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PALM COAST, Fla. — Residents filled the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners meeting on Monday for discussion surrounding a proposed fuel terminal in Palm Coast.

What You Need To Know

Belvedere Terminals are looking to build near the city’s utility plant off of U.S. 1 after plans in Ormond Beach fell through.

That project has seen a lot of back and forth, with people for this and against.

Ahead of Monday’s meeting, Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris took to Facebook, saying he recommended to city staff to withdraw from consideration for the project.

“We are severely limited on properties zoned for industrial development and the large landowners are unlikely to offer up lands for zoning changes to bring about meaningful industrial / commercial development,” Norris stated in his post.

His post included an email sent to Palm Coast City Manager Lauren Johnston, saying in part: “In light of the quite vocal rejection of the project, by our residents, we need to withdraw from consideration for the terminal project.”

13 people used public comment at the commission meeting to speak about the proposed fuel terminal, a majority holding signs and wearing shirts in opposition.

“Most of us are against this and we’re outraged. We’re afraid in a lot of ways, we’re deeply concerned,” Palm Coast resident Narina Speaks said.

Speaks lives at Sawmill Branch, a neighborhood that’s a few minutes away from the proposed fuel terminal’s location.

She worries about the environmental impacts this project could have and its proximity to neighboring buildings.

“We have children, we raise our children, we have our elders living there,” Speaks said. “If we don’t stand and we don’t speak up about what’s going on, we’re going to have everything polluted and our environment’s going to go terrible. We’re just not going to have a chance for our kids to enjoy what we’re enjoying.”

But not everyone is against the project.

Joshua Stumbo started a petition on Change.org that’s for the Belvedere fuel terminal.

He believes the city and county need to see this through.

“I think they need to hear the facts, they’re not listening to the facts, they’re just denying it like the city hasn’t done anything yet about it, they haven’t heard anything, let everything be heard, let the facts be heard before we just say no,” Stumbo said.

Stumbo is from Pennsylvania and knows what it’s like to be close to projects of this scale.

To him and many others, it’s about job creation in the area.

“I’ve seen natural gas storage facilities, I’ve seen oil facilities, I’ve been right next to them, they’re right next to houses up there and they haven’t done anything,” he said. “When things happen, it only damages the tank and 400 feet away. It doesn’t go a mile and a half to a mile away.”

A city of Palm Coast spokesperson tells Spectrum News 13 they believe this project will be talked about more during Tuesday’s city council workshop.

When this project first got announced, Flagler County and Palm Coast leaders said the fuel terminal project would create high-paying jobs, diversification of the tax base, and increase property tax revenues.

The proposed 12.6 million-gallon gas and diesel depot off U.S. 1 has quickly gone from an economic development triumph, as Palm Coast and county officials described it last week, to a political liability fueled by public opposition spreading at the speed of a wildfire.

On Tuesday, the Palm Coast City Council agreed to seek an analysis to determine whether there’s an alternative location better suited to the depot, a planned $75 million facility to be built by a start-up, Belvedere Terminals, with no track record in the industry.

The facility, rejected from Hull Road in Ormond Beach, is planned on 78 acres at the end of Peavey Grade and by a rail yard to be built there. It would be about 3,500 feet from one of the city’s three water plants in one direction and an equal distance from city water wells in the other, south of the Sawmill Creek subdivision and east of acreage planned for the city’s mostly residential westward expansion.

The city has limited land zoned industrial, as the entirety of that acreage is. Mayor Mike Norris is championing the project and fears that moving it would jeopardize Palm Coast’s chances to land it. But three other council members are concerned about the location, the vetting of the project–and the company–and the public outcry, of which they got a sample Tuesday at the meeting.

It took just a few days from the project announcement for an opposition Facebook page to emerge (“Palm Coast Citizens Against Belvedere Fuel Terminals / Grupo Mexico.” Grupo Mexico owns the Jacksonville-based Florida East Coast Railway, on whose tracks Belvedere’s 125-car trains would run and deliver the fuel to Palm Coast once a week.)

Council members have themselves quickly taken the measure of a potential new crisis on their hands, this one entirely on their watch: they are not interested in a fresh, long-running controversy just as they are resolving or distancing themselves from those they inherited. Though Norris tried to blame previous councils for putting this council in a difficult position (by rezoning industrial land to residential), the Belvedere project is entirely this council’s work, or liability, as even Norris is happily taking credit for it.

