- April 22, 2024
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The Portuguese American Cultural Center plans to move from its current location at 1200 Palm Harbor Parkway to a new, 13.95-acre site on Old Kings Road North, north of Matanzas Woods Parkway.
The Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Regulation Board voted unanimously to approve a zoning change — from estate-2 to public/semi-public — which would allow the move at a meeting Jan. 20, prompting cheers from Portuguese American Cultural Center members in the audience.
"This community feels that we are growing," Portuguese American Cultural Center representative Eddie Branquinho told the board. "Where we’re at now, we can only grow so much. ... I think we deserve a shot. We’re going to prove to you that we were a good investment for the city, and good people that you can be proud of as much as we’re proud of ourselves."
The planned center includes 23,000 square feet of buildings, picnic areas and walking trails, city planning staff told the board.
The area "is going to become a future transportation corridor where we have a lot of traffic happening," Senior Planner Angela Piltaver told the board. The planned cultural center, she said, "will probably spur further redevelopment."
The Portuguese American Cultural Center acquired the land at 4065 Old Kings Road N. in 2013, according to a city planning staff report, and would like to move there in part because the current facility lies in a flood zone and a floodway, and the parcel on Old Kings Road does not.
"The subject property provides a future location where the applicant can plan for future growth, with ample space for parking and ancillary features located onsite," according to the staff report.
