- April 29, 2024
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The city will spend $498,688 for the design and permitting of the Long Creek nature preserve.
Tucked away off Palm Harbor Parkway, in Palm Coast, is a little slice of history.
Long Creek Landing, which opens up to Long Creek, is an estuary that was severed from its natural connection by the College Waterway. Because of saltwater intrusion, freshwater has turned into salt marsh, according to Denise Bevan, a senior environmental planner for the city.
Bevan said environmentally sensitive lands are a rare amenity. So, the city has worked out a plan to develop the area into an educational atmosphere.
The parcel was acquired in 2008. It features more than nine acres, and came with a $4.51 million price tag. The cost was split between the Florida Community Trust and Flagler County’s environmentally sensitive lands program.
The Palm Coast City Council has Long Creek listed as a “major project” for the 2011-2012 City Council goals and objectives.
The Palm Coast City Council, at its Oct. 18 regular meeting, unanimously agreed to spend $498,688 with Bellomo-Herbert and Co. for the design and permitting phase of the nature reserve project.
Eventually, the site will be used as an educational site, with tidbits of history, a canoe and kayak launch, pavilion and tables and walking loops.
The goal is to complete the design and obtain the permits by Sept. 1, 2012, in order to get a $75,000 grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District.
City Manager Jim Landon said the full project isn’t ready for approval yet, but that additional grant funds would likely become available in the future.
“The balance is from our local property tax that we’ve had budgeted for some time,” Landon said.
City Council member Frank Meeker praised the project.
“At some point in time, this is going to become a really cool project in this area,” Meeker said.
Located at the Long Creek Landing site, the project will host various wildlife including ospreys, white-tail deer, iris and bobcats. There are also invasive and exotic plant species.
“We know that our citizens want opportunities to enjoy those resources,” Bevan said.
WHAT IT ONCE WAS
Long before ITT Corp. established the plan for Palm Coast, the land was already found.
Earlier this year, strong evidence was discovered to show the Hernandez Landing site once was located adjacent to the Longs Creek basin.
It was the site of an early 1800s plantation wharf site and now is deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The wharf was used in colonial times to load cotton, sugar, corn and other agricultural products into boats and transport them to larger ships in the nearby Matanzas Bay.
At the time, the property was owned by Joseph Martin Hernandez.
According to Dana Ste. Claire, an archeologist with Heritage Services Inc., King’s Road was a principal route that fed major settlements in Northeast Florida during the colonial period. That road is now known as Old Kings Road.
Additionally, evidence shows that nearly 4,000 years ago, Big Mulberry Branch — which is located west of Long Creek Landing Park — produced early prehistoric materials of the Late Archaic Period and is one of the earliest known sites in Palm Coast and Flagler County.
— Shanna Fortier contributed to this story.
