PALM COAST, Fla. – A years-long battle over house colors in Palm Coast is officially over. This week, the city decided on set rules for homeowners who have been fighting to paint their homes in more lively colors.
For years, homeowners showed up to dozens of city council meetings to defend their bold color choices. Many were told by city code enforcement to repaint their houses over the last year. Officials said the colors did not meet the city’s standards.
“We had about 10 houses in Palm Coast that currently had a code case open because they had a non-permitted color so those cases will be closed,” city spokesperson Brittany Kershaw said.
Other homeowners argued the city’s color restrictions hurt property values. The city’s ordinance only allowed earth tones or light pastels within certain shades based on how much light the color reflected.
[WATCH BELOW: Palm Coast homeowners voice concerns over color regulations]
Now, those with the bold colors get to keep their homes as is.
“Officially, the city council set some policy decisions this week to go ahead and eliminate the LVR or the light reflective value on these house colors and basically you can paint your house any color you want besides the four restricted colors,” Kershaw said.
Now, the color and depth of a house no longer matter — as long as it isn’t one of the four banned colors: magenta, purple, fuchsia and orange.
“It’s a calming color for me. It’s my favorite color, and I think it looks nice and respectful,” resident Mindy Melendez said.
Mindy Melendez, whose house stands in a bold blue, felt the city was running like a homeowner’s association. News 6 spoke to her back in January when the clock started ticking to repaint according to code enforcement.
She was one of the residents who pushed the city to revise its ordinance.
“We’ve evolved with time. Palm Coast has an influx of people from all different walks of life so you can’t say that everybody likes beige or everybody likes grey. We all have different tastes,” Melendez said.
[WATCH BELOW: No more city HOA? This Florida town considers loosening rules for house colors]