PALM COAST — Nearly 300 homes are being proposed for an abandoned Palm Coast golf course but residents in the surrounding neighborhood say those plans would bring unwelcome development in their own backyards.
    

But Palm Coast planning officials reviewed the plans and had major concerns about the project’s impact on people who live around the defunct golf course. Jason DeLorenzo and Ray Tyner, the city’s most senior development officers, met with reps from Ustilovsky’s firm on Thursday.

They advised them that Palm Coast’s land development code includes “protections” for homeowners whose properties abut “existing golf course communities.” Those protections prohibit any new development on former courses that will obstruct the “existing direct golf course views” residents currently enjoy from their backyards.

On Friday, Chiumento seemed undaunted by the city’s response, saying developers will work with Palm Coast officials and homeowners near the golf course to revise and resubmit their proposal.

“We’ll have to continue to refine the plan and improve it to make sure it’s a good development plan,” he said. “On most developments, you sit down and ypu work with the city on what might be a benefit for the community. That doesn’t mean that we can satisfy every single homeowner, but we’re certainly making an attempt.”

Meanwhile, a multi-family residential complex proposed in the southwest corner of the old golf course just north of Londonberry Drive, appears to be largely compliant with city codes. The development plan on that parcel is capped at 50 townhouses and city planning officials limited the maximum height of the townhouses to 40 feet to keep them compatible with existing homes in the neighborhood. DeLorenzo said the town homes must be at least 1,000 square feet and include a garage, according to city planners’ recommendations.

Ustilovsky’s team also carved out a 32-acre straight-away along U.S. 1 that once served as one of the golf course’s fairgrounds for commercial development. The area can accommodate nearly 425,000 square feet of commercial space in buildings as high as 50 feet tall, according to the proposed development agreement.

But those plans will have to go back to the drawing board as well, following the city’s review.

Developers revamped some of their original plans after nearly 200 residents overwhelmingly opposed to the project showed up for a Dec. 5 neighborhood meeting at Matanzas High School.

On Jan. 29, Chiumento applied for a land-use amendment to the 32-acre property along U.S. 1. Tyner explained that city officials couldn’t properly review the application for the land-use amendment because it did not include a traffic analysis or environmental site study for the former fairgrounds parcel.

Ustilovsky can appeal the tweaks recommended by Palm Coast’s planning team, or opt to move ahead with their original plans without any of the suggested revisions. But that could be a death knell as the project would be deemed non-compliant.

Palm Coast’s planning board will have to review the proposed land-use amendment and update the development agreement before the project moves forward. City Council members will have to approve an ordinance to grant the final OK. There is no timetable for how soon the project may progress to either of those boards.

The Matanzas Woods golf course has remained dormant since it closed during the economic downturn in 2007. It was one of the city’s original four links built by former Palm Coast developer ITT. Golf legend Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay designed the 18-hole course, which opened in 1986. It was widely considered the best among the original four courses in town and locals dubbed it the “jewel in the crown.”

The course changed hands multiple times over the years and several sales fell through. Flagler County property records show Matanzas GC Palm Coast purchased the property in April 2019 for $600,000.

The entire golf course is currently zoned as a master-planned development, or MPD. But developers are petitioning to have the fairway parcel along U.S. 1 re-purposed from greenbelt-conservation to mixed-use on the city’s future land-use map.

DeLorenzo explained that the course was designated as a “golf-course community,” or GCC, under Palm Coast’s old comprehensive plan. The property was consolidated to an MPD when the city ratified its first unified land development code in 2008. But the GCC standards on the property still apply, DeLorenzo said.

“Existing golf course views from existing platted lots located within any residentially zoned area located across a right-of-way or a water body from the site shall be maintained to the maximum extent practical,” Palm Coast’s land development code states.

A group of residents started a private group on Facebook to share information and devise a campaign to stop the developer’s plans. The group has also circulated an online petition that had received 786 digital signatures by Friday afternoon.

The residents are planning a neighborhood meeting for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the African American Cultural Center, 4422 N. U.S. 1, Palm Coast.

“We didn’t always expect to have golf back here, but we bought into that sense of green space behind us, not to see another neighbor behind us,” said Leann Huggins, who lives on Lake Success Drive.

Critics say nearly 2,500 L-section lots in the surrounding residential community, largely made up of duplexes and single-family homes, could feel the effects of the project. They worry about unforeseen environmental hazards from the long-derelict course, and impacts such a development could have on the area’s stormwater drainage system.

According to city officials, the greenbelt designation gives developers rights to build one residential unit per acre. Existing residents are against the idea of apartments, condos, storage units, or commercial development sprouting up behind their homes. They want the golf course to remain a greenbelt property.

Some residents say they purchased their homes for as much as $600,000 before the golf course shut down. But those property values plummeted during the housing bust. Now they are working to protect the “line of sight” behind their homes to ensure that doesn’t happen again.

“They lost all their equity once before and they’re just starting to get equity back,” Huggins said of the homeowners. “The concern is that if they put these homes in that don’t conform with what we have now, they’ll lose their values again.”

DeLorenzo, whose home overlooks a different Palm Coast golf course, said he can relate to the concerns of homeowners in the L-section. He indicated officials will rely on the city’s comprehensive plan and land development code to guide their decision.

“People who purchased on the golf course have a certain expectation that they were either going to be living on a golf course or have open space,” DeLorenzo said last week, as city planners were continuing to review the developer’s application. “So I understand it completely and it is definitely a valid concern.

“The property has certain development rights, and we’re just going to apply our codes to make sure that the existing residents are protected while not infringing on the property rights of the land owner,” he later added.

Chuimento said the developer is working to ease residents’ concerns.

“It’s very important that the community knows that they’re entitled to their existing views,” he said, “and we have to take that into consideration.”