Flagler County begins Comprehensive Plan update

The process will include public workshops and outreach and last from July 2023 to November 2024.

Sierra Williams Staff Writer

Local officials may enact new policies on workforce housing, coastal development and transportation connectivity as they update Flagler County’s Comprehensive Plan this year. The Flagler County Commission and Flagler County Planning and Development Board held a joint workshop July 17 to meet with Inspire Placemaking Collective, the planning and design firm that will direct the full Comprehensive Plan update alongside county staff. Since communities and counties change over time, so do a community’s needs, said Inspire project manager Chris Dougherty.

“That’s why it’s important to look at your plan every five, 10 years to make some tweaks and address the community’s desires,” Dougherty said.

A comprehensive plan is a guideline that helps define how a community will look in the future, Dougherty said. State law requires all Florida communities to have one and update it every seven years.

Commissioners and Planning Board members suggested the firm investigate:

„ Developing plans or priorities to build workforce housing

„ Reviewing policies for coastal high-hazard flood areas and development impact

„ Inventorying old development agreements

„ Addressing growth and traffic on major roads like State Road 100 and Palm Coast Parkway

„ Studying the possibility of adding a third access point from the mainland to the barrier island

„ Improving transportation connectivity within the county.

Commission Chair Greg Hansen, among other commissioners and board members, emphasized the importance of protecting the county’s open spaces and ecosystems.

“We’re trying to create a historical preservation corridor,” Hansen said. “I don’t think we can do enough.”

The Comprehensive Plan update will take just over a year. Inspire began its work on July 16, Dougherty said, and will continue through November 2024, when the updated Comprehensive Plan is adopted. The project will occur in three phases. The first will involve data analysis and outreach.

Planning and Development Chairman Fernando Melendez said the firm and county need to push for members of the public to get involved.

“It’s important that we reflect their efforts and what they think we need to implement in our comprehensive plan,” Melendez said.

The firm will host three public workshops throughout the county, with the first scheduled for sometime in August, and the second in January.

It will also host two additional joint workshops with Flagler County commissioners and Planning and Development Board members.

Synopsis of Barefoot In The Park

Corie and Paul Bratter are a pair of newlyweds and their first home is an apartment in New York City. Corie is a light-hearted person who is very optimistic about their future. Paul, however, is more grounded and anxious about things like the state of the apartment, the hole in the skylight, the leaky closet and the lack of a bathtub.

Shortly after moving in, Corie tries to ‘set up’ her Mother with their eccentric neighbor Mr. Velasco. Over the course of four days, Paul and Corie learn to live together while dealing with the daily ‘ups and downs’ - during which time, Corie tries to get Paul to be more easy-going and run “barefoot in the park”

Thursday,

Friday, August

Saturday, August