- April 28, 2024
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Businesses and golf courses should be furious at city’s Palm Harbor sign
Dear Editor:
The city attorney‘s Sept. 11 legal opinion regarding the Palm Harbor Golf Course sign reads as follows:
“We’re dealing with one sign, not uncommon, like the signs you see throughout Palm Coast and in the Glossary of our Land Development Code, designated as a wayfinding sign, and they can only be constructed in the public right of way; like directional signs and are for public facilities. This sign is located in the Palm Coast Parkway overlay zone, which is referenced in the email, Section 3.04.04. G. and that says: Signage. The provisions of Chapter 12 (of the LDC) shall regulate all signs in the Palm Coast Parkway overlay zone; however, off-sight signs are prohibited (which are different from wayfinding signs). This sign appears to be consistent with the other signs that have been placed in the public right of way by the city of Palm Coast historically.”
City Manager Jim Landon added that this is part of the overall signage program in the community.
Now you see obfuscation at its pinnacle, its eminence: ask a question, get meaningless words meant to confuse, to “obfuscate” the answer, the truth!
First, the Palm Harbor Golf Course sign is a common sign; no one is contesting such throughout Palm Coast adjacent to its specific property, as an on-site advertising sign. However, we’re talking about the Palm Coast Parkway Overlay zone from U.S. 1 eastward to the Hammock Dunes Toll Bridge; here, that same sign, located nowhere near its advertised property, is an off-site advertising sign for the golf course.
Second, the golf course sign is not a wayfinding sign; please, my friends, look at the LDC Glossary page 35 and picture of “wayfinding sign.” This golf course is Palm Coast’s first constructed with the first homes over 35 years ago. If you play golf, you know the golf course location.
Third, notice the obfuscation: “consistent with other signs placed in the public right of way by the city historically”; we’re talking about the Palm Coast Parkway Overlay Zone — nowhere else!
Fourth, Mr. Landon adds confusion with, “It is part of the overall signage program in the community.” This sign is in the restricted Palm Coast Parkway Overlay Zone, not the general community.
Fifth, Country Cove is not a business, so the sign is merely a “monument community sign” — more obfuscation.
On Sept. 23, I traveled the Palm Coast Parkway Overlay Zone, Hammock Dunes Toll Booth west to U.S. 1, and returned east to the toll booths. I took 35 pictures (not all the signs) of varying styles of monument signs like those permitted for the corner of Palm Harbor Drive. They are without exception, monument, on-site, advertising — not wayfinding signs. What is constructed at the entrance to the Oaks and Covington Park communities is a nice sign, beautiful some say, but nice and beautiful do not make it legal; it is a monument, off-site, advertising sign and prohibited by the city’s Land Development Code!
I’m a homeowner and citizen, but if I had a business or was a builder/developer, I would be most unhappy being disadvantaged by the city. If I was a golf course, The Pines or Cypress, I would be screaming furious that what I cannot do, to increase my private golf course business, the city can!
Robert W. Repsher
Palm Coast
Government wastes money instead of finding a real solution to beach erosion
Dear Editor:
Ronald Reagan always said the scariest words anyone could hear are "Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”
The Army Corps of Engineers has been studying our beaches for around 10 years. We have already given them hundreds of thousands of dollars and they have given us nothing. If we had invested $50,000 in the Holmberg Plan, we probably could see some improvement by now. In fact, a few years ago, we could have tried that plan for free, but our various government agencies wouldn't let us do it.
The Army Corps worked on the levies in New Orleans for years and years before Hurricane Katrina. We saw how that worked. After Katrina, and $10 billion later, they fixed those levies. No one would expect them to know that if they actually stopped the water there it would have no place to go; and it would destroy all the parishes below it.
Here we are again. Our government is wasting more of our money on the same thing we have been doing for years, but they are expecting different results.
Only 25% of our county's registered voters voted in the last election. To the other 75%: Our beaches and A1A are going to be gone, and it will be your fault.
Jean Sbertoli
Flagler Beach
Address the standing water in the swales, not garage sales
Dear Editor:
One would think the city of Palm Coast would be more concerned with the standing waters in the swales and/or easements along our streets than they would be about garage sales.
Then again, one would think the residents of Palm Coast would consider replacing our city officials with some people with common sense!
Donald Farron
Palm Coast
