Old Florida enclave is new Florida hot spot [South Florida]

Old Florida enclave is new Florida hot spot [South Florida]

Before it became a people magnet, Flagler County’s biggest claim to fame was Exit 284 — where I-95 runs closer to the Atlantic Ocean than at any other exit from Maine to Miami.

That’s all changed. Flagler has a new national title, courtesy of the Census Bureau: America’s fastest-growing county. During this decade, the once rural and sleepy Old Florida enclave, tucked between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach, has doubled its population to nearly 90,000.

Driving a chunk of Flagler’s growth: a couple thousand South Floridians. Some say they left to escape congested roads, confining cookie-cutter developments and skyrocketing home prices.

‘We call them the `Hiccup People,’ ” said Carl Laundrie, a spokesman for Flagler County. “Lots of them originally came from the North, went down to South Florida and now they’ve hiccuped and landed back up here.”

The Hiccup People, along with thousands from across the country, have frustrated longtime Flagler residents, who see signs their community is becoming a lot like South Florida.