Drawing applause from the audience, Council member Theresa Pontieri called for a site-selection analysis “to look at a better place for this plant” in light of the 20,000 acres to its west where the westward expansion is planned. “We all understand the concerns. I know the mayor has worked pretty hard to help to bring this type of thing to the community. So let’s look at all options. I can guarantee you, we’re all going to do a lot of research, do our diligence, look into the company, the parent company, the environmental concerns, all of these things that you all are concerned about. I won’t speak for anybody else up here, but I’m concerned about them.”

Pontieri said the alternative site could be further west or in Bunnell. “Let’s really analyze this and make sure that this is appropriate in this community, and see if there’s other locations that are possible,” she said. “Let me be very clear: I support bringing in industry like this. What I do not support is doing it too quickly, and it proposing environmental and safety hazards. “ She visited the site over the weekend and was concerned about what she saw. “We’d be selling ourselves short if we just automatically say, this is where it’s going to be. And we don’t do a site selection.”

Norris was worried about the timeline, with the company going before the County Commission next week to secure a state $10 million grant that will subsidize buying the land. Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston assured the council that time isn’t an issue: The grant expires in June 2026. “They have 180 days to close, and after closing, they have 90 days to provide the budget and construction development details to the state,” Johnston said. “It sounds like we have some time in there if you would like to move forward with this site analysis study.”

Council members Ty Miller and Charles Gambaro are also weighing their words carefully about the plan, and support the analysis.

“This is a difficult one,” Miller said, recalling how the zoning in that area of U.S. 1 was at one point all industrial, but was then changed to residential in many areas, “which in my eyes should have never happened, because what it does is now it creates a inconsistency of land use adjacent to each other.” Potentially, he said, what remains of that industrially zoned land may never be usable, “because the residents that live on these residential areas right adjacent to it, don’t want the industrial and obviously will come out in force to let us know about that. And so it puts us in a very tight spot, because the only places we can put industry are on these industrial zone properties.”

Miller sought to reassure residents even as he cautioned that industrial development of some sort will come to these parcels, since they’re among the few left in the city. “I hear you about the concern for risk, safety, those things, and we haven’t made any decisions on the council at all in regards to this,” he said. “There is time for this to be discussed and figured out.”

Gambaro drew on his own background as a logistics officer in the military, said without hesitation: “There are risks associated with it,” which must be studied and mitigated. “To the residents, I hear your concerns because I’ve lived it, okay?” Like his colleagues, he said the discussion is taking place in the context of a city looking to diversify its tax base. But he is supportive of Pontieri’s request.

“Let’s get after answering these hard questions, and see if it’s a good fit,” Gambaro said. “If we need to move it, we move it, if not then we’ll figure out a way.”

They all spoke after hearing a series of residents voice their own concerns.

Wayne Bruce, a resident of Sawmill Creek who moved there from Ormond Beach, said he was “with the struggle down there” against the Belvedere facility, when it was to be built in Ormond, “ and now I’m very concerned about what’s going to happen to our beautiful city,” with a planned 12.5 million in fuel storage capacity, according to the company’s chief financial officer. (Bruce put the figure at 13.5 million but did not cite a source.)

“This facility will be very close to existing communities and new communities,” Bruce said. “I hope in your due diligence study, that you take all this into consideration and listen to the people of this beautiful city.”

He was followed by Angela Dawson, also a resident of Sawmill Creek. “You couldn’t ask for a worse project for the city, with the possible exception of a nuclear waste dump site,” she said. “Ormond Beach, roundly rejected the proposal for all the same reasons that we should do it.” She said the Ormond Beach rejection was bipartisan, while the projected tax revenue “is not worth the risk of a single life.” (County Administrator Heidi Petito has projected at $800,000 a year overall, though that has not been verified, and the figure is likely an exaggeration.) Dawson pressed for light industry, not heavy industry.

Bradley Watson described the proposal as a “reckless development that benefits a few while harming our community.” He then tied the industrial development to residential development, seeing the two on the same plane and blaming Mayor Mike Norris for going along. He cast doubt on the tax revenue projections and described the opposition as apolitical. “We do not want this facility, and that should tell you something. We demand better. We demand that you listen to the people who put you in office,” he said.

