House colors: Should Palm Coast allow more shades?

Palm Coast Observer
News

Palm Coast is not very colorful — at least, not when it comes to the color of residents' homes. But City Council members are willing to at least consider changing that.

Palm Coast's Land Development Code lists the city's requirements: earth tones like tan and gray that are lighter than 25 on the light reflectance value scale, or LRV, are allowed, but other colors must be much lighter, with an LRV lighter than 80.

Residents sometimes discover the rule after painting their homes the wrong color — as happened to a local Sheriff's Office deputy last year — and have to repaint.

In a City Council workshop Sept. 8, Councilman Bob Cuff said that two organizations, the Flagler County Association of Realtors and the Flagler Home Builders Association, had suggested to him that the city look at broadening the allowable reflectance value for the non-earthen pastel shades.

City begins traffic signal coordination program

Palm Coast is working to improve traffic flow through the city's intersections by changing how the city's traffic signals work, with input from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, according to a city of Palm Coast news release.

So far, the city has modified two intersections — Palm Coast Parkway at Cypress Point Parkway, and Cypress Point Parkway at Cypress Edge Drive — so that they are in sync.

That means that when a driver is turning left from Palm Coast Parkway to Cypress Point Parkway and then left again at Cypress Point Parkway at Cypress Edge Drive, those signals will be green at the same time so the turn lanes empty out more efficiently, lowering the likelihood of a backup in the intersection.

City traffic engineer Michael Grunewald and staff member Tyler Gibson are visiting traffic signals in the area on Fridays to determine potential timing changes. The team is considering a signal coordination program for the length of Palm Coast Parkway, according to the news release.

"Their concern is the city of Palm Coast is beginning to look awfully beige, and if it’s not beige, it’s beginning to look gray," Cuff said. "They were hoping that they could work with the council and staff to perhaps propose some slightly more colorful standards — not that anybody wants our streets to look like Fraggle Rock or Whoville, but perhaps something a little more than the color pallet that we allow now under the current Land Development Code."

A light reflectance value that is lighter than 80, he said, "is essentially white — a very slight tint," and the organizations have proposed shifting the requirement to allow for a LVR lighter than 60.

"From what I have seen so far, it doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request," Cuff said. " ... I think this is something we need to follow up on."

City Councilman Nick Klufas said he'd heard similar calls for change in the color requirements over the years.

Cuff said he'd spoken to City Manager Matt Morton and city staff about coming up with a proposal.

“Looking at this overall, the advantages that I see are environmental. ... I have yet to see the specific benefit to Palm Coast."

— JON NETTS, city councilman, on a proposal to have the city provide water and wastewater service to areas south of State Road 100 along Old Kings Road and John Anderson Highway