Is 28 new residential units Fear mongering?
- On September 19, 2023, Councilperson Pontieri misrepresented the truth to the people of Flagler County. At that Council meeting, she stated that the City Council approved 15,000 homes. Specifically, she stated: “We have recession coming. We know it, thanks to national policy making. And, we are building all these home. We have 15,000 that we have approved in the pipeline…We are going to hit a recession.”
- September 29, 2023, ten days later in an interview with the Palm Coast Observer, Pontieri doubles down on the fiction but changes her alleged number of new residential units approved by the Council to 9000. “Since I have been on City Council, just in rezoning alone…we have approved over 9000 residential dwelling units.”
- October 1, 2023. City staff sent to Pontieri an email and data addressing how many new residential units the City Council had approved since she took office. The data (Facts) show that the City Council actually approved 28 new residential units since she took office.
- On October 3, 2023, just 2 days after receiving the data, Pontieri addresses the accusation that she is “fear mongering”. This time she asserted yet another unique, random number of new approved residential units. This time she says she did the research. This time she said the number was 13,361.
Conclusion
Since Pontieri was elected to office, the City Council has approved 28 new residential units.
Commentary
On October 1, 2023, Pontieri had the data showing that since taking office, the City Council had only approved 28 new residential units through rezonings. However, 2 days later she asserts on live tv that the City has approved 13,361 new residential units. Reading the data is not that hard. In fact, it’s so simple that other information sources reported that of the rezonings that took place since she took office, “Most of those approvals date back years, and have been dormant since”.
Pontieri is smart. She is a lawyer. She knows what she is doing. So, why did she intentionally or recklessly misrepresent the facts? Was she fear mongering as she stated?
There may be only 28 residential approvals authorized by zoning changes, can you state the total number of individual living spaces provided for in those 28 approved?
I believe it’s you his obviscating the total number of individual living spaces accommodated by those 28 approvals. Please provide us with those numbers in the interest of clarity and transparency!