(City and county officials have stressed that the fuel facility, as a commercial-industrial development, is not comparable to residential development, especially in one regard: it will generate significantly more property taxes and ostensibly relieve some of that burden from residential development, though in fact urban areas like Jacksonville, which include vast swaths of industrially taxed properties, have not seen lower residential property taxes, and Palm Coast’s residential taxes are relatively low, compared to the average in the state.)

Others spoke along the same lines, recalling Ormond Beach’s opposition or referring to the low number of jobs the fuel depot would bring compared to larger enterprises, and one, Ann Miller, a new resident, spoke approvingly of the plan: “It will bring jobs to the area and industry and will provide tax revenue for our city,” she said, but the city should also require Belvedere to jointly hold exercises with local first responders, who themselves should get additional training. She outlined several additional safety measures to write into a prospective contract.

A proposed fuel terminal that previously prompted safety concerns from some Volusia County residents and elected officials may have found a new home in Flagler County, pending processes and approvals that would still need to come through before any development plans are finalized.

Belvedere Terminals is eyeing a parcel of land zoned for industrial use in Palm Coast. The site is adjacent to railroad tracks, making it a good fit for the fuel storage and distribution terminal Belvedere wants to build, according to Chief Financial Officer Timothy Schwarz.

“We need to be adjacent to rail tracks for the way our system is designed,” Schwarz said. “Belvedere's system brings product in by rail, as opposed to coming over the water.”

Right now in Florida, “pretty much every gallon of gas you consume comes over the water,” from refineries off the Gulf Coast, Schwarz said. From there, the gas is long-haul trucked to various locations throughout the state.

“That is a system that has some vulnerabilities to it. It's subject to disruption, primarily due to weather,” Schwarz said. “You have evacuation challenges, and you have recovery and repair challenges in the aftermath of [hurricanes].”

Belvedere’s $500 million fuel terminal project is “designed to have a safer, more reliable, lower-cost, cleaner way to bring refined products — gas, diesel, jet [fuel] — into the state of Florida,” Schwarz said.

Originally, Belvedere had hoped to develop a fuel terminal site in Ormond Beach in Volusia County. But those plans ultimately fell through, following months of pushback from area residents, some of whom lived under a mile from where the facility would be built. A petition against the Ormond Beach site drew nearly 44,000 signatures.

“There was a fair amount of local resistance to that, and I think a fair amount of activity by the government — the elected officials — that appeared to make it a challenge, if you will,” Schwarz said.

After initially voting unanimously in favor of a temporary moratorium on industrial development, including the site where Belvedere hoped to build, Volusia County Council members later stepped back from that moratorium: clearing the way for Belvedere to build in Ormond Beach.

RELATED: Volusia Council tosses moratorium, clearing path for controversial fuel farm

Still, the company ultimately backed off from its plans to develop in Volusia. Now, Belvedere is finding a more receptive audience in Palm Coast and the wider Flagler community, according to Schwarz.

“We found a very welcoming, if you will, group of folks, both at the city and at the county, because of the tremendous benefits we bring to the community for doing this,” Schwarz said.

Many Volusia County residents had voiced their safety concerns with the proposed facility, which would be designed to store up to 500 million gallons of different fuels, according to an initial air construction permit issued in 2023 by Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection. Residents worried about what could possibly happen in the case of a chemical explosion or other emergency situation at the site.

But whether in Ormond Beach or Palm Coast, the proposed fuel terminal would not be dangerous, Schwarz insisted, describing safety as Belvedere’s “absolute number-one priority.” He pointed to the company’s investment of millions of dollars into “state-of-the-art safety systems,” adding that all rail cars would be brand new, designed specifically for Belvedere.

“It's a passenger-level safety, applied to commercial-grade rail traffic,” Schwarz said.

Belvedere, a private start-up, was established to deliver projects designed to boost the resiliency of Florida’s fuel supply, according to a company spokeswoman.

When asked about the company’s track record with building similar fuel terminal projects, the spokeswoman wrote via email that Belvedere works “with a broad team that includes some of the best design, engineering, and construction firms in the country, with decades of experience and hundreds of comparable projects.”

"This is a project that the Mayor of Palm Coast was seeking, and we are just helping with the grant portion to allow for the site to be acquired and developed."

Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito

To move the project forward, Belvedere has its eye on a $10 million appropriation to the Department of Commerce, which state lawmakers specifically set aside last year for either Volusia, Brevard or Flagler County to build a fuel storage and distribution terminal.

