PALM COAST, Fla. – After months of complaints from Palm Coast residents, the city council is expected to update its rules for new construction on Tuesday.
Dozens of homeowners have been fighting for a resolution for months saying newly built homes are being built at a higher elevations leading to flooding.
The city says as of last week, 148 homeowners have come forward about flooding problems they say are caused by new construction.
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“You can’t build something higher and slanted towards lower and tell me the water is not coming on my property,” said Kandi Stevens.
Stevens has been leading the charge in the fight for the homeowners who say they are dealing with a lot more flooding on their properties than ever before.
“Now that I’ve had a home built next to me and a home behind me, I have a pond in my backyard. A third of my back corner fills with water this deep and it’s only on the side of my property where the two new homes were built,” she said.
Right now, there is only a minimum height on how high homes must be built above street level but not a maximum height.
The city’s stormwater team will present the proposed changes to its technical manual to include that homes can only be built a max of 10 inches higher than the house next door. At the meeting on Tuesday, there will also be a discussion on a moratorium or pause on new building.
While the residents consider it a win, the Chamber of Commerce hopes the council will approve the new rules and throw out the moratorium idea.
“I think we have a policy that needs to be revised that can solve this issue for the residents and still save the city’s economic brand if you will,” said the chamber’s president Greg Blose.
He said a moratorium would hurt their work to bring investment to Palm Coast.
“A moratorium is widely looked at as being anti business and when we talk about the construction business in Flagler County we’re talking about 10% of all the jobs in Flagler,” he said.
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