending on who you talk to. Sesame Island is actually two pieces of land, having sold in 2003 for $6.7 million, and the parkway has three parcels on the south side of the road having sold for over $10.2 million. Our checkbook is just not that big.

Look, folks, the current council is not responsible for the recession, the stopping of development, the national economy, or promises made to potential buyers from past developers and, we didn’t sell the land to these developers. For those of us who have been here a while, we know that every one of those properties was owned by ITT Community Development Corp., and when they left the development business, they sold the property to other developers. They were never in the hands of “the people.”

Some were mainly enticements to induce people to buy — nothing more. But, we have to play the hand of cards we’ve been dealt and negotiate to get something that meets the needs of all. Would I have liked to still have the Players Club, or the old Sheraton? You bet, but City Council does not have the necessary magic wand to make that happen anymore than we can come to your vacant, or built lot, and “take” your property because the neighborhood “kind of would like it.”

Regarding a perceived lack of community: I’d like to quickly mention that if you feel this is lost within the city, may I suggest you look at what you can do to improve things. When I last checked a couple years ago, there were more than 250 social and volunteer organizations in the county trying to make a difference in people’s lives. Can I suggest everyone start looking around at some of these organizations and join in to make Flagler County and Palm Coast a better place to live by first doing your part? I did for many years prior to joining the council, and found the work extremely rewarding. I’ll bet you will, too.