Flagler commissioners are slated to discuss approval of the $10 million appropriation at an April 7 commission meeting. From there, assuming commissioners secure the funding, the county would move forward with a purchase and sale agreement for Belvedere to acquire the industrial site, said Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito.

But apart from that, “our involvement will be somewhat limited with this project,” Petito wrote in an email. Although the state appropriation requires a county to receive the grant funding, when it comes to the project itself, Palm Coast gets the final say.

“The property is located within the City of Palm Coast, so all the permitting and development approvals will take place at the City, not the County. This is a project that the Mayor of Palm Coast was seeking, and we are just helping with the grant portion to allow for the site to be acquired and developed,” Petito wrote.

A bill that would eliminate all Community Redevelopment Districts by 2045 was passed by the Florida House on Friday, April 25, by a 69-42 vote.

Originally HB 991, the bill was substituted by Senate Bill 110, which was amended a couple days prior by Florida Rep. Mike Giallombardo R-Cape Coral to include the elimination of CRAs. The bill also proposes local governments be barred from beginning any new projects or issuing any new debt within an existing CRA after Oct. 1, unless the project will be completed or the new debt issued matures by the time the CRA sunsets.

If passed, what would that mean for the cities of Ormond Beach and Palm Coast?

"We're still looking at the bill and seeing what gets passed, and what the true meaning of the bill is," Ormond Beach City Planning Director Steven Spraker said. "We do have projects that are in our capital improvement plan that are in process, so we're still waiting to see what the final resolution of the legislation is, and then once they pass it, we'll comply and adjust accordingly."

The CRAs in Ormond and Palm Coast are both due to expire long before the 2045 deadline that could be created by the bill. But, in Palm Coast at least, Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo said it could impact some projects that haven't started yet but could benefit from CRA dollars, like the proposed Palm Coast YMCA in Town Center.

"Maybe some CRA dollars could go to that if they're not interrupted by this bill," DeLorenzo said. "It would limit some opportunity, depending on what the final bill looks like."

REDEVELOPING DOWNTOWN

The City of Ormond Beach has two CRAs: one in the downtown and one in Ormond Crossings.

The Ormond Crossings CRA's scope is limited. It was created in 2004, and amended in 2010 for the sole purpose of financing the construction of the flyover of the main road, Ormond Crossings Boulevard.

"My understanding, historically, is that this CRA was created at a time in which CRAs were under scrutiny for how monies were being spent, and this one was designated to promote a project that would readily facilitate relocation or expansion of target industries, thereby creating jobs, which is one of the primary goals of CRA or TIF districts," Ormond Beach Economic Development Director Brian Rademacher said.

CRAs are funded by Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, which allow local governments to utilize tax revenues above a certain baseline for redevelopment purposes. Those dollars must stay within the CRA; the taxing authority still receives property tax revenues generated below the baseline for its general fund.

The Ormond Crossings CRA will sunset by 2034, or by the completion of the road.

Ormond Beach's downtown CRA is vastly different. It was created in 1985 and later extended in 2016 for another 20 years via an agreement with Volusia County. It spans the area along the Granada Boulevard corridor, from Orchard Street to A1A.

It's purpose? To address blight.

Spraker said the downtown corridor in the early 2000s had empty buildings and wasn't a place frequently visited by residents or visitors.

"I think that's really the key and why this area was created, and a lot of it has to do with this area is not like the rest of the city," he said. "There's smaller lots, there's fragmented ownership. So if you try to apply a standard land development code, nothing would ever work."

Restaurants like The Grind, or the former Lulu's Oceanside Grill would not have been permitted under the city's traditional code. So the CRA was aimed at creating a sense of place, promoting economic development and creating jobs for residents, Spraker said.

FOCUS ON TOWN CENTER

The City of Palm Coast only has one CRA, which is the State Road 100 CRA, created in 2004 to encourage redevelopment in that corridor. It encompasses 2,964 acres, located east of Belle Terre Parkway, north of SR 100, south of Royal Palms Parkway and about 0.75 miles east of Interstate 95.

It expires in 2034.

Prior to the creation of the CRA, DeLorenzo said, there was a need to encourage investment and economic development in Palm Coast.

Town Center was a big part of that. But development didn't really start until the 2010s within the CRA. DeLorenzo said the timing of the CRAs creation was bad, because the country faced a recession a few years later.

"That really lost a lot of momentum in the project right there," he said.

