7 minute read
Engineering firm to analyze Palm Coast roads, including Cimmaron Drive
CITY WATCH
JONATHAN SIMMONS
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NEWS EDITOR
City amends Comprehensive Plan
Palm Coast is amending its Comprehensive Plan to account for recent city capital improvement projects, changes to recreational facilities and the Flagler County school district’s recently adopted work plan, which includes proposed capacity improvements at Matanzas High School, the construction of a proposed new middle school, and planning for a new high school.
The Palm Coast City Council approved those amendments at a Feb. 1 meeting with a 5-0 vote.
Florida cities are required to update their comprehensive plans every seven years, and the city it due to do so this February.
In addition to the housekeeping amendments the council approved on Feb. 1, the city plans to undertake a more extensive review of the Comprehensive Plan, soliciting resident input on potential changes.
“We’ll ... meet with the public and get their input on what’s working, what’s not working, what they’d like to see changed,” city Senior Planner Jose Papa said.
Firm to evaluate local roads for pedestrian safety Palm Coast investigates canal
dredging costs
Residents of Palm Coast’s Cimmaron Drive have repeatedly told the City Council that they believe the roadway is unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists. Residents of some other roads have raised similar concerns. Now, the city government is looking for solutions.
The Palm Coast City Council on Feb. 1 voted 5-0 to spend $109,417 to have the engineering firm EnglandThims & Miller conduct a “pedestrian accommodation feasibility study” on the city’s residential collector roadways, including Cimmaron, to look for ways to make those roads safer for people traveling by foot or bicycle.
The city will first categorize the roads by features — for instance, swale types and right-of-way widths — that could affect opportunities for potential improvements like restriping or new sidewalks.
“Once we put them into categories, we will then analyze what options are available for each of those types,” Palm Coast Stormwater and Engineering Director Carl Cote said at a Feb. 1 City Council meeting. “Some of them may have zero, some of them may have numerous ones. We will then assess the options for each type.”
In the case of Cimmaron Drive, residents have pushed the city to add traffic calming measures to slow down speeding vehicle traffic.
Meetings between Cimmaron residents, city staff and the River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization in August 2021 pushed the City Council to set aside money in this year’s budget for the feasibility study.
Approximately 50 miles of roadway in Palm Coast are currently classified by city staff as “residential collector roadways,” generally defined as roadways that have residential driveways and also connect to arterial roadways on both ends, or, in a few cases (Cimmaron Drive among them), on one end.
The city defines arterial roadways as those without residential driveway access and generally with a speed limit of 35 mph or higher. They are usually labeled a parkway, boulevard, or drive in Palm Coast.
This latest initiative to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety isn’t unprecedented in Palm Coast: The city had created a “Bicycle-Pedestrian Master Plan” in 2008, identifying roads that needed improvement and planning a path system to connect certain schools, parks and commercial areas.
For the current study, Cote said, the city will hold a public meeting for additional input on how to rate and prioritize residential collector roadways for improvements.
“Some of those criteria may be the number of homes that it serves, it many be the speed of the roadway, it may be the proximity to schools — all of those factors and others may be involved in how we would prioritize moving this program forward,” Cote said.
WHAT’S A ‘RESIDENTIAL COLLECTOR’ STREET?
The streets below are some of the many in Palm Coast that are classified as “residential collector” roadways.
Cimmaron Drive Farmsworth Drive Bird of Paradise Drive Laramie Drive Bridgehaven Lane Parkview Drive Wynnfield Drive Rolling Sands Drive Eric Drive Fleetwood Drive Whippoorwill Drive Frontier Drive Pine Grove Drive Rae Drive Ryan Drive Rickenbacker Drive
Email Jonathan Simmons at jonathan@palmcoastobserver.com.
Drone photo by Joe Rosa/Top Shots A vacant plot of land on the west side of Belle Terre Parkway is slated to become a townhome community called The Trails.
Two new gated developments planned
Two proposed developments may bring almost 400 new homes to the western side of Palm Coast. The Palm Coast City Council voted to approve the proposed final plat development orders for both developments during a Feb. 1 council meeting.
The northernmost of the two developments would be called The Trails, and would add 274 townhouse lots to 188 acres of land on the west side of Belle Terre Parkway north of Belle Terre Elementary School and across from Palm Coast Fire Station No. 23.
The City Council approved the final plat with a 4-1 vote Feb. 1, with Councilman Eddie Branquinho dissenting.
The other development, known as Whiteview Village, would add 121 single-family homes in the first phase of development on 97 acres on the southwest corner of the intersection of Pine Lakes Parkway and White Mill Drive.
The City Council approved the final plat development order with a 5-0 vote Feb. 1.
Palm Coast city staff are consulting with Taylor Engineering about the potential cost of dredging the city’s saltwater canals. The city and the engineering firm are currently working to determine the scope of a cost analysis study.
Taylor Engineering conducts dredging for the Florida Inland Navigation District and has a continuing service contract with Palm Coast for stormwater and environmental engineering services. A new contract would be required if the city selects the firm to dredge the saltwater canal system.
The Palm Coast City Council at a Feb. 1 meeting directed city staff to provide the council with updates on the potential canal dredging during each upcoming council meeting.
BY THE NUMBERS
121
single-family homes planned for the first phase of the Whiteview Village community, just west of White Mill Drive between Pine Lakes Parkway and Whiteview Parkway
274
townhouses proposed for the Trails community, on the west side of Belle Terre Parkway north of Belle Terre Elementary School and across from Palm Coast Fire Station No. 23
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