The Palm Bayer

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer) — Palm Bay homeowners whose primary residence was damaged by the November 2026 flooding can now apply to the city’s Disaster Relief Assistance Program. The money is about $1 million in city SHIP funds, assistance is capped by the available funding, and intake began on November 6. The program started at the November 5 council meeting , where the council, at Councilman...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer) — Palm Bay’s first citywide disaster debris collection begins Saturday, November 14. Crews start in the Northeast section of the city, the area that experienced the most significant impacts from the recent flooding, and then continue working throughout the city. Do not expect every pile to be gone on Saturday. The city says the initial pass will take several days to c...

Everything from This Week in Palm Bay Episode 31 in one place: what the gauges measured, what is still closed, which phone numbers and forms to use, and the ten steps to take in the order you need them. Editor’s note: This article was written on November 8, 2026, and reflects the information available on that date. The flood recovery is moving quickly and conditions will change. This article will...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer): Three days after the flood, the Palm Bay City Council met on Thursday, November 5, and the storm ran the meeting. Regular Meeting 2026-29 opened with a prayer for the families who lost someone, moved through the damage count and the first relief money, heard the city manager say plainly that Amendment 3 plus the city’s own charter cap ends in insolvency if nothing ch...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer): Palm Bay voters approved the only city question on Tuesday’s ballot, and they approved it everywhere. The charter amendment on filling City Council vacancies passed with 64.69 percent of the vote, and the Yes side carried all 16 Palm Bay precincts. There is a reason the charter question stood alone. Under section 5.043(a) of the Palm Bay City Charter, a candidate for...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer): If the flood damaged your home or business, the first step is a report. The form is the county’s. Brevard County Emergency Management is collecting damage reports through its CrisisTrack damage self-report form . Report your damage The form asks for your property address and ZIP code. It asks for a description of the damage, and photos if you have them. It also asks...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer): Mayor Rob Medina opened the city’s November 2 flood press conference with the scale of it. “The unusual amount of rain that we got here in the city of Palm Bay, over 18 and a half inches, has devastated our community,” he said. The Weather Service storm summary measured 24.10 inches near Malabar and 20.60 inches near Palm Bay. His message never changed: “We’ve had ou...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer) — One development takes two hearings on two straight nights this week. On Wednesday, November 4, the Planning and Zoning Board hears Three Forks, the 664-home mixed-use project planned for the southeast quadrant of Malabar Road and the St. Johns Heritage Parkway. On Thursday, November 5, City Council takes the same project twice in one meeting. Both hearings happen af...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer) — One night after the Planning and Zoning Board hears it, Three Forks reaches the body that can actually approve it. On Thursday, November 5, at 6:00 PM in the Council Chambers, City Council decides the Three Forks final development plan ( Case FD23-00013 ), a quasi-judicial item. The same night, it takes the project’s development agreement (DA24-00002) on first heari...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer) — Palm Bay’s Planning and Zoning Board meets Wednesday, November 4, at 6:00 PM in the City Hall Council Chambers with a single new business item on its docket: Case FD23-00013, the Three Forks Mixed Use final development plan for approximately 124.56 acres at the southeast quadrant of Malabar Road and the St. Johns Heritage Parkway. The plan packs 664 homes, a 119-spa...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer): Walmart bought the land. The deed for the Emerald Lakes anchor site was recorded last Monday, and Walmart still will not name a construction date. Early voting is in its final week, and the lagoon tax renewal asks voters for a second decade. Watch the episode above, and read the full record in the article: https://news.thepalmbayer.com/news/this-week-in-palm-bay-epis...

PALM BAY, FL — Emerald Lakes clears its final vote, the anchor the podium never named is in the permit files, and the mail-ballot clock runs out Thursday. Key Takeaways: * Tony Rosa Community Center, 1502 Port Malabar Blvd NE, Palm Bay, FL 32905 * Ted Whitlock Community Center at Fred Poppe Park, 370 Championship Cir NW, Palm Bay, FL 32907 * Max K. Rodes Park Community Center, 3410 Flanagan Ave, W...

Thursday night's council meeting ran two hours and thirty-nine minutes. This narrated recap (about eight minutes, with two key moments in the meeting's own words) covers the unanimous Emerald Lakes vote, the deputy's promise that no hotel opens without the ladder truck, the city manager's public pitch for a partner to build the South Regional fire station, the scrub-jay exchange, and a rain report...