In June 2018, the city reevaluated Town Center, which had been infrastructure-ready for several years, but hadn't seen many major projects. That led to the creation of the Innovation Kick Start program, which provided help toward utility impact fees to property owners, developers and business owners to incentivize development in the core area of Town Center.

According to the city's 2023/2024 CRA annual report, residential projects including The Gables, The Haven, The Retreat, Central Landings Apartments and The Palms at Town Center all received incentives.

CRA dollars have helped fund the creation of Central Park, Southern Recreation Center and the Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center.

Palm Coast has acquired many properties along the SR 100 corridor in the Midway and Whispering Pines community, which the city's annual report states are antiquated subdivisions with no existing infrastructure except for dirt driveways. The acquisitions were made to reduce blight and aggregate property for future redevelopment.

"I think everyone would agree that you wouldn't want to have small, individual residential lots on State Road 100," DeLorenzo said. "That's not a very good place for them. ... At some point in time, we'll package them together for redevelopment."

REINVESTING THE GROWTH

If CRAs are eliminated, local governments wouldn't lose any tax revenue — those dollars would just not be dictated to remain within the CRA.

DeLorenzo said it would be interesting to understand why the Legislature feels its necessary to change CRAs now.

"The Legislature has been really focused on taxes this session, with many different ideas on how to lower taxes or provide tax relief ... I'm not sure what they're thinking about this," he said.

CRA dollars, and particularly the master plan, have created the redevelopment of downtown Ormond Beach, Spraker said — through legislation, changes in the land development code, grants and capital projects.

The primary objective of a CRA is economic development in an area that is not seeing investment, Rademacher said.

"By using Tax Increment Financing, it's a vehicle by with which it can reinvest the growth of that area, that district, back into itself, without leaning in or requiring other sources of revenue from the city" Rademacher said. "So it's sort of a self-serving, in a good way, incentive to drive development of a particular area for the purposes that the city of Ormond Beach has for both downtown as well as Ormond Crossings."

The CRA elimination is just a portion of SB 110. Prior to the amendment last week, the bill's scope focused on measures to help develop rural communities, including the creation of an "Office of Rural Prosperity" at the Florida Department of Commerce.

The Senate voted to approve the bill 39-0 on March 19. Because the bill was amended, it will head back to the Senate for a vote.

Local representatives, including former Ormond Beach Mayor and now District 28 Rep. Bill Partington, District 27 Rep. Richard Gentry, District 30 Rep. Chase Tramont, and District 19 Rep. Sam Greco all voted in favor of SB 110. District 29 Rep. Webster Barnaby did not vote.

Erica Flores, the founder and executive director of Vincent's Clubhouse, hosted the third annual Autism Awareness Festival. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Lacy McKampson and Cindy Guldenschuh. Lacy is participating in the Flagler Playhouse Penguin Project production of "Aladdin Jr." to be presented June 6-8 at Bunnell Elementary School. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Stephanie Abrantes and her sons Seth (left) and Ethan helped run the information table at the entrance to the Autism Awareness Festival hosted by Vincent's Clubhouse at the European Village in Palm Coast. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Drew, Jennifer, Lauren and Jay with the Funcoast Down Syndrome Association. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Three girls wearing Flagler Playhouse's Penguin Project T-shirts sift through the prize bins at the Able Academics table. The Flagler Playhouse's Penguin Project production of "Aladdin Jr." will be presented June 6-8 at Bunnell Elementary School. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Paula Wilburn, the executive director and founder of the Fun Coast Down Syndrome Association, with her son Keaton. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Shayna "Shana" Stipakov with her mom, Bella. Shana has non-speaking autism but has written four books, including a book of poetry by pointing to letters in an alphabet stencil. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Flagler Schools' Suzanne Davis (Indian Trails Middle School ESE staffing specialist), Ebru Snodgrass (transition specialist), Dr. Kim Halliday (district ESE director), Abra Seay (Rymfire Elementary assistant principal/ESE administrator), Travis Lee (Rymfire Elementary principal. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Andrea Ramirez of Tender Care PPEC medical daycare. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Andrea Ramirez of Tender Care PPEC medical daycare. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Jennifer Duckworth, owner of the Coastal Speech and Language Center in Palm Coast. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Jennifer Duckworth, owner of the Coastal Speech and Language Center in Palm Coast. Photo by Brent Woronoff