- April 19, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Palm Coast may swap some city-owned land for land owned by a private company so that a possible city flyover wouldn't bisect a proposed apartment complex.
"It's a swap that in no way, shape or form could hurt us, meanwhile, we'll help somebody else."
— EDDIE BRANQUINHO, city councilman
It's not clear if the city will actually end up building the flyover — which would link Whiteview Parkway to Old Kings Road — but it doesn't want to lose the chance.
"Will that ever happen? We don't know," city Deputy Chief Development Officer Ray Tyner said at a June 14 City Council workshop. "But we definitely don't want to make it go away; We want the possibility to be able to improve transportation."
The city has long considered building a flyover that would link the eastern end of Whiteview Parkway to Old Kings, passing east from the current terminus of Whiteview Parkway over Interstate 95 and Old Kings, and then looping back southwest down onto Old Kings.
In 2004, a strip of land was deeded to the city for that purpose about 1,000 feet south of where the Whiteview flyover would cross over Old Kings.
But now a landowner, Kings Business Center LLC, owns the land on either side of the proposed flyover and is interested in building an apartment complex there. The city recently rezoned the Kings Business Center land to multifamily residential.
The city is proposing to grant the developer the city's 1.4-acre strip of land in exchange for a 1.4-acre strip of land owned by the developer immediately south of the proposed flyover crossover point.
With that change, the flyover would have a tight turn as it loops down onto Old Kings, rather than a gradual one; the developer would have an uninterrupted parcel of land to build on, and the city would be able to build the flyover at a lower cost and with fewer impacts to nearby wetlands.
"It's a swap that in no way, shape or form could hurt us, meanwhile, we'll help somebody else and we're still not losing anything," City Councilman Eddie Branquinho said. "I don't see a problem."
Councilman John Fanelli said it looked like the swap would lead to a more fiscally and environmentally responsible option.
The City Council is expected to vote on the proposal during a future council business meeting.