This Week in Palm Bay: Episode 27 is out. Ten minutes with Buzz and Rosie on the week of October 12 through 18. The big items: Emerald Lakes sends 251 acres to the October 15 public hearing, with 652 apartments in the pipeline. The traffic number to watch: 21,845 daily trips at buildout. Council takes up the Wawa third-sign variance and the final reading of Ordinance 2026-30. Cocoa’s Brightline st...

On Thursday night, the Palm Bay City Council votes on the final development plan for Emerald Lakes East Phase 1 : 652 apartments, over 1.1 million square feet of commercial development, and a 400-room hotel on 251 acres east of I-95. The packet leaves three questions open: Fire Rescue’s mitigation plan has not been established as accepted. The final parkway extension is optional for the developer,...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer). On Wednesday night, the Planning and Zoning Board voted to recommend City Council approval of Emerald Lakes East Phase 1: 652 multifamily units and more than 1.1 million square feet of non-residential development on 328 acres east of I-95. The 4:31 video above covers the three stories that mattered. First, the recommendation itself, with the applicant projecting abou...

PALM BAY, FL — What is going up on the empty lot at the end of your street? As of today, you can answer that yourself. The Palm Bayer has launched an interactive Development Map showing Palm Bay’s active development permits on a rolling 90-day window, rebuilt every night. Search by address, permit number, or subdivision. Every marker is matched to a real county parcel, and the 212 permits we could...

PALM BAY, FL — Council questions utility invoices before approving them, Emerald Lakes East heads to Planning and Zoning with its zoned schools underwater, and voter registration closes today. Key Takeaways: • What Happened: Council approved a $1.56M utility consent package after Kenny Johnson questioned a $603K emergency sewer invoice over odd overtime billing and pressed a $954K SCADA modernizat...

PALM BAY, FL — A failing 72-inch stormwater pipe, pointed questions about a $603,614 sewer invoice and a $954,329 SCADA contract, and a new compatibility standard for conditional uses. Key Takeaways: * The night’s biggest news came last, in administrative reports. * Heavy rainfall two weekends ago caused enough erosion to threaten utility infrastructure. * DeLorenzo said the contractor, one the ci...

PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer) — On Wednesday night, the Planning and Zoning Board decides whether to advance the largest development proposal in years: Emerald Lakes East Phase I, a 251-acre mixed-use engine on St. Johns Heritage Parkway. We audited all 399 pages of the packet. Here is what is flashing red: * 🚒 Fire Response Gap: Station 9 runs 6 to 7 minutes out vs. the 240-second benchmark; mit...

VIERA, FL (The Palm Bayer) — Pineapple Cove Classical Academy is proposing a new K-8 charter campus at Emerald Lakes in southeast Palm Bay. But while the application promises new capacity, the network’s Lockmar campus remains locked in a four-year traffic battle that spills hundreds of cars onto neighborhood roads daily. Also on Tuesday’s School Board docket: * 🗳️ 0-5 Contract Re-Entry: A $68,000...

PALM BAY, FL — Adopted $457.3M budget leaves a $5.18M utility hole as consent invoices arrive, Brevard overrides tax cap, and builders rush 57 filings. Key Takeaways: * What Happened: Palm Bay adopted a $457.3 million FY2027 budget at rollback but left an unhedged $5.18 million utility enterprise deficit, with $1.558 million in emergency sewer and SCADA invoices arriving on the October 1 consent a...

Correction: the original version of this post carried the 60-second social short instead of the full council preview video, and the article link was not clickable. Both are fixed in this repost. Palm Bay Council faces a $603K Titusville piggyback payout for already-buried pipe. City administration has scheduled $1,557,943 in utility capital spending across the consent agenda for a single en bloc v...

VIERA, FL, The Brevard County Commission voted 4-1 to pass a $2.425 billion budget and set an aggregate millage rate 6.12% above the rolled-back rate, driven by structural decay at the 40-year-old county jail and an unvarnished warning from Property Appraiser Dana Blickley that Government Complex North has two years of economic life before teardown. * Key Takeaways: * Initial docket read-in under...

PALM BAY, FL — Behind a unanimous 5-0 vote and a zero-tax-increase millage, Council manager pulls three fee hikes, director lays bare a 55,280-connection utility crisis, and dais pitches corporate land swaps. * Key Takeaways: * Well 13: 12.0 ppt combined. * Well 16: 20.0 ppt combined. * Well 18: 48.0 ppt combined (twelve times the federal limit). Read the complete forensic analysis and verified pu...