Apache or PHP not specifying the assets folder correctly

one text

I have this site written in PHP using Phalcon but for some reason when I switch from WAMP to XAMPP it doesn't use the public folder for assets like css/js/fonts/etc but uses the root folder instead? I've tried messing with the .htaccess files but no luck. Here's what I have:

.htaccess file in root directory:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

.htaccess file in root/public

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^((?s).*)$ index.php?_url=/$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>