The Bunnell City Commission this evening will consider a appeal from the developer of The Reserve at Haw Creek, the planned 6,000-to-8,000-home development west of the city, to lower Bunnell’s requirement for open space from 60 to 50 percent. The city’s planning board in November unanimously rejected the request. (See: “Colossal 6,000-Home Plan in Bunnell is Now 8,000 Homes, and Developer Wants to Cut Open Space by 10%.”)
For the commission, the appeal by Northeast Florida Developers is among a series of challenges the city faces as it contends with the largest development proposal in Flagler County’s history since ITT planned Palm Coast in the late 1960s, and for Bunnell, a proposal that would potentially multiply the city’s population sixfold, remaking its geography, its politics and its character. The effects on surrounding Flagler County and Palm Coast would not be small, either.
It is with that prospect in mind that county and state officials have been analyzing the Reserve at Haw Creek since the Bunnell City Commission first transmitted to the state and the county a proposed comprehensive plan amendment to accommodate the project. Every local government has a comprehensive plan–a binding blueprint for long-term planning. Changes to the plan must be ratified by the state…