- May 3, 2024
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Dennis McDonald says he wants to save the trees. The city does, too, according to officials.
But McDonald, the former candidate for Flagler County commissioner filed an injunction on Aug. 8 against the city of Palm Coast, saying its plans to remove trees around the Palm Harbor Shopping Center is illegal. The city says the allegation is “inaccurate and misleading,” in part because no developer has submitted a plan yet that specifically targets any trees in the shopping center. As of today, no trees are slated to be removed, and if and when a plan is submitted, the city will work to preserve as many trees as possible, as it has with previous projects, such as the CVS at Old Kings Road and Palm Coast Parkway.
Still, the injunction requests a temporary restraining order against the city to prevent it from removing trees. The complaint encompasses both the Palm Harbor Shopping Center and the state’s plan to widen Palm Coast Parkway to six lanes from Florida Park Drive to Cypress Point Parkway. To do the latter, 395 trees in the city’s right of way will be uprooted.
“Chopping down these gracious, indigenous trees and replacing them with sapling palm trees reduces property values for residents,” McDonald said in a statement. “These shade trees are a prime reason that attracted me and countless others to Palm Coast.”
Most of the trees that will be uprooted are palm trees and will be relocated in the city, according to a city statement. Others are large laurel oaks that city staff says are reaching the end of their life expectancy. Those trees are the ones that McDonald focuses on, saying their removal will change the character of the city.
As a mitigation effort, crews will plant 458 new trees along the 1.23-mile stretch of road slated to be widened. Those 458 far exceed the number the city is required to plant, which the city says is evidence of is commitment to being a tree-friendly city. Moreover, the city says, no trees will be touched in the canopy along Palm Coast Parkway.
McDonald’s complaint focuses on the oaks around and in the Palm Harbor Shopping Center, which he fears will be removed. “The damages include the loss of privacy and aesthetic beauty, which will not be replaced despite the age of the replacement sapling palm trees, trees which will take years to grow and will never provide the same canopy effect and sense of privacy provided by the current mature canopy of trees that the city intends to cut down,” McDonald’s complaint reads.
In addition, McDonald alleges that removing the mature oaks from the Palm Harbor parking lot also would violate the city’s restrictive covenants and easement guidelines. The city says it will “vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit.”
McDonald is being represented by local attorney Joshua Knight.
