- May 5, 2024
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Palm Coast residents are limited to what colors they can paint their house via city code, and that surprises some homeowners who attempt to paint their houses. That could soon change, however, as officials have begun to discuss relaxing the code.
At Tuesday’s workshop, the City Council indicated it could change the code to allow more flexibility on the outside color of homes in town.
The city’s Business Assistance Center and the Flagler Home Builders Association are working together on redefining the code.
“What we’re really looking to do is ... we’d like your permission to work with the staff and resubmit a pre-approved color scheme which would provide more choices for the customers,” said Joe Roy, area manager for the BAC.
House color regulation began in the 1970s when ITT Corp. founded Palm Coast as a master-planned community, which deed-restricted all lands, including about 47,000 residential lots “to ensure character, nature and general scheme of development,” according to city documents. The deed restrictions included architectural consistency.
According to city code, any light pastels, including purple, red, orange, green, equal to or greater than (lighter) the 80% mark on the light reflectance value scale are allowed. Also, any earth tones, including brown, taupe, beige and gray, that are equal to or greater than (lighter) the 30% mark on the light reflectance scale are allowed.
At the meeting earlier this week, City Councilman Bill McGuire asked staff to come up with an education program to let residents know that house colors are in fact regulated.
"The idea isn't that the process is broken," Roy said. "The process works. The question is, 'Can we improve upon it to make it simpler for everyone involved?'"
The issue will come back before the City Council in August.
