- April 18, 2024
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Palm Coast’s streets should soon get a bit brighter: The city is moving forward with a plan to identify and fill gaps in street lighting on its non-residential roads.
After a study of city streets, city Construction Supervisor Don Schrager told the City Council at its Nov. 13 workshop, “What we found was there were gaps. The next step was to hire an expert.”
“I was driving Lakeview the other night, and it’s dark; it’s unbelievably dark.”
— MILISSA HOLLAND, Palm Coast mayor
That expert was the Lassiter Transportation Group, which conducted a more detailed survey of the city’s roads and lighting so the city could identify where to start adding lights, since there are too many gaps to fill all at once.
Lassiter, said Lassiter Vice President Gil Ramirez, ranked the city’s collector and arterial roads based on a set of priorities including amount of traffic, night time crash ratio, number of lanes, roadway section length, surrounding pedestrian and elderly driver destinations, existence of sidewalks and posted speed limit.
Dark stretches of Belle Terre Parkway, Ravenwood Drive, Sesame Boulevard, Seminole Woods Parkway and Old Kings Road were, in than order, the top five in Lassiter’s list of 20 priorities.
At number 15 on the list was a dark stretch of Lakeview Boulevard that had prompted increased discussion of adding street lights after a 16-year-old Matanzas High School student, Michelle Taylor, was struck by a car and killed there in March 2017 as she walked alongside the road.
“I was driving Lakeview the other night, and it’s dark; it’s unbelievably dark,” Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland said.
City Councilman Nick Klufas suggested the city look into owning some of the new light poles that would be added, so that it could use them as a platform to hang additional technology.
The city of Palm Coast government has reached an agreement with the Flagler County government for the annexation of a piece of land called Airport Commons, on State Road 100 near the airport, that will soon host a shopping center with a fitness center, restaurant and retail stores.
The plot of land has been a sticking point between the two governments. It is within the county’s jurisdiction, but within the city’s water service area.
Under the agreement, the city will provide water to the development, but will annex the land once a certificate of occupancy is complete; meanwhile, the county will handle permitting for the development, with the city allowed to review and comment pursuant to an interlocal agreement between the city and the county.
The land would enter into the city’s utility agreement before annexation, and the city would handle waste collection.
Airport Commons will be required to adhere to city architectural and landscape concepts, and will be required to either pay impact fees to the city of make roadway improvements on Aviation Drive and S.R. 100. The current plan is to make improvements.
“I believe we came to a good deal for all parties concerned,” interim City Manager Beau Falgout told the council.
