- April 18, 2024
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Developers who want to build apartments, condos or small single-family homes in Town Center between now and the end of 2020 will get a break in impact fees — and the offer has already yielded multiple calls to City Hall, according to Wynn Newingham, head of innovation and economic growth with the city of Palm Coast.
The Palm Coast City Council approved Innovation Kick Start Program on June 5 with a 4-0 vote.
“We’re pretty much ready to rock,” Newingham told the council.
In the program, the first 500,000 square feet of nonresidential and each of the first 1,000 residential units will receive a $5,000 utility fee credit from the Town Center Community Redevelopment Area. Those funds will then be used to pay the city of Palm Coast’s utility fund.
In addition, the master developer, Allete, which earned transportation impact fee credits in exchange for building the streets and sidewalks throughout Town Center, has agreed to give developers additional credits toward paying the city’s transportation impact fee requirements.
The CRA expires in 2034. Until then, the CRA board, comprising the City Council, controls how a portion of the tax revenue is spent, and it must be spent on improvements within the CRA itself. Past CRA projects included the entrance at Bulldog Drive and State Road 100.
“The time is now for development in Town Center,” City Councilman Nick Klufas said.
Mayor Milissa Holland likes the plan because it should lead to more diversity in the housing stock of the city, without disrupting other neighborhoods: The incentives are only for Town Center, which stretches from Florida Hospital Flagler to City Hall to Belle Terre Parkway.
In other city news:
Strategic Government Resources impressed the Palm Coast City Council on May 29 with its track record and potential ability to find a "nontraditional" city manager candidate to replace Jim Landon, and the company was officially hired with a 4-0 vote on June 5. Landon will retire in 2019, potentially in August.
Also at the meeting, City Councilman Nick Klufas was appointed to represent Palm Coast on the River-to-Sea Transportation Planning Organization, which controls significant funds that could benefit the city. Klufas replaces Steve Nobile, who resigned last month.
