Planning board denies appeal, upholds director’s ruling that indoor boat storage may be allowed in C-2 parcel

The Flagler County Planning Board denied an appeal of Planning Director Adam Mingle’s decision that indoor boat storage could be treated as a use comparable to previously approved boat manufacturing on a commercially zoned parcel in the Hammock, voting 4–1.

The question before the board was narrowly legal and procedural: did the planning director have authority under the land-development code to determine that an indoor boat-storage use is similar enough to a previously authorized boat-manufacturing use to be permitted in the C-2 district on that parcel, or should that classification require a planning-board hearing or other rezoning/special-exception process.

Appellants’ counsel, identified in the record as Mister Bayer, argued the director overstepped. Bayer told the board: “In your c 2 zoning, which this property is, it does not allow boat storage as a permitted use. So it's not allowed.” He said the earlier boat-manufacturing approval had specific limits — previously approved operations were described in minutes as limited to “one boat at a time,”…