Flagler Commissioners Focus on Bulow Plantation Issues

While many communities struggle with short-term rental issues, Flagler County commissioners spent a couple of hours this past week dealing with water, sewer and safety problems at the Bulow Plantation RV park.
County Administrator Heidi Petito reviewed the issues related to problems with sewer and water facilities at the campground. In January commissioners approved a six-month stay of enforcement that expired July 31. She said at the beginning of the year 62 campsites were not in compliance with utility standards, though that number has decreased to 20. A six-month extension was granted by the County Commission, with a workshop to review progress. That workshop took place Sept. 4.
“The intent of today is to hash out those details moving forward,” she said at the workshop.
Among the issues under discussion was the use of accessory structures to the campground, which are not permitted by the county’s development order. On the issue of the sanitary sewer system, jurisdiction for that comes under the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and not the county, Petito said.
“There is an option if the campground ownership chose to do it, an option to connect to the city of Palm Coast water and sewer services,” Petito said.
Asked by Commissioner David Sullivan if more sites are in compliance, Petito said county staff has not been to the campground to do inspections.
Stan Martin, representing the owners of the campground, said additional progress has been made.
“We’ve invited the county out to take a look at the units because we want to make sure that we are on the same page as the county with respect to the units that are in compliance,” he said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t had any success in getting the county out there.”
Martin said owners expect the number of units not in compliance will drop to at least 13 by November. “We continue to engage other guests and dialogue with them about bringing their units in compliance,” he said.
Commission Chair Andy Dance said he was focused on moving forward in regard to the issues at the campground.
“I am concerned that when we get to a point when these (issues) don’t happen again (that there are) processes in place that we don’t repeat this process again,” he said.
Deputy County Attorney Sean Moylan told commissioners it would be a good idea for county staff to inspect progress on the issues.
“I think at this point they have whittled down the non-compliance,” he said. “We should go ahead and get in there and get our own eyes on to verify the numbers.”
Moylan said it may become necessary for the county to take other measures to deal with the issues at the campground.
“This is an intractable problem of local government that we’re trying to deal with,” he said. “We’ve got to get situational awareness. At some point, from our perspective, we have to stick to the building code, we have to stick to the development order. It results in a harsh outcome for some folks and none of us enjoy that.”
